𝐒𝐀𝐕𝐈𝐎𝐔𝐑; ethan landry

chapter five

CHAPTER FIVE
"an avid participant in the observation of life."

SNEAKING A PHONE into an economics exam in a room full of hundreds of students was against the school policy, yet Ethan did it anyway. He was aware of the risk, of the consequences, but if it ensured Juliet's safety, then he would do it over and over and over again. He would do anything for Juliet. Anything.

So, he hid it beneath his shirt, only allowing his notifications to buzz for one person. It wouldn't make a sound, only vibrating against the skin of his chest if she sent a frantic message through, but it would be enough for him to realise. He just had to realise, if anything were to actually happen. He wished it wouldn't, but nothing he did would stop the killer. He knew that, yet he pleaded to himself anyway.

Originally, the girl was downstairs in the trio of girl's shared apartment, laughing and having fun with the rest of her friends. However, the constant worry and fear of being slaughtered drained her energy to nothing but a mere firefly in the dark, and so, with a tired hand running down her face, she ventured back up to her room. The others were alert of this, yet they thought nothing of it, shrugging the blonde away with droopy smiles as they continued to enjoy their evening. Juliet made sure her door was locked before falling onto her bed, passing out almost in an instant.

She was asleep for only an hour before awaking with a start, eyes wide as they surveyed her dark room. The light seeped through beneath her door, illuminating the floorboards - the clear, empty floorboards. She should've stayed in bed, maybe then everything would fall away, just like something had outside her bedroom door. That's what made her get up, to check the fallen object - it reminding her of someone else standing in her very own clothes.

She didn't hear the banging on the window floors beneath her, shouting out her name as they realised where the killer had ran to. Tara and Chad, unaware to the madness, were running through the apartment building in order to reach their friends in the room across from them. It was like they'd forgotten about Juliet's existence.

She switched on her bedroom light before slowly and quietly walking towards her door. Her phone was in hand, the screen lighting up her face, as Ethan's contact filled up the entirety of the device. The police were obviously her first choice of communication in a situation like the coming - if the killer just so happened to be strolling around her apartment. However, if there was a killer, she needed to stay silent. Texting Ethan wouldn't give her away, and then the boy could call them for her. It all made sense, if the killer was in the building. She didn't know that they were.

She peeked around the corner of the crack in her door, glancing around her apartment. She could see the blankets on the couch ready for Ethan's return, and the dying flowers on the bench he'd bought for her almost a week beforehand, and then, with shaking hands and nervous eyes, she saw the knife lying on the tiled floor of the open room, and even worse, the cloaked hand reaching for it from around the corner of her bedroom wall.

She immediately pressed a hand to her mouth, moving back behind the door to conceal her presence in the apartment. She quickly turned the brightness all the way down, and with tears springing to her eyes and a blurry sight, she texted Ethan, even if it was the last thing she'd ever do.

Meanwhile, the boy in question was pushing his papers together before standing up from his desk. The time had just closed, their pens being ordered to be placed down before the students were asked to leave the building in a neat and well-ordered fashion. However, when Ethan felt the buzz of his phone against his chest and sneakily spared it a glance, he was sprinting out of the building faster than he'd ever ran before.