Love In Another Shadow

CHAPTER 1

Golden High School. 10:00 am.

A young girl was standing under an oak tree when she dropped the last of her cigarette butts. The girl was Alicia, Alicia Perth. Alicia's sea-like blue eyes looked down at her feet, which were wrapped in black ankle boots. The boots had stepped on the remains of a cigarette, causing it to crumble and mingle with the asphalt on the street.

Alicia's hand held an invitation envelope with a rose gold logo on the front, while her other hand, wrapped in a colorful suede bracelet, squeezed her ashes backpack on her shoulder. The few people around her were now watching. Alicia caught the eye because of her beautiful face. Alicia had a uniquely American face, her eyeballs were large and beautiful, and her nose was sharp as if carved by a professional artist. So Alicia's appearance that day, successfully made a lot of boys around pull out their smiles.

That tall girl ignored people's eyes, she honestly didn't care what others thought of her. Even if it was a good thing. Alicia walked through the transparent glass doors with iron handles made of the finest iron in New York City. It was the only entrance to the building she was heading for. Looking back at her, Alicia attracted the attention of the people inside the building. But once again, Alicia ignored everyone and chose to keep walking.

Golden High School was an international boarding-based school. People from all over the world can come and study here as long as they have a lot of money. You'd be able to find a politician's kid, a billionaire's kid and even a rich businessman's kid if you managed to get into Golden High School. It's known as one of the most elite schools in America, but that's not why Alicia chose Golden High School.

Alicia had another purpose. She wanted to escape her past. She doesn't want back.

The glass main door was directly connected to the hallways of the student dormitories at Golden High School. These hallways were organized on an alphabetical basis to make things easier. But the more you pay, the more you'll get a room with the best facilities.

All the facilities at Golden High School fall into the international school category. There are rooms with comfortable spring beds and sheets, one pillow and bolster, air conditioners, and even indoor bathrooms. But the school also provided public bathrooms for parents or guests who were visiting Golden High School. And Alicia knew about this facility when she was about to move into her new school.

During her walk down the hallway of the Golden High School dormitory, Alicia saw only a few people passing by. The atmosphere was very quiet. Alicia passed through a high wall that led directly to the doors of the students' rooms. Most of the doors were made of the finest wood and all the fronts were labeled with numbers that were quite unfamiliar to Alicia.

Alicia stopped in her tracks. She looked around and muttered, "Where did everyone go? Are they always on time like this?"

To be honest, it wasn't the people who arrived on time, but Alicia who was late. She missed the time written on the invitation card and was already more than fifteen minutes late. Alicia had missed the opening ceremony of Golden High School's winter rules reading ceremony.

But Alicia didn't care and kept walking. Some people were watching, others were busy with their own activities.

Her blue eyes then moved to the main hall sign in front of a large door. She stopped and glanced at the envelope in her hand to make sure. Alicia had finally arrived at her destination. Golden High School's main hall.

"Alicia, welcome to the new place, may luck be on my side this time," Alicia mumbled.

After feeling that she had found the room that matched to invitation letter, Alicia immediately pushed open the door in front of her.

A large Greek-style room greeted Alicia's senses. World-class paintings by Pablo Picasso, Leonardo da Vinci and Vincent Van Gogh were neatly arranged on the walls. Roman-style architectural columns held up the ceiling. Several chandeliers dropped beautiful, luxurious light. Alicia's blue eyes traveled around quickly, sweeping over the classic sights that Alicia had never seen before.

Alicia was amazed. "This school has good taste too."

The main hall. The room provided about five hundred chitose folding chairs for the day's official event. With special lounge chairs for the Golden High officials in the front row. The event held that day was intended to inform the dormitory students of their new rules. All students would not be as free as before.

Alicia stood in the middle of the doorway and saw that all the seats were occupied. She looked around in confusion as she saw people busy with the scene in front of them.

It seemed that people wanted to impress by arriving on time. Alicia frowned, looking for a place until she finally found an empty seat in the corner of the room. Alicia let out a short breath and hurriedly sat down in the only chair left. A few people who passed by had seen Alicia, feeling interested. But Alicia ignored them all and kept her backpack on her lap.

Alicia looked at the people around her, women and men sitting in separate places but close to each other. All the seats faced forward, staring at the large podium that was now the center of attention.

A hand tapped Alicia on the shoulder. It was Brittany, the girl sitting next to Alicia.

"Hello," Brittany greeted.

Alicia turned her head, and found the blonde-haired girl smiling kindly next to her. "I'm Brittany," she said politely, then extended her hand, want to knowing more about Alicia. "What's your name anyway?"

"Alicia," Alicia said simply.

Brittany leaned closer to Alicia and glanced at her ashes backpack. "Do you have marijuana in your bag?"

Alicia's brow furrowed. "What? What... did you say?"

