Nocticadia: A Dark Academia Gothic Romance
Nocticadia: Chapter 52

Two days passed.

My knee bounced incessantly as I sat in Midnight Lab, waiting to see if Professor Bramwell would show. He hadn’t been in lecture that morning, or the last scheduled lecture, leaving Ross to lead in his absence. I nibbled on my lips, my anxiety blossoming, as students filed in and took their seats.

The check remained tucked away in my trinket box, hidden beneath my bed. I refused to cash it until I at least talked to Bramwell. Unfortunately, I hadn’t come up with much of a plan to pay him back that wouldn’t continue to put me behind with Bee. The nagging possibility that the money might’ve been a payoff chewed at my thoughts, and again, the stubborn fool in me wanted to throw it in his face and tell him to fuck off.

That was the shitty thing about being broke, though. Pride was an ever-fading ideal.

Spencer hustled to his bench, his eyes rimmed in dark circles as if he hadn’t slept in days. It was the first time I’d seen him since that day in the alley after class. The guy looked like he’d gone on a bender, or something.

Ross stood at the front of the class, unpacking his notes, and the sliver of hope I’d had for seeing Devryck shriveled. For two days, I’d convinced myself it was wrong. That I didn’t deserve the cash. That the right thing to do was return the check politely and thank him for his kindness.

And then I’d imagined his response–him calling me a fool and throwing out insults to anger me into cashing it.

Where was he?

I needed to talk to him.

Just as I prepared to settle in for another disappointing lecture, the devil himself strode through the door, and damn my heart for galloping in my chest at the sight of him. Decked out in jeans and a black shirt, he swept through the lab, looking better than he had any right to look. His skin glowed, eyes lacking the dark circles he always wore. He looked good. Too freaking good.

He stopped at the tank beside my bench, where all of the larvae germinated on their beloved noxberries, and with his trusty forceps, he plucked berries and deposited them into a specimen jar.

Say something!

My lips dried at the thought of grabbing his attention in a full class. “Professor?” The meek tone of my voice hardly carried, and my cheeks reddened with the possibility that I’d have to call out to him again.

“Yes, Miss Vespertine?” He didn’t bother to turn around, but kept to the task of gathering the larvae.

Of course the class had quieted then. Of course they had.

“May I speak with you for a moment?”

“Regarding?”

Are you kidding me? I should’ve been bold and told him I wanted to speak with him about the check he’d written me.

That would’ve pissed him off, though.

“It’s about my grade,” I lied.

“I have office hours available to discuss such matters, Miss Vespertine. I would invite you to schedule a time that works best for you.”

I hated this. I hated that we’d reversed time into this weird dynamic that was worse than before.

“It’s urgent, though. I’d really like just a few minutes of your time.”

“I’m afraid that’s not possible right now. I’m very busy.”

Had we not been in a classroom full of other students, I’d have called him by his name. Snapped him out of the cold, aloof front he was putting on.

Ross finally began his lecture, a lively topic on mind control that garnered some engagement from other students.

“Would you happen to have any openings tomorrow?” My voice hardly carried over the rumble of voices, as students held quiet discussions.

“I’m afraid I’m booked all week.” Purple light streamed through the glass jar, as he held it up, examining the cluster of berries inside. “You might replace an available slot next week.”

Booked? With what? His fangirls who showed up with lists of questions just to flirt with him?

“Fine.” I wanted to scream. “It’s fine. I’m sure I can get a private appointment with Ross.”

At that, he finally turned around with an absolutely murderous look carved into his expression. “Tomorrow, Miss Vespertine. After lecture.” The snippy edge of anger in his tone told me what the man would never admit to my face.

He was jealous.

And damn it, the thought of that made my twisted little heart sing.

As I left the midnight lab, I caught sight of a light in one of the other labs across the hall, where Briceson sat at a bench, furiously typing away at his computer. Curious, I abandoned the group heading toward the bus and entered the room, which was empty for all but him.

“Hey.”

He glanced up from his computer and smiled. “Hey, what’s up?”

“Burning the midnight oil in here, or what?”

“Yeah. I have a research project due tomorrow.”

“Oh. I probably shouldn’t bother you, then.”

“No, it’s okay. I could use a break.” He gestured to one of the stools across from him.

I’d have to walk back to my dorm, but it wouldn’t have been the first time I’d done that. Now that I knew the man in the bird mask had been nothing more than a hallucination, I hadn’t seen him as much. That, or I’d just stopped looking for him.

“So, what’s the topic?” I asked, peeking at his notes on the bench.

“I’m actually really excited about this. So, you’re familiar with black rock, right?”

“Like the stuff they sell at the apothecary stores in town? Yeah.”

“Well, the chemistry department is actually working on cataloging a newly-discovered metal found in the rock, called casteyon.”

