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There's a serial killer in Cork.

Sulli blinks hard, reading over the news headline again as their footfalls are still on the cobblestone path. Well, the article continues, there's a serial killer near Cork. Most of the disappearances have been in Dublin and the body parts they do find have been chopped up, mutilated, and dispersed across the city. One of the strangest things is that most of the time it's just the bones, like all flesh has been meticulously stripped clean from them. Sulli suppressed a shudder as thick fear sank down their throat, paired with the softest hints of curiosity. It's a silly fear to have, certainly. Dublin is over 160 miles away - or rather, over 250 kilometers. Sulli's soft frown deepened at the conversion. It was quite the change to shift from miles to kilometers, among other things, but it's become a goal of theirs to adjust as needed as soon as possible.

The point is that Dublin is three hours away, and no one is going to take a six-hour round trip just to kill someone.

Right?

The morning haze is quick to drive away any wandering thoughts, eyes glinting towards the crowded trees in between buildings. How easy it might be to hold a body there, Sulli pondered. Then again, there are plenty of cameras nearby, not to mention the school is big enough that someone would have had to see something. Of course, sometimes people did see something, but never said a word out of fear.

There are a few times when Sulli might bite their tongue out of fear, but most of the time they remain silent so as not to grow too emotional about something that they shouldn't take so personally. Because they do take a few things personally, more so than they should, even if they're perfectly aware it's illogical.

Shaking the lingering thoughts of murder from their head, they shifted their bag's weight to the opposing shoulder. They'd been standing there too long, their right one was starting to ache with the burden of their study materials. They put a pin in their thoughts, heading into the building towards their class instead.

Cork College sings with old beauty, haunting, but in a dark fantasy kind of way. The people, not so much, but the architecture alone is enough to make Sulli's soul thrum with the sensation of feeling alive. It's beautiful here, truly, and while they admit to the feeling being partial to their idealistic standards of old academia, it's also to the fact that it is something so new and liberating. Sulli still can't fight the urge to run their hand down the textured walls of the corridors.

Their class isn't far, and it's a short walk past the entryway to it. With a hidden smile, murder stories long forgotten, Sulli pulls open the door and steps inside, eyes dancing across the room. Hazel eyes catch on one of their peers. As if on instinct, Adelaide tenses under the gaze, raising her hardened glare to meet theirs. The scowl lightens almost immediately, features softening as she reaches for the bag on the seat next to her.

My seat.

Threads of warmth weave a blanket over their heart at the implication of true friendship, and Sulli's smile remains as they duck past the clutch of friends that frequently hover just beyond the doorway. Why they do that - they'll never really know. Instead, Sulli sets their bag atop the desk before turning back to their friend.

Adelaide is the person that Sulli would consider their first friend here. She might be their only friend right now actually, unless they count Madden from their color theory class. However, Madden is friends with everybody, so Sulli can't actually tell if they're friends in the way that they talk to each other during class or friends in the way that Madden would consider hanging out outside of class. Based on Madden's very busy social life, Sulli's guess is the former.

"Sulli."

They blink, registering that their mind had wandered for a moment before shaking their head and glancing back to Addy. "Sorry, yeah. Hi."

"That's it? Hi?"

"Well, were you expecting something else?" Truth be told, Sulli's brain was occupied at the moment, mainly by the anxiety that had steadily built up since yesterday when Sulli had decided to ask Adelaide about the club she was trying so hard to hide from them.

"I suppose." Adelaides' gaze was even and calm, as it always was, but it still bore into their eyes, as if she could somehow sense their rising stress. "You usually tell me about a dream you had or something you saw this morning. So, neither of those things seem pressing to you?" Her voice is kind still, but that's something that Sulli figured out rather quickly. She's very very good at separating her actual emotion and the one she portrays through her speech. But they know. She's pressing for what it is that's written all over their face.

"Actually," They take a short breath, taking their seat before returning her gaze, "there is something I wanted to talk to you about." Sulli hates how aware they suddenly are of their stiff, tense demeanor. They aren't scared of Addy, but it doesn't mean they aren't nervous about her reaction.

Before they can even start, Adelaide sets her hand over theirs. "Sulli, is something wrong?"

"Not wrong per se, but more or less, something is bothering me." Forcibly, they relax their shoulders, drawing in an even breath in an effort to rid themselves of burning panic. "What's Club Lore?"

For a moment, just a second, Sulli sees it.

Panic.

The flashing eyes are gone in half the time, but it's long enough to burn into Sulli's mind. Permanently engraved into their web of curiosity. Long enough that the confirmation that Adelaide had meant to hide it from them sends their heart sinking a little deeper under the protection of their ribs. Even then, Sulli has to give her credit. Her hand doesn't shift, and breathing barely even changes, and her eyes stay locked on theirs like they couldn't possibly wander anywhere else. "Club Lore?"

"Don't play dumb, Adelaide."

