Chapter One – The End
Manic lovers are often obsessive and very possessive with the object of their desires; Experiencing great emotional highs and lows, they tend to develop a sort of co-dependency almost to the point of obsession.
It was an early Saturday morning. Jordan Kyle crept down the stairs, hushing his girlfriend, Maia Roberts, as her foot kicked a stray beer can over the ledge. His frat brothers had teased her mercilessly in the past when she left during later hours so he had to resort to sneaking her out at what he considered the crack of dawn.
"So will I see you tonight for dinner?" She asked in between kisses. Jordan opened his mouth to answer but something in the yard caught his eye. It was littered with the remnants of the party from the previous night. Among the assortment of beer bottles, cans and half a burnt couch was…a body.
The couple stepped off the porch and slowly approached the figure. Jordan thought maybe he was just passed out drunk but as he neared, he saw the man had a sticky blood-like substance matted in his curly brown hair. He ran back into the house and woke the chapter president, Raphael Santiago. Raphael, of course thought he was joking.
"I'll bet you anything it's probably some drunken idiot who couldn't find his way back to campus. Or a cadaver from the school morgue. I'm sure it's just the Kappas pranking us back for filling their pool with Jell-O." He mumbled.
Jordan shook his head and pointed out the window to the small crowd forming. The TKE house was already in trouble for the prank war they were currently engaged in with Kappa Alpha Psi. They really didn't need any more heat from the administration at the moment. So Raphael followed Jordan back outside, pushing his way through the crowd of early morning joggers and females making their 'walk of shame' to check the genuineness of the body. He quickly withdrew his hand, a panicked look on his face. The faint thumping of a pulse revealed the body was in fact a real human being.
"Ok everyone back up and give him some room. Jordan, call 911 and alert campus security." He instructed before rolling the guy over. His face was covered with bruises and a deep looking gash, dried blood and bits of grass surrounding it. Raphael asked the crowd if anyone recognized the man before he checked his pockets in the hopes of finding a cell phone or student id. He wondered what happened that his face would be bruised in such a terrible manner and how he came to get the red rings around his wrist.
"Ralph, the cops are on their way with an ambulance. They said to wake everyone up, they want to get statements."
When the cops arrived, they got right to their questions. Many of the brothers were still trying to wake up or were hung over and couldn't offer anything other than bits and pieces of the details about the party from last night. Patrick Penhallow dismissed them along with many of the gawkers as they couldn't offer any insight before shifting his attention to Maia, Jordan and Raphael.
Jordan explained how he and Maia were the first ones to discover the body.
"So you came out of the house with this young lady here. You were standing on that porch and you saw something 'strange' in the yard. You left the porch and walked over to check it out."
Jordan nodded before telling the cop how he woke Raphael and he checked the body for authenticity. "He thought maybe it was a dead body from the morgue or someone just passed out."
"And he's not a member of this house? This isn't some hazing ritual gone wrong? Because we have a zero-tolerance policy-" The cop started accusing but Raphael assured him it was nothing of that sort.
"He's not one of ours. You can ask around at the other houses but no one seems to know him. I checked his neck for a pulse and checked his pockets. The guy didn't have an id or wallet. I asked him some basic questions but he wasn't saying anything." Raphael stated.
The cop jotted it all down and handed Raphael his card, asking him to call if he remembered anything from the previous night before joining his partner, Malachi Dieudonne by the ambulance.
"Got anything?" Malachi asked as he popped a cigarette in his mouth. Patrick read over his notes and pieced together his idea of what transpired.
"He's not a member of the house and no one remembers him from the night before but in their 'defense' they had 'a lot of people in and out of the house.' I'm guessing he was partying at one of these places, possibly floating from party to party. Came here, maybe he got into a fight with someone, got his ass kicked and passed out on the lawn. His assailant could have been drunk as well and walked away not thinking anything was wrong with the guy."
Malachi nodded and blew out a puff of smoke. "That's one theory but it doesn't explain the gash on his forehead, the evident signs of bondage around his wrists, the fact that he's dehydrated or why he had this gun tucked into his belt." He reached behind him to reveal an evidence bag containing .22 caliber hand gun.
Patrick looked it over and shook his head. "What is going on with these kids these days? I was hoping for something open and shut." Patrick ran his hand through his hair before asking the paramedics which hospital they were taking the boy to.
"St. Mary's. We'll get some fluids in him and run some full body scans to see if he has any broken bones and check for a concussion. Once he's all cleaned up, you can bring him to the station Sergeant."
