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Y/n wasn't very close to the girl who walked beside him, ranting endlessly about something along the lines of being insane for thinking Ezra was more in love with his cat than he was in love with her.
Teagan was, in Y/n's experience, nice. She talked to him sometimes, he talked to her less times... and that was as far as their relationship really went, so it wasn't strange that Teagan was talking to him now.
But, boy, did it feel odd after the revelation that Y/n could be in the process of being stalked by at most two people. Having his apartment broken into and then nearly being followed to work, it made Y/n rethink who he was trusting blindly.
And it was unfair to place that hesitance on Teagan, he knew, but it could be... justified, right?
Still, he didn't react any different than he would've under more normal circumstances. He simply nodded along, hummed when necessary, and kept walking.
"But, then again, I think I might love his cat more than him," Teagan muttered, slightly out of breath from talking at the pace that she was. Suddenly, green eyes were on (e/c) ones. "And, how have you been lately?"
"Good," Y/n said immediately, a default reaction. He hadn't been doing 'good,' but he also was not about to spill that to Teagan, who'd undoubtedly (because who wouldn't) ask questions.
"That's good to hear," Teagan said, a hint of anticipation in her voice as she prepared to ask a question that she'd clearly been meaning to. "Do you think the killer has a motive?"
The confusion — not at the question, since it was something that Y/n had wondered about endlessly himself, but instead at the suddenness of it — must've showed on the (h/c) boy's face, because Teagan soon elaborated.
"Oh my gosh. Sorry. I'm totally hopping topics like crazy. It's just, like, wow. There's no way anyone could do that without a clear reason," Teagan said, combing a hand through her stick-straight hair.
Maybe this is her way of coping about Chleo.
"Uh, I don't know. It just seems like brutality to me. Or sadism," Y/n spoke, and his heart thumped harshly at the lie. Y/n always thought, too, that there was a reason past just simple cruelty, but discussing this was not something he wished to do.
"That's what I thought too, but, like, doesn't it sound bizarre? I mean, of course the murders are bizarre. Past bizarre. Insane. But, like.. I don't know. It can't all just be for fun," Teagan said, though she didn't say anything further, because now they were entering the lunch room and finding their usual table, the sight meeting them making Y/n internally roll his eyes.
One of Wade's many fangirls sat between him and Hannah, grabbing his bicep and saying something that Y/n tuned out of when he met Erin's scolding eyes.
"Hi," The (h/c) boy said, taking his place between Towa and Erin, who still stared at him like he had some serious explaining to do, and, he'd admit, he definitely did.
Towa shot him an apologetic look right before Erin began speaking.
"There's an elephant in the- no, not an elephant, a skyscraper. Y/n, there's a skyscraper in this room right now," Erin said, crossing his arms. His deadpan expression made it unclear whether he was actually pissed or not, but Y/n knew his emotions didn't pass concern.
When Y/n didn't respond in four seconds flat, Wade did.
"Stalked. Mister, do you have a death wish or something? No survival instinct, I swear," Wade sighed, shaking his head disapprovingly. Now, his scolding was definitely a joke. The girl next to him giggled a little too loudly.
"What did you want me to do? Use my X-ray vision to spot the pervert following me and beat their ass?" The (h/c) boy asked, failing to meet anyone's eye.
"Well, first of all, totally not how X-ray vision works, and second of all, yeah! Beat the fucker!" Erin said, as if it were simple. Maybe it was. I don't know.
"If you haven't noticed, I'm weak as shit, but thanks," Y/n nodded, looking to Erin before immediately looking away. He felt a certain shame, not for being unable to defend himself against this guy, (which was embarrassing in its own way) but for what he was keeping from the brunet.
"Yeah, but you know who isn't weak as shit?" Hannah chimed in.
Everyone except for Ezra and Teagan, who were absorbed in a conversation that the group was better off not hearing, looked to Hannah for an answer.
"Akari fucking Toma. Holy shit, chance of a lifetime, blown. Should've got her number," Hannah said dreamily, pointing at Y/n.
"Oh, fuck that, Y/n would not be able to handle a Toma, for fucks sake. Would show better results making a toddler and John Cena duke it out in the ring," Erin said, and, geez, he wouldn't admit it but that hurt like a bitch to Y/n's already small ego.
"Not for him, dumbass, for me." Hannah pointed to herself next, grinning.
Y/n couldn't help but zone out as Hannah and Erin argued for a bit, knowing there wasn't an excuse for him to get out of it this time. He had to tell Erin. He couldn't just let it simmer in his own head till he was eventually kidnapped and killed by The Swine. Someone had to know.
So, he waited till Erin was silent again and grabbed his forearm to get his attention.
"And there was something else," He decided on saying abruptly, gnawing on the inside of his cheek uncertainly.
Erin's eyebrows furrowed and Y/n swallowed at the unspoken question. He glanced to the side, gesturing to the others at the table with his eyes. He couldn't admit this in front of a large group. Not where there'd be questions that Y/n knew he couldn't answer.
Y/n had barely looked back at the brown-haired boy when suddenly he was pulled into a standing position and Erin was waving off the questions that flew their way the moment the movement was made. Y/n was pulled into the hallway without a moment to think.
