Max's afternoon of drama was not over. As soon as she left Dana's room, she saw Victoria walking to her room, sobbing as quietly as she could on her way there. She then walked in and slammed the door.

What happened? Max wondered.

Max rewinded slowly and followed Victoria backwards until she saw where she came from.

Will's room.

Max then slowly let go and allow time to go back to where she left it. Victoria was back in her room and Max was standing outside of Will's. She then walked back to Dana's room.

"Can you hear music?" Dana asked.

"Yeah, I looked downstairs and it was coming from Will's room," Max said.

"What music?"

"Elvis. I think."

"That's not good."

"What?"

"It's his thing. He listens to Elvis when he's really upset."

"I guess that explains why Victoria just walked to her room bawling her eyes out."

"Let's… go check on him," Dana suggested.

Dana shut the door and the two of them headed downstairs to Wilhelm's room. His door was shut and the song "It Hurts Me" could be heard coming from inside. Dana hesitated for a second then knocked loudly on his door. He cracked the door slowly before speaking.

"Are you already here to serve my divorce papers from the Vortex Club?" Wilhelm asked in a deadpan tone.

Max was hardly able to swallow her laugh.

I swear he never says anything like normal people do, Dana thought.

"We're actually here to check on you," Dana replied.

"We?"

Wilhelm opened the door slightly more and spotted Max.

"If you must."

Wilhelm shut the door, put a shirt on, then opened it again.

"Come in."

He then turned down the record player and sat on his bed.

"Who said I need a check up?" Wilhelm asked.

"Elvis," Dana replied.

"Touché."

"Why did Victoria walk to her room crying?" Dana asked.

"We are… no longer friends."

"Why?" Max asked.

"She found out I was the one who deleted Kate's video."

"That was you?" Dana asked.

Wilhelm nodded.

"She suspected it was me and she asked. I told the truth and let her have it when she protested. It got ugly. I thought I could convince her that what she did was wrong. She was having none of it. I gave up my best friend and confidant for the sake of Kate's wellbeing."

"You did the right thing," Max said.

"I know. It doesn't make it hurt any less, honestly."

"I'm done with her, too," Dana said.

"Why?" Wilhelm asked, trying to play dumb.

"She was sexting Juliet's boyfriend and tried to say I did it."

It stung to hear that again, Wilhelm thought.

This time, he couldn't hide his emotions. He raised his head and looked out the window. As the sun met his eyes, a tear came down each of his cheeks.

"What is it?" Max asked.

"I can't say."

"Why not?" Dana asked.

"We know all of one another's secrets. We agreed to not talk about the other stuff. If she wants to talk about it, she can. Until then, I'll keep quiet."

"Fuck her," Dana said, "She doesn't deserve your protection."

"I know. I'm doing this to protect Kate… Giving her more ammo wouldn't help."

"Does she know?" Max asked.

He shook his head.

"You should talk to her. I think she'd feel better if she knew that."

"I'll talk to her. Thank the both of you for coming."

With that, Max and Dana left the room together.

"What do you know about him?" Max asked.

"I don't really know him."

"What do you mean? Aren't you friends with him?"

"I'm not sure if anyone really knows him. Except maybe Victoria. He always keeps a bit of him for himself."

By this point, the two of them were back in Dana's room. She waited to sit down before continuing.

"He's always been like that. But if you ask me, he's gotten worse," Dana said.

"Does it have something to do with Rachael?"

Dana let out a deep sigh before speaking no.

"Probably has something to do with it."

"What do you know?"

"He gets very upset when anyone says her name. He usually leaves the room."

"Do you think there was something going on between them?"

"I know there was."

"How?"

"She kept it quiet for a long time, I'll give her that. Eventually, she got drunk with just me and Juliet."

"What did she say?"

"Rachel spoke… very highly of him."

"How?"

"She was mostly just bragging about him. Sexually. You know what a lot of girls like to talk about when they've had a few too many. But she didn't say anything about him that I didn't already know."

"Oh?"

"Yeah, he has a reputation with that."

"That's it? That's all she said?"

Dana nodded.

"She was even worse than him when it came to hiding herself. I think she liked him a lot. Not sure if she actually cared about him very much, though. If that makes sense."

"Did you ever talk to her about him again?"

"No. That was the weekend before she disappeared…"

Dana trailed off and then continued. She leaned in closer to Max and lowered her voice.

"Now, you didn't hear this from me but I've heard she was supposed to go on a date with him after a Vortex party the Friday before she went missing."

Dana then leaned back and spoke normally again.

"But if you ask me, I don't think he had anything to do with it. It's just something to think about."

"Thank you, Dana."

"You're welcome, Max."

