No Control (Chris Motionless)

Chapter 25 - Little Secret

I woke up with a shiver as I realized that I had fallen asleep naked and when I sat up, I found that I was also alone. I brushed my hair out of my face as I climbed off of the bed, noting the slight ache in my muscles. I glanced at the clock and stopped dead in my tracks. I was five minutes late for class, how had I managed to forget?

"Shit!" I exclaimed as I began rushing to get my things together.

As soon as I stepped out of Chris's room, I felt dread wash over me, I knew that Lea was never going to let me hear the end of this. 

I hurried to get on the elevator, thankful that I was the only one inside. I found myself wondering where Chris had gone, had he decided to blow me off? I silently scolded myself for jumping to conclusions. I hadn't even had a chance to check if he'd left me a note and he hadn't sent anything to my phone. Worry clutched at my heart yet again, was last night a mistake?

In the mirrored walls of the elevator, I did my best to wipe off the smudged makeup around my eyes. I managed to make my appearance at least a bit more presentable. My eyelids went from a state that resembled a tired raccoon to something that passed off for a nineties grunge-inspired look. I shook my head at the sight, since when was I this person?  

I kept my gaze down as I made a bee-line from the hotel, back to campus as I busied myself with tying my hair up into a messy bun with a spare hair tie I'd found in my bag. At this rate, I was going to be at least fifteen minutes late, but I still chose to change out of the outfit from last night anyway. I sped to my dorm to throw on some black leggings and a Slipknot hoodie, deciding that I would rather look hung over than like I had just crawled out of someone else's bed. I hoped that my professor, Mrs. Cray, wouldn't make too much of a fuss over my tardiness. 

Unfortunately, the moment I opened the door, the room fell silent and all eyes drifted over to me. 

"Ah, Ms. Knoll, how wonderful that you finally decided to join us." Mrs. Cray remarked in a sarcastic tone.

"Sorry ma'am, I overslept."

"Find your seat." She ordered and then turned back to the rest of the class.

I nodded slightly before ducking into my seat beside Lea. She was silent for a while and then when Mrs. Cray turned her focus to the other side of the room, Lea finally turned to me. Her expression was a mix of smug and irritated as she regarded my clothing choices with a raised eyebrow. 

Her voice came out in a low hiss, "Where the hell did you go last night?"

I rested my head against my hand as I muttered, "Where do you think I went?"

"Did you sleep with him?"

I shut my eyes tightly, "I'm not talking to you about this right now."

"So, you did?"

I ignored her question as I got out my notebook and began copying down what Mrs. Cray had written down on the board, but the second my pen touched the paper Lea's fingertips brushed against my wrist. I glanced down to find that there was a faint shadow around it, I did tend to bruise easily. 

I yanked my hand away from her as she continued to speak in hushed tones, "Why would you let him restrain you like that? It wasn't that long ago that you suspected him of hurting women?"

I risked a quick peek at the people around us, finding that they thankfully weren't paying us any attention. "Do you not remember that during that same night, you and Mackenzie followed that cop to the same spot that girl's body was found in?"

"Yeah, but we don't know if that was from something totally unrelated, not every murder that happens around here is a result of the Ripper copycat."

I thought back to what was said during that cult meeting, that the recent murder clearly hadn't been his work. I fought off my urge to swallow thickly, it really was starting to look like Hudson was innocent after all. That didn't mean that it hadn't been the cult, or some other monster out there taking advantage of the recent string of killings. Chris had been with me that night, it couldn't have been him.