“Wow. I thought this rock was pretty difficult to replace. One of the locals told me it’s dangerous to harvest.”

“It’s definitely not as abundant as it once was. Centuries ago, the basin became unstable, forming a huge rift, and part of the island sank into the ocean,” he said with a gesture of his hands, the excitement for his project pouring into his explanation, and it made me think of Bramwell. “It’s how we ended up with Bone Bay,” Briceson prattled. “The rock split away and now makes up one of the deepest drop-offs around Dracadia. It’s pretty creepy, actually. The shallows are about five feet deep, and then boom, a quarter mile vertical drop. That’s where you’ll replace the most concentrated black rock, inside the underwater caves, but it’s all over Bone Bay, in the gravel onshore. That’s how we found it, actually. In the gizzards of seagulls and ravens that eat the small stones.”

I knew from taking care of my mother’s birds that they didn’t have teeth and used the small stones, gastroliths as they were called, to mill the food during digestion. It brought to mind a sketch I’d seen in one of the books I’d read on the history of the island. The skull with the black stone teeth, belonging to a member of the Cu’unotchke tribe. Could it have been the same stone? “That’s fascinating. A whole new metal? Isn’t that going to change the whole periodic table?”

“Well, yeah. We have to confirm that it is, in fact, new and meets the criteria for discovery, then submit to the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry. It’s pretty cool, though. I just need to get my shit together on this paper. But … think I’m gonna call it quits for the night. Can I walk you back to your dorm?”

“You don’t have to do that.”

“I insist. It’s not Covington here, but you still have to be careful. Better to walk in twos.”

“And what happens when you have to walk back alone?”

He snorted a laugh and shrugged. “My dorm isn’t far from yours. There’s one camera and an emergency station. All lights.”

“Then, how about we walk each other to that point and split off there.”

“I don’t think so. I offered to walk you, so I’m walking you.”

“Well, if you insist.” I waited for him to pack up his laptop and scattered notes, and the two of us headed out of Emeric Hall together. “Can I ask you something that’s been bothering me?”

“Sure.”

“What was the relationship between Jenny Harrick and Mel? I mean, as far as I know, Jenny dated Spencer’s best friend, right?” The drop in temperatures had my skin pebbling as we cut across the courtyard.

“Admittedly, I don’t know a whole lot outside of Mel’s perspective, but yes. I guess Mel agreed to a couple dates with Spencer. Up until he, you know …”

Strange that he didn’t want to say it aloud. “Do you think it was Spencer’s father who let him off the hook? Seems drugging a student would be cause for expulsion.”

“Could’ve been, if we assume Mel is telling the truth.”

I already knew she’d told the truth after my conversation with Spencer, but it was interesting that he questioned it.

“It was actually Professor Gilchrist who backed his story.”

“What?” The visual of her cupping his groin flashed through my head. Again.

“Yeah. She claimed that she had been tutoring him at about the time Mel would’ve been drugged. She claimed the same thing when Jenny went missing.”

I knew the first was a lie, based on Spencer’s confession. Was it possible she’d lied for him again? “Was Spencer suspected, at all?”

“Maybe briefly. But everyone was pretty certain that Bramwell had something to do with her disappearance. Story is, he killed her and threw her into one of the incinerators.”

What a horrible rumor. Even if I was pretty sure it wasn’t true, it still sent a chill up my spine. “Were there cameras?”

“Yeah. Guess some of the footage is missing from after Jenny left Bramwell’s lab. They claim there was some interruption when the footage was stored to the cloud. The sequence of video somehow went missing, and the timestamps were off.”

“But someone likely tampered with it, you think?” I sure didn’t know enough about surveillance cameras and cloud storage, but it seemed unusual that such a critical sequence had simply disappeared.

“I think so. But what do I know? I’m just a chem major.”

“Do you think Bramwell had anything to do with her disappearance?”

He let out a huff and shrugged. “I don’t know. I’d like to think not, but his family has such a morbid history. Murder is definitely in his genetics. He had a brother that went missing, too. It’s like their whole family is a string of conspiracy theories.”

I knew the story behind his brother, and I’d seen the pain in Devryk’s eyes when he’d told me about him. It was only out of curiosity that I asked Briceson, to see what the student body had conjured about that piece of his past, as well. “Then, you think Bramwell Senior was also behind the mass suicide.”

“It’s documented in the study that he injected those women with something. Something that messed with their heads. Do I think he drowned them himself? Maybe not. But I do believe he’s the reason they’re dead.”

We finally arrived at the dreaded stretch of woods. A chilling prickle palmed the back of my neck, as the two of us walked in the darkness. Different than the feeling I got walking from the subway at night back at home. There, I was one of hundreds walking the street at night. A random. Here, an attack seemed more intimate. Personal.