"Something else?" Erin finally asked, leaning against the brick of the wall. The (h/c) boy found himself unable to meet his eyes again.
"Uhm, I mean, it was more like someone else, I guess," Y/n tried to beat around the bush, because he knew for certain that someone like Erin was not going to take any danger toward a friend lightly.
And while Y/n's self-doubt wouldn't let him admit it, that was especially the case with him.
"God, don't tell me," Erin exhaled, and upon noticing Y/n's pause, he quickly said: "No, do. Just... god, are you about to say what I think you're going to say?"
"Uh, well, so you know the killer going around? He sort of, uhm, broke into my apartment." Y/n's voice died down each word. Why he was so nervous about admitting this to Erin of all people was beyond him.
The look of shock that distorted Erin's features confirmed that that was definitely not what he thought Y/n was going to say.
"What the fuck? And when did this happen?" Erin asked, his eyebrows furrowing further. Y/n, reflexively, grabbed his shoulder gently, because he knew...
"Monday," He whispered, trying to keep both himself and Erin calm.
"Okay. Wow. Fuck, uhm. Okay, so about moving in..?" Erin said, and he himself was trying to overcome his obvious alarm.
"You know I can't..." Y/n started, but he couldn't finish.
"Y/n, that isn't a question anymore. Chris was a maybe danger, this guy fucking is danger," Erin explained slowly, and Y/n felt he could respect his ability to stay calm, even though this, to the average person, would probably not be considered calm.
"It won't change anything. If he wants me dead, he won't just give up cause I switched houses. Anyway, he..." Y/n paused. How do I explain that a person he was on a phone call with said that he knew everything about me? "Well, it doesn't matter. If he wants me dead, he'll kill me, and putting me in a house with all of you won't change that, and it'll probably just put all of you at risk, too."
"Even if that's true, it's still safer that way. No offense to your apartment complex, but we have more solid security measures in place," Erin said, obviously not about to give up on this.
"Erin, our apartment is on the third floor and we don't have a spare key. The only people who have keys are me and Chr-" Oh.
"You and Chris?" Erin spoke, and despite the tone, it was not a question. He noticed just as Y/n did.
"Oh, come on, Erin, if Chris was the killer and wanted me dead, he would've done so already." Y/n started trying to convince Erin and himself that his roommate was not a serial killer.
"Chris leaves for work a lot, right? And you don't know where he works? And the times he leaves are inconsistent?" Erin asked quickly, though both him and Y/n knew he knew the answers to all of those questions.
Y/n hesitated. Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck...
"...I'm going to talk to Dayton," Erin decided aloud, before turning around and storming up the stairs to the roof, where he knew Dayton would be.
Dayton was Chris's cousin, as odd as it sounded even to Y/n's own ears, and of course it would be logical to speak to him about it, but Y/n knew Erin would hold more of an interrogation than a conversation.
I need to go after him.
But Y/n found he couldn't, frozen in shock.
Oh my god.
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Y/n was surprised by his own ability to not freak the fuck out throughout the remainder of the day, and while he couldn't focus on just about anything that was put in front of him, he found comfort in the fact that he could've had a complete meltdown and didn't.
Malikai asked questions, Stacy asked questions, Logan asked questions, everyone asked so many questions. Y/n supposed that meant he was visibly distressed, but there was nothing to be done about that.
He kept himself together in the way that he did not feel the need to run away and hide for a few years.
Up until the moment he started to walk home.
He could only hope that Chris was out, even if that meant that, if Erin (and, at this point, Y/n) was correct, he was probably out doing murder shit. It felt impossible in a sense, that one of the most dangerous murderers who'd been terrorizing the town for a year or so could've been right in front of Y/n's fucking eyes, but the more the (h/c) boy thought about it, the more it made sense.
Chris was already creepy and had some sort of superiority complex, Y/n had no clue where he worked but whatever it was paid a hefty amount, he seemed to have no schedule when it came to working, and the only way that, in Y/n's mind, someone could get into a room on the third story of a populated building was by using a ladder (which, come on, Chris would've heard, since he was in the main room) or using a key (which Chris had.)
It wrote itself out in bold, red letters.
But Y/n didn't feel as if he could go to the police with any of this information. It would be smart, but none of the clues gathered were obvious enough to even inspire the police to investigate, and if they did and didn't find anything, Y/n would be kicked out immediately and he'd lose his chance to get him arrested, not to mention he'd probably be killed faster.
Y/n exhaled, unlocking his door and entering his apartment.
He just had to play it slow, keep calm, and find some way to gather real evidence of Chris's guilt. And somehow avoid being murdered in the process. That was an important step.
Y/n shuffled his shoes off and hung his bag up on the coat rack, not before putting his house key into one of the smaller, outer pockets.
Just don't die. You can do tha—
Y/n felt his entire body go still as the dead, all except for his heart's accelerating pace.
There, sat on the kitchen counter casually was a pig mask-wearing fellow, not an inch of clothing in any color other than black except for the dull pink of the mask of The Swine.
"Hello, love," He said, his head tilting to the side happily at the sight of the love of his life, who was just about ready to puke at the sight of him.
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