Chapter 25: No One Gets Out Clean

The world didn’t feel safer just because Adrien was gone.

Ryan stood in the hallway outside the student affairs office, a thin file still clutched to his chest. The meeting had been brief, procedural.

Adrien had been officially suspended, pending further investigation. The words echoed in his ears like the staccato beat of a broken metronome pending further investigation. Not expelled. Not gone for good. Just on pause.

Chris leaned against the wall next to him, arms crossed, his gaze sharp and protective. “You okay?”

“I don’t know,” Ryan whispered. His fingers tightened around the file. “It doesn’t feel over.”

“It won’t for a while,” Chris said, tone gentler now. “But this was the right move. You did the hard part.”

Did he? Ryan wasn’t sure. The hard part wasn’t giving the report. The hard part was the waiting the empty air that Adrien used to fill with glances that made Ryan’s skin crawl, the twisted letters, the bruising stare.

That silence felt like it was holding its breath now, and Ryan didn’t know what was going to happen when it finally exhaled.

They left the building and walked in silence toward the dorm. A cool breeze cut across the courtyard, stirring the leaves into a brittle dance.

The day was too quiet. Suspiciously quiet. Ryan kept glancing over his shoulder, expecting Adrien to appear like a glitch in reality, furious and unhinged.

But the campus was Adrien free. For now.

When they entered the dorm, Chris gave Ryan a small push toward the stairs. “I’ll grab coffee. Go up. You need to breathe.”

Ryan didn’t argue. As he climbed the stairs, a fresh unease crawled over him. The farther he got from people, the louder his thoughts became.

His phone buzzed. A message from Daniel.

Are you back yet? Can I come over?

Ryan replied:

Yeah. Come.

Minutes later, the knock on the door came. Ryan opened it and let Daniel in, not saying a word. Daniel didn’t speak either. He simply reached for Ryan and pulled him into a long, quiet hug.

Ryan let himself sink into it. The weight of everything the last few weeks, Adrien, the surveillance, the fear all of it came rushing to the surface, and Daniel held him through it. His arms were steady. Familiar. Warm.

“I’m proud of you,” Daniel murmured.

“You said that yesterday.”

“And I meant it both times.”

Ryan managed a small laugh, but it didn’t last long. “He’s not gone. Not really. He’s just… waiting.”

Daniel pulled back enough to meet his eyes. “Then we keep being smart. You don’t go anywhere alone. You keep documentation.

And if he so much as breathes near you, we take it straight to legal. No more giving him room to escalate.”

“I hate that this is what my life is now.”

“I know,” Daniel said. “But you’re not alone in it.”

There was a pause between them. One of those unspoken moments where the air seemed to hum with something fragile.

Ryan searched Daniel’s face for something he couldn’t name maybe hope, maybe doubt. But before he could speak, another knock came at the door.

Chris returned, balancing coffee cups and a paper bag of pastries. “I got you something with too much sugar in it,” he announced, walking in like he owned the place. “Because comfort calories are real.”

Daniel raised an eyebrow. “We were having a moment.”

“Yeah?” Chris deadpanned. “So was I. With this cinnamon bun.”

Ryan smiled faintly. The tension didn’t dissolve completely, but it bent a little, giving way to something lighter.

The three of them sat around the desk, the dorm too small for privacy but large enough for the kind of makeshift support Ryan hadn’t realized he’d been craving.

Chris took the chair. Daniel sat on the bed next to Ryan. They talked about Adrien, about the report, about how messed up the whole thing still felt.

“I still don’t understand how he got so obsessed,” Chris muttered. “Like, what was the trigger?”

“My speech,” Ryan said. “The university talk at the first assembly. He was there. I didn’t even notice him.”

“He noticed you,” Daniel added, voice low.

Chris frowned. “We need to be ready if he comes back. Guys like that don’t just disappear.”

Ryan didn’t respond. Because somewhere deep down, he felt it too.

The next few days passed slowly. Adrien’s absence created a hole students whispered about him, the rumors swirling fast. Ryan avoided eye contact in class. Avoided conversations. He focused on staying ahead, staying alert.

But he couldn’t escape the letters.

Another one arrived Friday morning.

Slipped under the door again. The envelope was cream colored this time, with his name written in red ink. No return address.

Chris saw it first. “Ryan”

“I know.”

He picked it up with a napkin and opened it carefully, like it might detonate.

Inside was a single sheet. The handwriting was familiar. Smooth. Slanted.

You’re good at pretending to be brave.

Let’s see how long it lasts without your protectors.

Ryan’s blood went cold.

Daniel was already on his feet. “What the hell does that mean?”

Chris pulled out his phone. “We’re showing this to the dean. Now.”

But Ryan’s hands were shaking. He read the words again. And again.

Without your protectors.

Was Adrien coming for them next?

He looked at Chris. At Daniel. The people who had stood between him and the storm.

And suddenly, Ryan wasn’t just scared for himself anymore. He was scared for them.

He wasn’t sure what Adrien would do next.

But whatever it was… it had already begun.