CHAPTER 2

"What... did you say?"

Alicia and Brittany stared at each other. Alicia was quite surprised by the question asked by the stranger in front of her. She was suddenly speechless, her tongue frozen, not knowing what to say in response to Brittany. But Brittany frowned.

Instead, Brittany hissed softly, signaling that girl next to her to keep quiet. She placed her finger in front of her lips. That girl with blonde hair also looked around, as if she didn't want her words to be heard by anyone else. "Do you have a weapon over there?"

Alicia bent her forehead deeply and shook her head. Confused. "I don't-"

But Brittany interrupted. "Have you ever killed anyone?"

Alicia frowned again and shook her head quickly. She had no idea what Brittany was talking about and it brought out the puzzled expression on Alicia's smooth face. Now that Alicia had a serious expression, she felt very strange about her new friend.

Brittany laughed amusedly and nudged Alicia's arm gently, "Come on, I'm just kidding. Your face is really funny when you're scared."

Alicia blinked her eyes, smiling awkwardly. Feeling that Brittany was making 'weird' jokes, Alicia chose to ignore her and stare at the podium in front of her. Instead of being interested in her new friend's jokes, Alicia paid attention to the old man who was speaking at the podium and let Brittany purse her lips because she didn't respond to Alicia.

Brittany lifted her chin. "Mr. Wilson Blake is the CEO of the Golden Group, the CEO of Golden High. He has complete power over this school. By the way, he doesn't like kids with problems, unless you cause problems and you have money to cover up your problems." Alicia listened. "He's very money-oriented."

Alicia just nodded her head, signaling that she understood Brittany's explanation.

"I heard that Mr. Blake doesn't like his personal life being exposed to the media. He only talks about business, business and business whenever the media shows up and covers school events."

"This school has a lot of public events?"

Brittany nodded. She played with her chest-length hair. "It's an international school. Mr. Wilson has always favored public events to attract the attention of the elite in this country and abroad. I told you, he cares a lot about money."

"Okay."

Alicia and Brittany refocused on the scene before them. After explaining some of the lesson mechanics and rule changes in the dormitory, the wealthy CEO read out the list of names and rooms of the students in the new Golden High dormitory.

"Alicia Perth and Brittany Scoots, room 20 hallway 001."

Brittany immediately hugged Alicia when Mr. Wilson mentioned her name. "Oh my, Alicia! We're in the same room!"

"Well... that doesn't sound too bad."

And sure enough, the two of them would be staying in the same room until the end of the semester.

Room 20, hallway 001.

Everyone seemed to choose to listen intently to the message from Wilson Blake as their names began to be called one by one. Some of the students were happy to be in the same room as their close friends, but some were disappointed to be in the same room as a stranger.

Mr. Wilson had not finished reading out the dormitory room assignments when suddenly a loud crash was heard from the back of the main hall.

The door to the main hall had just been forced open by someone, causing the door to collide with the walls behind it. It caused a thumping sound that drew everyone's attention to the source of the sound.

BRUG!!!

A man stood in the doorway, with sweat falling down his wide forehead and his lips as pale as those of someone with a fever. The man pointed at Mr. Wilson. His fingers looked bloodied, while his clothes looked wet from his body sweat. He looked bad and everyone was now watching him.

He then looked straight at Mr. Wilson Blake and took a deep breath, before shouting,

"There's a dead body in the hallway, sir!" he screamed in panic.

His voice, which echoed through the silent hall, sounded like a thunderbolt in broad daylight. He gulped his saliva heavily and held the white wall next to him tightly; trying to keep his body from falling.

But that body was too weak to hold on. When his body fell from weakness, that's when everyone realized what was happening. The man was lying on the cold floor, making the people sitting in their seats stand up in panic and fear. The atmosphere that had previously been filled with excitement and disappointment had now turned terrifying. The blood on the man's hands stuck to and soaked the floor, making the scene look like a thriller movie they often watched.

The teachers, also known as the officials, immediately helped that boy to get up. They took him to the dormitory health room for first aid. Meanwhile, the CEO of Golden Group, Mr. Wilson, hurried to the main hallway. Even for the sake of safety, that wrinkled hand did not forget to dial the numbers of his trusted police and medical personnel while heading to the scene.

The entire room panicked, left the hall and followed the officials to the scene.

But Alicia chose to stay where she was as Brittany kept pushing her along. She was no longer interested in such horrible things. She no longer had a curiosity about death.

While everyone else left the hall to satisfy their curiosity, Alicia sat alone in her seat. She stared at the podium that the CEO had suddenly left in disgust.

why did she have to meet death again in her new place?

The cell phone in her backpack pocket suddenly vibrated, causing Alicia to wake up from her mortal assumptions.

Her brow furrowed when she found an unfamiliar number sending her a message. An odd message that made her round her eyes instantly.