"I'm gonna go now. See you later, Dana."

Max quickly made her way back to Wilhelm's room and knocked on the door. No answer. She then slowly turned the knob to open the door. It was unlocked.

He's not here. And his car keys are missing from their hook.

Max took a minute to look around his room. His bookshelf was the first thing to catch her eye. The first three shelves were books and the bottom three were DVDs. Most of the books/authors she could recognize; Oscar Wilde, William Shakespeare, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Franz Kafka, Fyodor Dostoevsky, etc.. Most of the books were in English but some were also not, German being the second most common. As for the movies, he had quite a variety, most of which she hadn't seen. Next to the bookshelf were two plastic open-topped boxes, each of them filled with vinyl records. She began to look through them as well, but stopped herself.

Focus, Max.

Max then turned her attention to his desk. She took a seat, then began searching it carefully. The first two drawers were filled with simple stuff like sticky notes, pens, a stapler, etcetera. The third was filled by a stack of notebooks. She removed and inspected the covers. Each had a date range written on the front.

His diaries. Jackpot.

Max flipped through the pages and realized something; the journals alternated languages between pages. English was not in the rotation.

Damnit.

Max reached into the drawer and retrieved the last few journals. Only the journals dated from before he got to Blackwell were in English. The last notebook was not a journal, but a log of his family tree.

Interesting.

She reached back into the drawer and found that the bottom was oddly high considering the drawers depth. Max then carefully put her fingers in a gap between the metal plate and the side of the drawer and lifted it up. It was a treasure trove of personal handwritten letters, most of them in envelopes. Max reached in and her hand was stopped by a barrier. It was a thin plate of lightly covered in some kind of powder.

Clever.

Max removed the glass and went to work on inspecting the letters. She avoided the letters not addressed to people she knew. She opened the first envelope. A letter in German sent to Viktoria.

Probably not the same person, Max thought before putting it back in the envelope and setting it to the side.

Max spent what seemed like forever looking through the letters. A lot of them were foreign language letters from friends at school written in pencil or black or blue ink with corrections made to spelling and grammar and notes written on the sides in Wilhelm's handwriting with red ink (edits and notes were in English). Stapled to them would be a short reply in whatever language the first letter was in, followed by the same reply written in English. All letters of this kind were scans; the originals were probably kept by his friends.

The first letter of interest was one Max had seen before. It was a scan of Rachel's letter to Chloe about Frank.

He got to it first. What else do you know, Wilhelm?

Max then found a letter from Rachel. It was written in Spanish and below her paragraph was a rough translation. Fairly straightforward, Wilhelm hadn't needed to make corrections. His reply was written in English at the bottom of the page.

Will,

I have a friend who can speak in 5 tongues. Lucky me. We should write one another more often. Because of you, my Spanish grades have very much improved. I get increasingly better every time I get a new report card and I have you to thank for it. Anyway, you should come over so my parents can thank you. I could get used to learning from you.

-Rachel

Anything for you. XOXO

-Will

That doesn't tell me anything, Max thought, I wonder if this was before or after they started hooking up.

Max found another letter from Rachel. A date was written in a different color of ink on the top of the page.

25 August 2012

Thank you for last night. I haven't had that much fun in forever. I never would've thought we would end up doing all that. Funny how things happen. Let's go out again soon.

-Rachel

Over a year ago. He probably added the date afterwards.

Max reached into the drawer again and picked up a Polaroid picture of Rachel in a red dress. On the back she wrote "Merry Christmas". Below her writing was a print Rachel made with her lipstick. Max found another Polaroid of the two of them together in Wilhelm's room. It was a candid picture. Who took it, Max didn't know. He was sitting at his desk and looking up at her with eyes full of deep longing and affection. It was as if his whole life paused when he saw her. Rachel's expression in return was just a simple smile, not even close to reciprocating the look he gave her. The next picture must've been taken right after. Wilhelm was turned toward the camera and Rachel was sitting sideways in his lap, their arms wrapped around one another. The last one she found as a picture of him asleep, presumably taken in Rachel's room at her home.

This would really hurt Chloe if she saw all of this.

1 September 2012

You're full of surprises. I could never have guessed you'd be so attentive and skilled. I haven't felt anything like what happens when we're together. Your touch is electric, your aura is intoxicating, and your voice is soothing. You are the greatest lover I will ever know.

Wowsers. Some love letter.

Max looked around some more and found a seemingly out of place worksheet. On the top right corner was Rachel's handwriting.

See you tonight :)

Dated April 19th. Exactly the day that Dana told me about. I've got to tell Chloe.

Not able to find anything else, Max rewinded and left Wilhelm's room seemingly untouched.