Page 33 of Sing For Us

Fuck. My. College.

People and their incompetence will never cease to amaze me.

To make matters worse, the professor only had an opening in the evening. The campus I had to meet him at is also a different one from where I normally go. There are tall trees surrounding the area and a forest nobody dares to go into. If Noa didn’t require every team member to have a college degree, I wouldn’t fucking go.

I arrive at my college, and I am immediately on high alert. The doors are closed, and not a single light is on. There is also nobody in a close vicinity. It’s abandoned, and while I don’t have a problem with that, my gut instincts are telling me to get the fuck out of here.

“Fuck,” I utter as I grab my phone to call the administrator.

The number you have dialed is not in use.

“What the fuck?” I look at my phone in disbelief. This is the number I always get calls from whenever the university administrator calls. My phone buzzes again, and it’s an anonymous caller. These bitches really think that they can mess with me. My phone has software to decrypt who is calling and where they're from immediately. The program tells me that whoever is calling me is… here?

I slowly turn my head around and see that there is nobody here. To make this situation even more ridiculous, it’s starting to rain.

“Hello?” I answer the call. A small laugh comes through the speaker, and it’s eerie. The voice is slow, deep, and raspy. The sound is echoing, and it’s so unsettling I can feel it in my bones.

“Who is this?” I ask while walking towards my car. Why did I park so far away?

“Hello, genius.”

This. Can’t. Be. Happening.

I recognize who it is, and for the first time in a long time, I am terrified.

Lana.

I stop dead in my tracks and look around, but I don’t see shit.

“Lana, leave me the fuck alone.” You can hear the desperation in my voice, and I bet Lana is feeding off of it. I have witnessed in real life and through Noa’s earpieces how petrifying Noa’s ex is. She isn’t saying anything; that silence is even worse than if she had said anything. So I keep talking while I am walking.

“I know you can hear me, you crazy bitch, so I am going to make something clear. Noa didn’t kill your father. So whatever beef you have with my cousin, duke it out. But leave me out of it.” She is still not saying anything, but that isn’t stopping me from walking.

With the phone tucked between my shoulder and ear, I look in my small bag for my keys. There they fucking are!

I want to unlock my car, but a bullet stops me. It goes straight through my window. I don’t dare to turn around, afraid that the next one will go through my head. I grab the phone with my hand to steady it, and I wish I didn’t.

Lana’s breathing is enough to send me over the edge. And I am suddenly aware of my surroundings. My whole world narrows down to this single point, and the only sound I am hearing is the rustling of leaves and a distant bird chirping. My mouth is dry, and with trembling hands, I wipe away the sweat from my neck.

“What the fuck do you need?” I never knew to shut the fuck up and keep my opinions to myself. Sara is a good one at that. Fucking hell, I wish she was here. I look at my phone and want to send a message to Noa.

Another bullet goes through the window of my car.

“If you try to contact your cousin, I won’t hesitate to kill you on the spot and send you back in pieces.” Ice. Ice. Ice.

That’s what Lana is—stone-cold ice.

“What do you want?”

“I want you to tell me where your uncle is.”

“I really don’t fucking know, and neither does he.” I wish I knew how to manipulate someone with my words, but that’s not my forte.

“Don’t lie to me.” It’s weird, but I can feel her inching closer to me.

“How do you know for sure it was Noa? Maybe you are wrong.” I can’t even run away because she’ll kill me. I stay rooted in one fucking place, hoping that someone will drive by. Or that Noa realizes that I have been away for far too long.

Now I wish that I had a tracker inside of me.