The brief copse opened to the lawn of my dorm. “Well, I guess this is where we part ways, huh?” I asked, pulling the wallet that held my ID card from my bag.

“Yeah. Hey, don’t mention to Mel that I told you that stuff about Jenny.”

“Okay. Can I ask why?”

He glanced around, as if she were anywhere within earshot, and stepping toward me, he lowered his voice. “She’s really sensitive about speculation. She and Jenny were close. In her mind, Bramwell did it.”

“She really has it in for the guy, huh?”

“I guess. Wasn’t always that way, though. There was a time she went on and on about him, like every other student who’s smitten with the guy. But then Jenny went missing, and she all of a sudden pulled out the pitchforks. Like I said, it’s not as if he doesn’t have a history to suspect him, though.”

“Yeah.” Funny how I felt the opposite–that there wasn’t enough for me to condemn him. “Anyway, I’ll let you get to your dorm. Goodnight.”

“’Night.”

I jogged up the staircase and threw back the door to the residential staff checking ID’s. I exhaled a sigh as Mel flicked her fingers, impatient for my ID card.

“C’mon, Vespertine. I’ve got fifteen minutes before I can hit the sack.”

From my wallet, I tugged my card, holding it out for her to scan me in.

“Midnight Lab, huh?” she asked, handing it back to me.

“Yeah. Just getting back.”

“You walked?”

I glanced toward the other staff member scrolling through his phone, seemingly uninterested in our conversation. “Briceson walked me home.”

“Surprised it wasn’t Spencer,” she said bitterly.

“I’ve distanced myself from him a bit. You were right.”

She rolled her eyes. “When am I wrong, though?”

Perhaps I should’ve been as bold and outspoken about Spencer drugging me, too. My situation was a bit more complicated, though. Inquiries would’ve led into deep examinations that would’ve pointed to Professor Bramwell’s involvement that night. Having Gilchrist on my back was bad enough. She hadn’t said anything more about my test score, or cheating off Spencer, so perhaps she’d decided to drop the accusation. Maybe it was as Bramwell had said–not enough evidence to prove it. However, I couldn’t help but wonder, if I had come forward with the accusation against Spencer, made it public, as Mel had, would she have lied for him again? Made me look bad to prove her point that I didn’t belong?

As I stepped past Mel, she gave a quick tap to the other staff member’s shoulder. “Hey, I’m going up now. You got the last few minutes?”

“Yep.”

I stepped inside the elevator, and she followed after. The moment the doors closed, she turned to me.

“What’s going on with you and Bramwell?”

As the elevator lurched into motion, she pressed the stop button, halting our ascent. A surge of panic locked my muscles. Elevators had always freaked me out, just the thought of getting stuck in one, but old elevators, in particular, terrified me. I kept my eyes on that button, while she stared at me expectantly.

“There’s nothing going on.”

“Please. I’m not stupid. I’ve seen you leave his lab at night.” Considering the back entrance to the lab was tucked behind Emeric Hall, she’d have had to be spying on me.

“Are you following me around, or something?”

“Does the thought of that worry you?”

The bottom line was: she had no proof of anything. Bramwell’s lab was like a fortress, so what the hell was I doing cowering to her like a frightened schoolgirl, anyway?

I had grown up with worse than Mel. I’d been approached by those far more dangerous.

I reached for the elevator button, and when she grabbed my arm, I threw her off me and shot her a look of warning that must’ve been pure death, with the way she backed away. Once the elevator lurched into motion, the clamp of anxiety over my lungs loosed itself. “What I do is none of your business.”

“I’m only warning you to be careful. It started out as obsession with Jenny, and–”

“You. Were you not attracted to him once?”

The elevator dinged, and the door opened to the empty corridor of my floor. When she didn’t answer, I stepped out of the carriage and turned to face her.

“Yes. I found him attractive once. Then I learned that the good professor is actually a monster. Watch yourself, Lilia.”

The doors closed.

I pulled up the picture I’d snapped on my phone of the Cu’unotchke skull and zoomed in on the sharpened teeth again. Curious, I logged into my Dracadia Library account on the laptop, and clicked on the Adderly Memorial texts. Scrolling through pages of history on the Cu’unotchke tribe brought me to a picture of a young girl with long black hair and dark eyes. It had been taken in the early nineteen-hundreds–about the time when the tribe had been mostly wiped out. Two of her teeth had been replaced with black stones, which was interesting in itself, but when I zoomed in, something else caught my eye. The buttons of the doll clutched in her arm.

Frowning, I zoomed closer, noting one of the buttons appeared to be a small, misshapen metal button with an iron cross etched into it.

Scrambling out of the chair, I dashed toward the closet and removed the small wooden box that held all of my found trinkets and lifted the small button I’d noticed wedged in the door my first night here. I returned to my desk and studied it against the one I’d zoomed in on.

The same button.