Confidential Scheme 1

Chapter 4: Act of Reconciliation

Chloe's POV

Days passed and there's not a lot going on at the moment. Second week of going in this university felt... okay.

Is it just me or the university is right to be called ordinary? Honestly, I'm torned between ordinary university and/or ordinary people.

There's a few of my classmates whose trying to get close to me. How did I know? Well, if people is interested in you then they will ask you to go lunch with them or simply hang out wherever you want. They're mostly girls then there's this three guys who is always there where am at.

Clyde, who has been asking me to go with him everytime it's lunch or break. Travis, the ripped guy that has a look of being a playboy. And Martin, who always talk to me whenever the class ends but what I've observe is that he keeps visible distance away from me. He probably don't want to turn me off so he just resort to playing the good guy.

I don't trust any of them. Not at all.

Now walking to the hallway towards the classroom, I glanced sideways and saw her lovely face smiling from ear to ear.

"Good morning, Chloe!" she waved at me and let out a soft chuckle.

"Good morning."

"Why? Did something happen? Tell me, who is that guy?"

My eyes widened as I look at her, "No, it's not what you think. I'm just not in the mood today." Did she seriously think a guy would let me feel this way?

"Hehe, I was just kidding to you know, lighten up the mood."

Thanks for trying.

"Can you tell me what is it that bothers you?

Its okay, I won't tell anyone." she started nodding her head, reassuring me.

Its been almost 2 weeks since I met her. She has been so helpful this past few days even though I don't ask for it. So, I don't think telling this to her would be a problem.

"This past few days since the Science Room incident, I feel like there were eyes watching me." I always feel like someone is following me from one place to another.

She sighed, "Girl, don't be paranoid. Don't worry, from now on, I will always come with you so you won't feel alone. Okay?"

I nodded. I don't know but there's really something inside me saying to trust her. I have really horrible trust issue but why do I feel different with her?

Anyways, we entered the room and the class started.

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"I just really need to go the comfort room. Wait here, okay?"

As she promised, we are both going to leave the university together. I feel more comfortable now than being all alone. To think of it, I never really saw someone following me or looking directly at me from far away.

Maybe I was just being paranoid because I'm in a new group of people. O really need to get better and adjust slowly but surely. Its sunset so there's no much students around the area. I am about to stand up on a bench where I am sitting right now when I saw a man's silhouette from the east side of the campus police.

It's so dark that I can only see his silhouette but there's one thing that I am sure about. He is watching me. He turned around and walk away.

I can't let this opportunity slide. I ran to the way where the mysterious man took his way. I'm holding a pepper spray just in case. I'm not going to battle without having any weapon at all.

I came to a halt when someone put their

flashlight directly on my face. I opened my eyes and see the confused police officer looking at me. I looked on his ID for about a second. He looks so young to be a police officer but what would the sheriff uniform indicate?

"Miss, do you need help? Why are you running?"

"Umm, by any chance, did you see a man walking this direction, Sir?" I hesitated to say 'Sir' at first but he better have it.

"Man? Well, there's five of us roaming around the university for safety. It's already late, Miss. Let me take you home safely."

"No, thank you."

"No? How can you refuse me? C'mon, we'll have fun for sure." His once confused face turned into a creepy predator looking for a prey.

I was about to run when he quickly grab me by my neck and put something on my nose.

Mmn

I- I can't breathe.

Then all suddenly turned black.

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"Don't worry, we got her but that b*tch ran away and we still can't find her anywhere in this big fat house."

"Okay, understood."

I woke up and I can feel the sweat dripping all over my body. It's so dark and all I can see is flashing lights from miles away. I tried standing up but something was preventing my hands and my feet from working.

They're tied!

I closed my eyes and tried to remember what happened. It took me minutes before I recall all of it. The police officer.

He offered me a ride and quickly put something on my nose until all suddenly turned black.

Mom!

Tears started flowing down all over my face. A tragic memory that I don't wanna reminisce anymore. All I can do is moan since my mouth is covered by what seem to be a tape.

Please!

Someone help me.

Please!

I was shocked when someone grab my hand and untied it. He did the same with my feet. I have blurry vision and I couldn't see his face.

"Chloe? Chloe? Hey!"

My vision started to get better and realized what was happening.

"Hmm! Hmmm! Nnn-

"Chloe? CHLOE!"

I stopped as I clearly saw his face. He gently pulled out the sticky thing that is preventing me from screaming.

"Chloe," he muttered soother than his normal voice. "It's me. Calm down, okay?"

"Someone texted sayi-

I hugged him as tight as I could. I don't know what to do. And I'm scared.

"I- I'm scared. I'm really scared"

He tapped my shoulders slowly. And I let go of his body. It took me a minute before I realized what I just did.

"I'm sorry." I mustered all my strenght to say the word.

"It's okay."

An awkward silence occured.

"Do you- do you aware of what happened?" he asked looking at me.

I nodded. He pulled out his phone from his left pocket and showed me a text message.

"Someone texted this while we're having a discussion on Mr. Fergal's office. I thought it was a hoax but your friend came to our door and said that you were gone for long enough."

"Someone sent a photo of yours that I believe you don-"

"Let me see it," words came out of my mouth quickly.

