Disclaimer: I don't own the Grisha Trilogy and its characters – it belongs to Leigh Bardugo. I do not own the Shadow & Bone TV series, which was developed by Eric Heisserer for Netflix and based on Leigh Bardugo's books. Any recognisable dialogue is from the books or TV show – some lines may be included verbatim, others in an amended form.

Slasher

Alina crouches inside the cupboard, trying to calm her racing heart, desperately praying to all the saints that her laboured breathing won't give her location away.

She can't close her eyes. If she does then all she sees is blood.

And bodies … Saints, the bodies.

Mal is gone. Nikolai too. She thinks Zoya got out, and David insisted Genya was alive despite the crisscrossing knife wounds decorating her beautiful face.

Jesper was too still when she found him, blood pooled on the floor around him, and (though she hates herself for it) she didn't have time to check for a pulse, the shadowed figure chasing her too close on her tail.

She doesn't know about the rest of her friends. Marie and Nadia. Harshaw. Tolya and Tamar. Kaz and Inej. Nina and Matthias. Maybe they're safe. Perhaps they're all dead.

Other bodies littered the hallways as she ran, but she didn't look too hard at them, only tried hard not to be sick.

It's insane.

Life isn't meant to be like a slasher movie.

This sort of thing isn't supposed to happen.

And yet …

Here she is, hiding in a cupboard from a deranged murderer, gripping onto a scalpel she found as if it will protect her from a monster wielding an axe and a knife and saints knew what else.

It's a nightmare. It has to be.

She pinches herself desperately, but nothing changes.

Saints, Saints, Saints.

A few minutes later, she freezes as she hears footsteps, ones which slow down as they get closer.

And then the cupboard door is suddenly wrenched open.

Alina slashes blindly, petrified but unwilling to be murdered without putting up a fight.

A tall figure in dark clothes jumps back, "Saints, Alina. Is that you?"

"Aleksander?" her voice is trembling.

It is him, understandably not quite as put-together as usual but as tall and striking as ever.

She bursts into tears and throws herself into his arms, "they're dead!" she wails, "Mal and Nikolai, maybe Jesper. Others too. I lost track of everyone else while we were trying to get out. I don't know where they are."

He makes soothing noises as he rubs her back gently, letting her sink into his warm embrace.

She's never been so glad to see Aleksander in her life.

Aleksander Morozova is six years older than Alina is, working on his PHD and studying dark matter.

Mal hates him, though she has never understood why.

Nikolai looks at him suspiciously, but never gives a reason for his dislike.

Genya is wary, warns her to be careful.

What is there to be careful about, though?

It is true that Aleksander is intense, distractingly good looking and intimidatingly intelligent with very little patience for the general population. But he's interested in her study of heliophysics and she likes to talk to someone who actually understands what she says. He gets her work in a way none of her friends do, however much they try to feign interest, and she's never had such fascinating discussions as the ones she has with Aleksander.

The next hour is a blur to Alina.

She follows where Aleksander leads, her hand firmly entwined with his.

He's the one who finds them a way out, who talks to the police and arranges for them to give their statements the next day. He wraps his woolen coat around her when she shivers, calls them an uber and then takes her back to his flat so she doesn't have to be alone.

All throughout the journey he never releases her hand, instinctively realising she is terrified of losing anyone else.

At his flat, Aleksander makes her hot chocolate, lets her curl up next to him as they watch some mindless television to try and take her mind off the fact some of her friends are dead and that the rest of them have ended up in hospital, promises to take her to visit them in the morning and then to the police station.

He also persuades her to take a sleeping tablet before bed.

"You need to rest, solntse," he implores, looking so concerned that she relents quickly.

So, her sleep comes easily, and it is blessedly empty of the nightmares she had feared would come.

After hours of terror, she finally feels safe.

As Alina sleeps soundly, nestled in his bed like she belongs there (which she does, he thinks), Aleksander slips out of the building, finds his car in the spot he had hidden it, and drives to a tiny, rarely visited clearing he knows, where there is a deceptively deep pond to be found.

There, he carefully wipes down two knives, an axe and a machete, and then tosses each of them into the pond, watching in satisfaction as they sink to the bottom.

They are purchases from years ago, all in cash.

The camera footage from the university has already been dealt with, and he is positive that the sabotage will never be traced back to him.

None of the surviving victims will know who it was who attacked them. Some of them saw a redhead with a limp, others a blonde who favours his left hand, a few of them a dark-haired man who wields his weapons skillfully in both hands. Nobody ever saw his face.

On the drive back he listens to the radio and hears the news.

Seven dead. Nine seriously injured.

Malyen Oretsev had been the most satisfying, of course. That pathetic boy never deserved Alina. His screams were delicious, really, as was the sight of him bleeding out on the floor.

Aleksander arrives home and finds Alina still fast asleep, as expected.

He runs his hand gently over her hair, then lets himself indulge a little by trailing his fingers across her soft cheek.

His beautiful Alina.

She'll need so much support to get past this tragedy.

Luckily, Aleksander plans to be right by her side every step of the way.

Thanks for reading. Hope you enjoyed it.