Chapter 8
When we got back to our room, none of us spoke for a long time.
Then Jessica finally said, very quietly, “I know him.”
Reilly and I looked at her.
Jessica’s lips had gone pale. “Maddie liked him.”
The words hit me like a slap.
“Madison?”
Jessica nodded. “She had a crush on him for a long time. She even confessed once. He turned her down.”
The room went still in a whole new way.
“So what are you saying?” I asked at last. “That she got rejected, snapped, and went after both of them?”
Jessica said nothing.
Before she could answer, Reilly cut in.
“I told you I had something to say.”
She looked at me. “You remember Maddie’s clothes last night? The red stains?”
I frowned. “Yeah. Watermelon juice.”
“No,” Reilly said flatly. “When she stepped under the lamp, I got a better look. That red was too dark.”
A chill moved slowly up my spine.
“What are you trying to say?”
Reilly swallowed. “The rumors this morning said the guy in the boys’ dorm… part of what was missing from the scene was internal tissue.”
I stared at her, not understanding at first.
Then she said slowly, “You asked Maddie at dinner what she’d been dreaming about lately. She said she wasn’t dreaming about cutting watermelon anymore.”
The silence in the room felt heavy and alive.
“She said she’d been dreaming about eating rice noodle rolls.”
No one spoke.
Then I let out a sharp, ugly laugh.
“Are you insane?” I snapped. “You seriously think Madison killed him because she liked him?”
Jessica whispered, “He rejected her. That doesn’t mean she stopped caring.”
I stared at both of them in disbelief. “So now you both think she killed the girl and the guy because she couldn’t have him?”
Neither answered.
That was answer enough.
My anger rose so fast I could barely think. “Fine. If you really believe that, then let’s stop whispering and call the police.”
I yanked out my phone. “I’ll tell them everything. The dreams, the sleepwalking, the watermelon, the stains. Let them decide what it means.”