THE WEEK HAD GONE BY IN A BLUR AND BEFORE ILARIA KNEW IT FRIDAY HAD COME TO PASS. Kai did his "research", as always - he'd found that Michael was rarely at his dorm on weekends.
Infact, he never was. Which made breaking in extremely convenient for Ilaria. She hoped she wasn't wrong but her gut had proved her right countless times before - why should she doubt it?
"Ilaria." Her mother's voice sucked her right out of the rabbit hole of thought she'd fell in.
Ilaria startled and pressed at her head, she had headaches almost everyday - they were like her own personal plague "Hmm?"
"I said I'm working extremely late shifts this weekend and since Tate isn't here anymore I was thinking you could go to Rose's just until Sunday. I don't want you alone here everynight, especially not with everything that's been happening."
Ilaria perked up, the odds were in her favor, she didn't have to call up Rose to fill her in on a lie to tell her mother should she be with Kai all weekend. No, her mother didn't expect her home this weekend which made things all the more convenient for her.
The universe seemed to be on her side so why did she feel like that was a bad thing?
Ilaria nodded "Yeah, I'll call Rose."
She took in her mother's appearance, she was beautiful as ever - despite all the working. She still looked exhausted though, like she was about to lay down and curl up on the floor any moment.
"You should go get some rest then. Tonight is going to be a long night." Ilaria smiled softly, it would be a long night for both of them - her mother didn't need to know that though.
Her mother walked around their kitchen island and kissed her cheek "Please don't go packing pieces of cloth and pack actual clothes."
"The stuff I wear isn't even that short!" Ilaria retorted, her mother just shook her head and left for her room.
Ilaria did the same and sunk onto her bed, so much had happened in the span of just a few months - she wondered when it'll be enough.
She didn't really think it ever would be but she let herself hope that if she got Michael behind bars, things would be okay.
Ilaria dialed Rose and bit on her fingernails as she waited for her friend to answer.
"Question, burgandy or black?" Rose asked on the other side of the line.
"Uhm, burgandy?" Ilaria replied confused "What are you doing?"
"My nails."
"You're going to go with black anyway."
"Yep." Rose said "So what have I done to receive a call from you?"
"My mom is working late shifts this entire weekend and she doesn't want me home so she said I should sleep over at your place."
"Cool and let me guess..." Ilaria could hear the grin on her friends face "you're not coming to your gorgeous, gorgeous bestfriend, you're going to your pretty boy instead. I'm so hurt."
Ilaria felt bad, she didn't want Rose to feel like she was using her but the sneaking around would be over soon enough and then she'd be able to explain everything and apologize.
"I'm sorry it's just that -"
"You don't have to explain, I'm just happy you're happy." Rose cut her off "I'll cover for you."
Ilaria stopped biting on her nails "Thank you."
"Be safe!" Rose sung and Ilaria rolled her eyes "We aren't sleeping together."
"Listen, girl, it's literally inevitable - you're hot, he's hot, whatever." She stopped "Wait actually. Don't be safe, Aunty Rose sounds pretty badass"
Ilaria let out a laugh, her cheeks heating up "Oh my god. You're terrible."
"That's what people love about me. Now can I get back to my nails??"
"I love you, bye" Ilaria greeted and ended the call with a grin, her friend always managed to lift her spirits up. Rose had a happy soul, she was the most refreshing person Ilaria knew.
She got up to pack her bag but something felt off, like someone was watching her - Ilaria moved to her window and looked over her backyard and the woods beyond it for any sign of movement.
There wasn't any she could see but she pulled her curtains closed anyway and let out a frustrated huff. She was exhausted of being constantly on edge, of that little pit in her stomach that made her feel this impending doom constantly.
She bottled all of that up though and imagined throwing the bottle as far as she could and began packing.
Get the Polaroids. Get Michael arrested. Find his partner.
It was that simple, she just had to keep a hold of herself until then.
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The sky darkened and the stars shown like crystals hanging in the sky, as pretty as they were Ilaria felt like they were judging her every move as she handed Kai a pair of gloves.
"When did you find time to buy these?" Kai laughed as he pulled them on, Ilaria shrugged "I didn't."
"So you just have them?"
"mhm"
This made him laugh even more as he followed her to Michael's dorm room. It was dead quiet, except for the occasional security guard they had to duck from.
