Chapter Twenty-Seven - Natalie

Helena stood at the door staring at me, I couldn’t tell if she was angry or not.

“I was looking for you.”

“Looking for me?”

“Yes, and I thought you would be in here or something.”

“O..Kay, now you see me, how can I help you?”

“I was just wondering if I could be helping out in the lab.”

Helena tilted her head, her smile never wavering.

"You want to help in the lab," she repeated slowly, like she was testing the words for poison.

"Yes." I kept my voice steady, my hands steady, my heartbeat steady. The key card was in my pocket, warm against my thigh. She couldn't know. She couldn't see. "I'm a transfer student. I need extracurriculars for my resume. And I heard your father's lab is the best on campus."

"Who told you that?"

"Everyone. Ashley. Myles. Even Madden." I shrugged, aiming for casual. "I want to work somewhere that matters. Somewhere I can learn something real."

Helena studied me for a long moment. Her eyes drifted from my face to my clothes, to my hands, to the way I stood. Assessing. Judging.

She stepped closer. Close enough that I could smell her perfume. Expensive. Floral. The same perfume I'd smelled in the kitchen hallway the night Earl died.

"I don't think you'd be a good fit for the lab," she said.

"Why not?"

"You ask too many questions." She tilted her head. "I've seen you around campus.”

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"Yes, you do." Her voice dropped, soft and dangerous. "And I'm not going to help you. My father's lab is for serious students. Not for transfers who show up in the middle of the semester with no transcripts and no references."

"I have references."

"Do you? Because I checked. There's nothing on you, Nova James. No social media. No high school records. Nothing." She crossed her arms. "It's like you appeared out of thin air."

My pulse hammered. "I value my privacy."

We stared at each other. The party music thumped above us, muffled and distant. Somewhere in the building, a door slammed. Footsteps echoed.

"The answer is no," Helena said finally. "I won't recommend you for the lab. And even if I did, my father would never approve of you.Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a party to get back to."

She paused in the doorway.

"Oh, and Nova? This office is off-limits to students. If I catch you here again, I'll report you to campus security."

Then she was gone.

The door clicked shut behind her.

I stood there for a moment, my heart pounding, my hands shaking. The key card was still in my pocket. She hadn't seen it. She hadn't searched me. She'd been too busy dismissing me, too busy proving she was in control.

But she'd noticed things. The lack of a digital footprint. The way I watched and listened.

If she was this observant then it was going to be a problem.

---

I waited sixty seconds, then slipped out of the office.

The hallway was empty. The elevator doors were closed. The stairwell door was propped open with a fire extinguisher.

Myles was exactly where I'd left him, pressed against the wall near the stairwell, his phone in his hand.

"What happened?" he whispered. "You were in there forever. I almost came looking for you."

"Helena happened."

"Did she see you take the key card?"

"No. But she knows something's off about me. She said I ask too many questions."

Myles frowned. "Did she connect you to Alice?"

"I don't think so. She just thinks I'm a transfer student with a shady past." I pulled out the key card. "But it doesn't matter. I got what I came for."

"We're going to the basement? Now?"

"No. Too many people in the building. The party's still going. We wait until everyone leaves."

"When?"

"Two or three in the morning. When the campus is asleep."

Myles nodded. "I'll wait with you."

I nodded my head. “Have you heard from Madden?”

“No, she is not returning my calls.”

We walked back to the dorm in silence, keeping to the shadows, avoiding the light.

---

Ashley was waiting in the room.

She'd changed out of her party clothes into pajamas, cat socks and all. Her laptop was open on her desk, the cracked screen displaying a blank document.

"Well?" she asked as soon as I closed the door.

"I got it." I held up the key card.

Ashley's eyes widened. "No way. How?"

"I lied. A lot." I sat down on my mattress, exhausted. "Helena caught me in her office. I told her I was looking for her to ask about working in the lab."

"She believed you?"

"No. But she didn't search me. She was too busy telling me no."

Myles leaned against the wall. "So what now?"

"Now we wait."

The hours crawled by.

Ashley fell asleep around midnight, curled up on her bed, her breathing soft and even. Myles sat on the floor, his back against the wall, his eyes on the window.

I couldn't sleep. The key card sat on my desk, small and unassuming, holding the answers to everything.

At 2 AM, I stood up.

"It's time," I said.

Myles nodded. He pulled on his jacket and followed me out the door.

---

The BioMed building was dark.

The party was over, the graduate students gone, the lights on the fourth floor extinguished. The lobby was empty, the reception desk abandoned, the elevator silent.

We took the stairs.

One floor. Two floors. Three.

The basement door was metal, heavy, locked. I swiped the key card. The light blinked green. The lock clicked open.

I pushed the door.

Darkness yawned beyond. Cold air rushed out, smelling like chemicals and dust and something else. Something metallic.

Myles pulled out his phone, turned on the flashlight. The beam cut through the darkness, illuminating a long corridor lined with doors.

"This way," I whispered.

I led him to the last door. The one Helena had opened. The one that led to the hidden room.

I swiped the key card again. Punched in the code I'd memorized from watching Helena.

The lock clicked open.

We stepped inside.

The room was just as I remembered it. White walls. Stainless steel tables. Microscopes. Computer screens. Photographs of girls on the far wall.

But the hidden door in the back corner was open.

Someone had been here before us.

"Alexa," Myles whispered. "Look."

He pointed his flashlight at the floor.

Footprints. Fresh. Leading from the hidden door to the main entrance.

And a smear of something dark on the steel table.

Something that looked like blood.

"We need to go," Myles said. "Now."

I shook my head. "We came all this way. I'm not leaving empty-handed."

I walked to the hidden door and pushed it open.

The room beyond was smaller, colder. Freezer units lined the walls, humming softly. And on a metal table in the center of the room, covered with a white sheet, was a body.

I knew before I pulled back the sheet.

But I pulled it anyway.

Natalie Vasquez.

Her face was pale, frozen, preserved. Her eyes were closed. Her hands were folded across her chest.

She'd been missing for two years.

And she'd been here the whole time.