Chapter 9

"He tried to get me to publish his research proving that Gabriel Harleigh is the Killer." she said once more,

"What?!" said Gin, shock dripping from her tone.

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"How could he think that?! Is there any evidence? Did he see something?"

"No Gin, that's the issue. He saw nothing and has no proof but speculation."

"Someone needs to speak to him because that is not okay. You don't just hurl accusations like that at people, especially on the school paper." Gin said, getting worked up.

"In his defence, his best and only friend got killed, and he watched it happen with the rest of us. I can understand the urge to blame, especially as Gabriel Harleigh is the new person in town. " Ronda said, as Gin started to think of the red glowing eye that she thought she saw briefly. Getting a bit convinced by the theory as well, and getting paler thinking about it.

"It all seems to fit until you realise that, if teens can think of this, that the police can as well. Now, seeing as Gabriel is not locked up in jail, it means that...." Ronda continued, taking a deep breath and releasing slowly.

"He is not the killer." Gin finished softly, realisation dawning as she looked ill. Thoughts still looping to that scene of red eyes looking eerie and scary.

"What makes this worse is that our resident weirdo, believing in the supernatural, thinks that the murderer is a supernatural monster trying to kill us all. Meaning Gabriel is supposedly not human. Honestly, the poor kid has suffered a few too many knocks on the head." Ronda said with a sigh and slow shake of her head.

Once again, Gin's heart begun to beat violently against her chest as she relived the red-eye scene over again. The words: not human kept on ringing in her head, sounding true the more it rang in her ears, unknown to Ronda. Gin was starting to think that Jeremy White is not as crazy as she believed him to be.

The conversation stopped as more members of the student paper arrived.

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As the school day was over, many hurried to their home to avoid following the same fate as Bella Roune. All except Gin. She followed Jeremy White to his house. Halfway there, she called out to him to stop as she realised that she would need to get home too.

"Huh? Virginia Woole? What do you want? Come to tell me I'm crazy? That I've had too many knocks on the head? What? Didn't think I was listening to you two huh?" Jeremy said with a mocking laugh at the end.

"Poor old Jeremy, the kid's lost it. He's such a child still believing in the town fairytales. That one's been knocked about too much as a child. Poor things lost his marbles. I've heard it all before, the whispers and the gossip. Only Bella treated me like a regular person, yet, everyone is acting sympathetic as if you got along with us. As if you got along with me. So tell me Miss congeniality, what do you want?" Jeremy finished looking her in the eye, the intensity and words spouted caused her to flinch as if in pain.

"I...I" she started.

"Well hurry up, The Sun will be going down soon..." Jeremy said impatiently.

"I- I w-wanted to talk to you about your theory.. I think that you may be on to something... but you're right it's getting late. Can we talk tomorrow during lunch?" she said sincerely and hesitantly.

Her reply caught Jeremy off guard as he looked at her with raised brows as she fidgeted in front of him. Nodding sharply in acceptance, he turned away to continue his journey home.

With a sigh, she turned around to go home too.

The next day, she went up to Jeremy for their talk during lunch. To the surprise of many, the two walked out of class together, obviously going to have lunch together, alone. This piqued the curiosity of their year mates, as they all tried to answer the question: why were those two together?

The two most curious were Jack Turner and Chloe Vale, the two connected to the Bella Roune incident. They were curious as Jeremy had turned into a recluse due to the ordeal, not to mention, guilty that their words caused her to die indirectly. The two followed behind with as much stealth as possible, succeeding because they had become persona non grata within the school. As such no one deliberately called out to them or acknowledged their presence.

The two followers stood outside the room as the unexpected duo begun to talk about Jeremy's reasons for suspecting Gabriel Harleigh as well as why Gin believed him somewhat. At the mention of the glowing red eyes that she had seen, Jeremy was almost vibrating from excitement. The other two hidden behind the door were shocked and thoughtful, as their words convinced them to the theory. If it was before Bella's death, the new rumour would be all over the school by the end of lunch due to Chloe. At this point, however, no one wanted to hear anything that came from her mouth- gossip included.

Communicating silently, the two opened the door to the classroom being used by Gin and Jeremy, to the occupants' surprise.

"We will help you prove if Gabriel Harleigh is a creature or if he is a human, in return, if we solve this mystery we want you guys to vouch for us." Chloe said when no one said anything in the minutes preceding their unwelcome visit.

"NO! I will not let the two of you near this after what you did to Bella!" Jeremy shouted, with eyes popping out of a crimson face, looking suitably enraged.

"Jeremy! We need all the help we can get! Did you not see how strong he was in that video?!?! He ripped the bloody door off the ambulance rear doors!!!" Gin yelled back, moisture gathering at the corner of her eyes as her eyes redden and skin pales.

Jeremy stops short, as his anger appears and disappears like thunder. He pales as her words register more in his head, images and descriptions of the beasts and monsters he has read about since childhood wrap his thoughts.

"Okay...Okay... we can work together on this." Jeremy said, face still pale as he takes deep breaths to calm his thundering heartbeat.

"Let's make a plan, we need one if we are to have any chance at catching him, so... any ideas?" Jack said.

"I can help." said a voice from the behind a pillar in the room, making all of them jump up in alarm as they try to find the source.