"You can run from your past, but you can't run from your death." -Unknown number.

CHAPTER 3

Golden High School.

A male corpse was found with his body on his back, eyes widened, tongue sticking out and stomach area full of blackish-red fluid. The condition was so bad that some students who couldn't stand it immediately moved away and left the scene. The elites at Golden High School were already trying to block the horrible scene, they set up a blockade.

Mr. Wilson arrived at the scene and held his breath in shock. He looked around and tried to shoo away the students, although that old man's words were just taken for granted by them. They were very curious, it was the first time they had found a dead body in school. This was an interesting crime to follow.

"What are you guys doing here? You guys should leave, stop filming!" The elites were asked to bring the kids back, but there were too many of them for Mr. Wilson to do anything else there.

Shortly after, NYPD (New York Police Department) chief Paul Scoots, arrived with two other policemen and a young detective named Nicholas. A sweep of the crime scene and the installation of police lines were immediately carried out. Two police officers tried hard to push back students who were trying to cross the line just to take pictures or videos they wanted to post on social media. Mr. Wilson and the officials also tried to help, but the students' curiosity was too big. They were very stubborn.

And just as Paul Scoots had said, the two policemen pulled out a large black cloth, each end of which they held up to block the students. In the end, though, they were unsuccessful.

"Forget it, let's focus on the investigation," Nicholas whispered. He was a little disturbed by Paul's angry expression, he didn't want Paul to get angry with the students and make his image look bad.

"How did it go?"

"After checking the blood with luminol, I found a lot of blood on the floor," Nicholas said. "Most likely, the blood on the floor is the victim's blood. Some of the blood has already started to dry, and the body is also starting to show corpse bruises in some parts of the body."

The chief, Paul then tapped Nicholas on the shoulder confidently. "I will hand over this case to you now. I believe you are capable of handling this."

Nicholas did not even hesitate to nod in agreement. "Sure, Chief."

Paul Scoots was busy helping two other policemen to clear the crowd, while Nicholas focused on the investigation. Nicholas then squatted down, observing the victim's corpse and recording the conditions of the crime scene in his personal journal. Several times Nicholas was forced to touch the victim's body using latex gloves to check for bruises on the lifeless body.

The bruises that appear on a corpse are usually clues. And clues are one of the things that Nicholas, as a detective, won't miss.

Brittany tried to break through the crowd because she was curious. Some of the women were screaming hysterically, which Brittany thought was a bad thing. She pushed her way through the gaps of people who raised their cell phones in the air to take pictures. Brittany wanted to give up, but she was already halfway there. From her current position, her tanned eyes could see Paul Scoots, her father. Well, this must be really bad. She pushed harder, finally making it to the front of the line. Her eyes looked around. The black cloth that two police officers were trying to lift made it difficult. But Brittany already realized there was someone down there, lying on the floor. And there was blood all around.

As she waited, Brittany moved herself forward again, trying to get through the Golden High School elites standing in front of her until she could approach the police line. And at the same time, the black cloth held by the two policemen fell because of the many people who were forced to see.

The view in front of her immediately surprised Brittany. Her eyes widened in shock when she found a familiar face there. A face that Brittany knew all too well. Her mouth opened, but two hands quickly closed it. Brittany moved, she hurriedly lifted the police officer's yellow line that crossed in front of her and her body immediately fell to her knees, right in front of the corpse as she managed to confirm everything.

She had confirmed that the body she had found in the dorm hallway was that of her boyfriend, James Portman.

"James...," Brittany said in a sad tone. She held her breath for a few moments, her head spinning so badly, she felt like she was going to throw up. But her hands immediately held her mouth shut and she stared deeply at James' cold body. "You... why were you there, James?"

Nicholas, who had just finished taking notes on the condition of the corpse, looked at Brittany. He knew Brittany. So Nicholas immediately approached and quickly stopped Brittany's hand from touching the victim's face. Nicholas thought that Brittany was just being reflexive, so he wasn't angry at Brittany. He then guided Brittany to pull over carefully. "Be careful, Britt. I'll help you. Let's get up," Nicholas said, helping Brittany to her feet. "Don't get your fingerprints on James' body. That would be a big problem for you, and me."

"But it's James, Nich. He's..." Without waiting for Brittany to finish her sentence, Nicholas hugged the girl who was like a younger sibling and led her away.

Brittany's sobs broke out as her father, along with two other policemen, transferred her lover's body into an ambulance to undergo an autopsy at the hospital.

"That's enough, Brittany. They're taking James' body to the hospital, we're going to examine it."

Brittany wiped her wet cheeks, she tried to hold back her tears but couldn't. Nicholas was okay with that, he cared enough about Brittany's feelings. But Nicholas would keep it professional for now.

"You're okay, right?" Nicholas asked reassuringly.

And Brittany nodded her head, although she wasn't sure if she was okay or not.