She kept one hand behind her back for Kai to hold, that was her anchor. That was all she needed to remain focused.
The building was dimly lit. The lights caused a orange glow over the two figures quietly making their way down the third floor corridor, the scene was quite movie like.
Ilaria stopped in her tracks at door 15 with a golden plate, she let go of Kai's hand to pull out a torch and hand him both "I need to open it" she whispered "keep the light on the lock."
Kai nodded and did just that as he watched Ilaria pull a Bobby pin out of her hair, she carefully maneuvered the pin through the lock hole and moved the pin around carefully until she heard a click.
Kai's eyes widened "That actually works!?" he whispered "Wait, where did you learn to do that?"
"Youtube" Ilaria replied taking her flashlight from him "Now quit talking we need to do this as fast as possible"
"you're so hot right now" Kai told her as he followed her into Michael's dark dorm room.
Ilaria rolled her eyes and lifted her flashlight to his eyes, Kai pushed it away "Are you seriously trying to make my eyesight worse than it already is?"
"You're distracting me!"
"You're the one doing hot shit like fucking unlocking doors with Bobby pins but I'm the one distracting you?"
"The things you find attractive are extremely concerning" Ilaria muttered "okay you check his drawers. I'll check the closet."
"if he's stupid enough to keep it in his drawers I swear to god" Kai muttered and Ilaria made her way toward the closet.
She rifled through his clothes carefully incase it was kept between folded items, she found nothing there so she shifted everything to dig at the back of his clothes.
She found a square tin, with no lock and pulled it out "Kai" she hissed and the boy immediatley made his way to her.
She gave him the box, she was too scared she was wrong and they'd open it and find nothing. If she didn't open it maybe the dissapointed would hurt less.
Kai handed her his flashlight and opened the box, there were atleast 30 or more Polaroids in it. Just as Ilaria thought.
Suck that self doubt! She shouted in her head.
They didn't need to look through them to know what they were, the first picture told them enough. It was of a very young girl, this one seemed to have been taken a while back. The girl looked around 14, she was covered in scratches, burns, her hair was knotted - there were tears running down her cheeks and she hadn't had any clothes on.
Kai closed the box immediatley, Ilaria could feel the bile rising in her throat - there were other girls.
Her eyes burned with tears, she got it right. She found all the evidence she needed to arrest Michael and inevitably find his partner. It would all be over soon then, she did it.
They did it.
But they didn't have time to celebrate just yet, the celebration would have to wait. Ilaria carefully put everything back in place.
Kai still stood with the box in his hands "we could send an anonymous tip?"
"with how useless this department is??" Ilaria shook her head "no, we're going straight to the station. Right now."
"need I remind you we broke in."
"need I remind you we just found a serial killer?"
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It didn't take long for them to get to the station. As soon as they got in, Ilaria made her way straight to the captains office.
She didn't bother knocking as she opened the door and dropped the box on his desk.
" what's this?" he raised an eyebrow, Kai gestured for him to open it and Captain Benson did just that. He was tired of arguing with two relentless teenagers.
His face morphed into shock as he picked up the Polaroids, he thumbed through them with a look of disgust - when he finally snapped out of his shock he put the Polaroids down and looked up at the teenagers in his office.
He cleared his throat "Where did you get this?"
"Michael Kingston." Ilaria replied simply "St Louis College, Dorm room 15 . You can suspect what you want, Captain. But I've given you an exact location, he should be back anytime now and I'm sure there are things we haven't found in that room."
The captain wasted no time questioning them, not with actual physical evidence right infront of him, he dispatched a team to Michael's dorm and got up to leave aswell.
He didn't meet their eyes, whether this was due to the rush or because he was embarrassed they beat him to it - Ilaria couldn't tell.
Once the captain was gone Kai and Ilaria waited oustide in the hallway, Kai offered to go home and come back but Ilaria refused, she wanted to be there when they brought him in - she needed to be there.
Kai stayed with her, his eyes darted from the clock to Ilaria pacing up and down. He grabbed her hand and she stopped infront of him "breathe, it's almost over."
She nodded "yeah. I know."
Ilaria stepped between his legs and he rested his head on her chest, all the exhaustion finally caught up to them.
They would only rest once they saw Michael in handcuffs, they'd rest when they knew he wasn't free.
Until then, they would wait - even if it meant all night.
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