She turned off her alarm and yawned, standing up from her bed and stretched a bit before grabbing her towel, toiletries and her clothes and headed for the bathroom. Once she was back in her room, she tied her hair up into its usual high ponytail and smoothed down her uniform, looking at the mirror. She had slight circles under her eyes due to her having sleepless nights sometimes and she realized she had grown a bit thinner, probably because of how awry her eating schedule had been. She tugged on her shoes, shouldered her bag and started for the door.
She was later than usual today, because by the time she came, students were already hanging around in the hallways, joking and laughing with each other. When she passed by, a lot of them went silent and only stared for a while before going back to talking. These days, the students had been staring at her more and she was unsure as to why that happened but not that it mattered to her anymore. 
Little things mattered to her nowadays. 
She walked by Ashton's locker to get to hers, which was further down the hallway, and this time wasn't surprised when she saw him talking with Cathy again. She tried her best to not look at him as she walked, deciding that it was for the best that they started as strangers again, as if he really was the new student that never interacted with her. She had extremely hurt him this time and letting him heal and move on was the least she could do because he didn't deserved to be rejected this way. She finally reached her locker and opened the door, reaching her hand into it to take her English textbook then closing back the locker before walking away.
The day went by pretty well for her, Piper joined her for lunch in the empty classroom and told her she would be there if she ever needed any support. Piper had been such a good best friend lately, she didn't question or urge Delancey to apologize to Ashton and she didn't even judge Delancey for having doubts. She was just there bringing comfort to Delancey sometimes and other times she would be the one to help Delancey to distract herself from her thoughts by talking about things that didn't have Ashton Sawyer and anything related to him, even about Julian. Delancey had told her it would be fine if she wanted to talk about her boyfriend but she insisted on not doing so to protect her friend's feelings. Talking about her relationship would only make Delancey feel worse. So instead, Piper told her how she overheard a conversation of two friends who argued over something so little, which was a fight over who gets to eat the last candy in the packet, and this made Delancey laughed as she sipped on her coffee.
By the time the school day was finally over, Delancey was one of the last students who left the school building. When she was just about to close the door to her room, her phone rang on her desk, and she closed the door before picking her phone up and accepting the call, forgetting to check who it was first.
"I was hoping you wouldn't pick up the phone."
A very familiar female voice reached Delancey's ear. 
"Roxy?" she asked.
The voice sounded tired and she was breathing quite heavily as if breathing hurt her. 
She sounded like she was in pain.
"Look, Delancey. I just want to apologize for everything that I did, for real, this time. I swear, I didn't mean to drug you, I was forced to. I had considered you a friend so I'm sorry I had to do that or—" 
Delancey listened as she heard a male voice talking in the background, although it was not clear what he said.
"Roxy? Are you okay? Where are you?" she asked.
"I'm fine." Roxy replied though she was crying now. "I'm very fine. I just wanted to apologize and whatever it is, please don't come searching for me. He's the one who—Ah!" 
She heard a sound like a slap and a whimper then the phone seemed to be taken away from her because this time, a male voice spoke over the phone.
"Hello, little miss perfect prefect."
She felt her hand holding the phone shook as chills went down her spine while her body froze and went cold.
"Matthias," she choked out.
"The one and only. Missed me?" 
"What have you done to Roxy?" she asked, making her voice sounded braver.
"This b*tch? Oh, she was supposed to be the bait for you to come here because you see, I've been missing you for quite some time," he paused. "But she couldn't do the work properly so it seems I will have to be the one to tell you the deal."
She gulped. "What deal?"
She could practically see him smiling as he spoke. "You come here, alone, and I'll let this friend of yours go. But if you don't, well, maybe you can live with the guilt that you let her die for the rest of your life. Just like how your Aunt Julia would be, if she was the one to actually survive."
"Don't come here, Delancey!" she heard Roxy shouting in the background. "I'm fine, he's just lying and—"
Another slapping sound was heard and Roxy went quiet.
"What do you say, missy?" he asked.
"The police will come for you, I will make sure of it," she answered.
"Well, by the time they came, it would be too late. Roxy wouldn't still be breathing."
Delancey tried to think of a plan, but none came to mind. Was Matthias Xanders really a psycho? He didn't seem like he was capable of murder. But what did she know? It had been years since she last saw him.
She hesitated. "Fine, give me your location. And don't even think of hurting her again." 
"You have my word. See you in a bit, sweetheart."
With that, he ended the call and Delancey fought the urge to throw up at the sound of him calling her "sweetheart" when a message notification popped up. She pressed on it and then grabbed a paper and a pen, scribbling down all the information of the location on the paper, then she wrote "if I'm missing, call 911 and go to this location". Then she set the pen down and left the paper on her desk before getting ready, tucking into the most protective clothes she had before heading out of the door. She walked until she reached the gates, where the guards stopped and asked her why she was about to step out of the academy's territory when it was not the weekend and she told him her father allowed her to go back to their house since she left something. He reluctantly let her go and she waited for a taxi to arrive before climbing in the car and being on her way.
"You sure you want me to stop you here, miss?" the taxi driver asked as he pulled over a row of closed shops and she nodded even though her heart was pounding in her chest.
"Yes, this is it. Thank you, sir. Here's the money and you can keep the change." she handed the driver the transportation fee and opened the door.
"Would you like me to wait here for you?" the man asked in concern.
She shook her head, her legs finding it hard to step out of the car. "No, I'm meeting up with a friend and he lives near here so it'll only be a minute before he arrives. Have a nice day!" she dragged her legs out of the car and closed the door.
"You too, miss. And be careful!" the man called out through the open car window before he drove away, leaving her alone.
She gulped, wanting so bad to chase after the car but instead she willed herself to turn around and started walking along the shops. She finally came to the last shop and made a turn to walk to the back where there were pieces of broken glasses scattered. She was about to take another step when she heard the sound of a can being kicked and when she turned around to find an unfamiliar boy, a cloth was pressed to her mouth and everything disappeared into utter darkness.