He showed me the picture of me lying on the ground exactly where we're sitting right now.

"We've solve a code and able to track where you are."

I mustered all my strenght to stand up. Thankfully, I was able to do what I wanted.

"You sure you can walk?"

"I don't feel any physical pain at all so, I think I can."

"K, well then lets get out of here and take you to your house."

"I don't have a house."

"Oh, well in your family's house."

"I'm not staying in any of my relatives. I'm all alone in my apartment."

"Well then, lets take you to your apartment."

I tried to suppress my smile.

"What?" he asked probably confused of why I am grinning.

"Nothing." I answered calmer than I am minutes ago.

"We should get going."

"Right. And by the way," he came to a halt when I stopped and faced me, "Thank you, Lorcan."

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I still can't believe what happened last night.

I thought I was just having a nightmare and hallucinations but I guess I wasn't.

Everything that had happened was vivid. There's so many questions that pop up in my mind. Lorcan came for me and helped me get back to my apartment.

I still remember when I slapped him last night. My will is to tell the Student Affairs about my a*******n but he suggested not to because it's gonna be useless. To my anger, I slapped him. I didn't mean to.

He has a reason as to why he didn't want me to report it but I didn't wanna hear any of his words... that night.

Now i felt guilty.

Disregarding all my negative thoughts, I went to the bathroom and started preparing for this day. Minutes later, I found myself standing behind the door of Mr. Fergal's office.

I knocked two times and opened the door.

"Chloe?" he stood and tried to support me to walk inside.

"Sir, I'm okay."

"Are you sure? I already told your professors that you'll not attend classes for this day."

"I am really fine, Sir. I just... Do you know where can I find Lorcan?"

"Lorcan? What about Lorcan? What do you need from him?"

"I did something unpleasant to him last night but I didn't really mean it. I was traumatized."

He was silent for a second or two then, "His classroom is on C304 just in front of your room building. But there's one place in this university where he spent most of his time."

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I stood behind the modern wooden door with opaque glass in the middle of it. You can barely see what's inside of this room. I knock ed on the door 2 times but I didn't hear a single soul. I tried knocking once again but I felt no presence.

The door isn't locked from the inside so I opened the door slowly and peeked at the side, no one was in here. I stepped inside and closed back the door behind me.

This room is approximately half the size of a classroom here in the school. It's not big and not small. 10 people could actually fit in here without feeling uncomfortable. There's only two members at the moment.

Seeing the solved cases paste in the chart hanging on the wall makes me wonder why the student council reject them to be an official club. A computer was placed on the desk in the right corner of the room. Printer was also beside of it. Paper works and documents are well placed in the desk on the left corner. Except for the papers scattered in a table surrounded by three couches on each side excluding the front.

What took my attention is the black laptop that is wide open on top of the table. I took a sit and try to read what was written on the word document.

Prince who helped you.

Will you help him too?

-Caesar

5² minutes left until he's all pale.

Remember not to tell anyone or we'll speed run his precious life :)

Clock is ticking, blood is dripping.

I L Z H B O

I gasped as I finished reading the text. I understand now why the door is not locked and why Lorcan was nowhere to be found.

He was abducted! Or so it seems.

This is obviously a code so I need to decipher it. Gosh! I don't know anything about codes and I got 25 minutes left.

What exactly is with this university?

I tried jumbling the letters first but it doesn't seem to make sense. I searched different codes on the internet using my phone and try using 6 different types of ciphers but not one was able to help me.

I only got 9 minutes left. Should I tell this to Mr. Fergal or should I just report it to the campus police? Times like this we need to inform the authorities of what's happening. Is this the thing that makes this unuversity different? Crimes for a daily living?

8 minutes.

I put my hands all of over my face in frustration. If I tell this to anyone, who knows someone might be watching me from the moment I stepped outside my apartment.

Chloe! Get it together!

I tried calming my self and do the inhale-exhale for three times. I don't know if this makes the situation better. I read every syllable, every word of the sentence from the text to make sure if there's a clue.

Prince who helped you.

Will you help him too?

The person write Lorcan as the prince since he rescued me from what happened last night.

5² minutes left until he's all pale.

This is very much obvious and I got 20 minutes left before its too late.

Remember not to tell anyone or we'll speed run his life.

A longer version of saying 'Don't talk or we'll end him'.

Clock is ticking, blood is dripping.

The resolution is in my hands and I need to get there where he is as soon as possible! The last one is just a code so why would that be clue?

5 minutes left.

The longer it gets, the faster my heart beats.

My conscience will kill me if I something happened to him just because I'm too ignorant of these things.

"Screw you to hell, Caesar!"

Wait. Caesar?

Where did I see that name again?

I once again looked at the laptop screen and see the name of the person who wrote it. It is Caesar. What if?

I quickly grab my phone from the table on typed 'Caesar code' on the search bar. My eyes left wide open when I saw the image of letters corresponding to another.

I write down every single letter that corresponds a letter written in the text.

It resulted to a word that actually makes sense. But there's something wrong.

If I was right, Lorcan is a tall guy while that thing is probably a little longer in length than me but still there's no way I would place in there except if I was a doll.

That makes me think...

How would he fit in such an enclosed space?