"I'm not." She's being careful, rapidly mapping out a way to get Sulli to stop asking about it, but as much as Adelaide might be calm and collected, Sulli knows what they're doing. They wouldn't even ask about it unless they were sure that Club Lore even existed. Adelaide has removed her hand from over theirs, folding them evenly in her lap before her nose scrunches up. "Club Lore is a private club."

"It's a club about cryptids and mythology and folklore." Sulli's heart is thrumming in their chest, but to avoid anxious fidgeting, they press their fingers into the base of their thumb, keeping their eyes as even as they can. "I know that."

"It doesn't change the fact that it's a private club, Sulli."

"All that would mean is that I need an invitation from someone on the inside, right?"

Adelaide's face crosses with irritation, and it does sting a little, but not quite enough for them to let this go. It hurts more to know that Adelaide knows how lonely they've been feeling in a country they know little about, with no family for hundreds of miles - or kilometers, and hid something that they expressed interest in.

It would have hurt less if she hadn't tried so hard to hide it. They could have gotten over the fact that it was a private club, but the fact that she deliberately hid it from them hurts a little more than it probably should.

"I can't just invite someone in."

"I'm not just someone, we're friends, aren't we?" The beat of silence smacks Sulli in the face hard enough that the panic they originally had turns to hurt, churning in their stomach. It's long enough that Sulli feels the pinpricks of regret needle through the curiosity they'd harbored only moments before, and it's long enough that they pull their eyes away to turn back to the front. "Oh." It's a breath of a word, meant to disguise anything harmful that might come from either of them in the next fragile moments.

The only blessing that Sulli can send thanks to the universe for is the fact that the lecture began only moments after the conversation ended. Not that it helped.

Maybe they were just as alone as they felt here.

Still, it was better than being in the States where their mother or father could reach them much easier. Almost anything was better than that. It's not like they hated their parents, they weren't even technically estranged from them, they just needed a break from them. Both of them - including his step-mom and her two kids.

"Sulli." It's only about halfway through class when they feel the tug on their arm and a short-witted whisper. Rapidly emerging from dissociation, they looked back over at Adelaide, to find her gripping their wrist. "That's not what I meant."

"It's fine Adelaide. I shouldn't have asked." Maybe they really shouldn't have asked, they didn't want to lose their only friend over it anyway. She must have her reasons for hiding it. Even as Sulli justified it to themselves, sinking anxiety and dread covered them.

She clearly didn't buy it, but they didn't expect her to. Sulli had always worn emotions plainly on their face, even if they would rather not. It's not something that they had practice turning off like other people, and even if they had tried to when they were younger, they can't. It's one of the reasons why so many people probably see them as naive. Still, Adelaide frowned. Just enough for Sulli to force a weak, reassuring smile back.

"You don't want me there. I get it." She had other friends, probably plenty of other friends. She didn't want them there. They could live with that.

"That's not what I-"

"Adelaide, please." Sulli's voice was soft, layered with emotion. "I don't want to talk about it anymore, I'm sorry I brought it up. But I don't want to hear whatever reasons you have for not wanting to invite me." She relents at last, releasing their arm at the request before they both return to the last few minutes of class.

Sulli doesn't linger, gathering their things faster than usual. It's too bad they weren't able to focus on the lecture on hooks in creative writing, but in complete honesty, they just wanted to leave the room as fast as possible. They'd been impulsive in asking about it, maybe a little too confident that Adelaide might not be hiding the club at all, and simply didn't realize that Sulli would be interested in joining. It didn't matter, and they didn't want to talk about it anymore, mainly for the exact reason they remained quiet most of the time.

They were taking it personally. It probably wasn't personal at all, but Sulli knows themselves, and they don't want to lash out or hurt Adelaide just because they couldn't keep their own emotions in check.

So Sulli left, hurrying across campus to their next class that day – color theory.

It's a quieter class, and they were doing some painting today due to the professor catching an early cold. Rather than disrupt their routine, Sulli would rather just enjoy the space to paint for a while. More than likely a couple of their classmates would also attend.

They guessed right in that sense. The art room is empty for the moment being, and a short breath escapes their lungs as they gather the desired materials. It's a pretty room. One with windows large enough that sunlight bleeds into them, sending rays of effervescent warmth streaming across the colors that adorn the walls. Sulli's project isn't finished yet - but it's almost there. It's one of their two-semester projects, and while it's only late September, it's much better to finish it sooner rather than later just in case something drastic happens. As much as they'd rather not let their thoughts dwindle on the conversation between them and Addy, it's written on their face.

Enough so that when the door opens, and Madden sets up his easel nearby, blue eyes stray from the painting a little longer than they should. His tongue clicks against the roof of his mouth, features bright and warm as he sets the palette down beside him, "You're looking heartbroken there, Sulli. You fight with your parents?"

"No." Sulli's response is simply miserable, drawn out in hues of blue and soft greys.

"But you did fight with someone." Madden muses, spinning their paintbrush in a deep cerulean shade of blue. He seems to take Sulli's silence for an answer, which is exactly what it was. "With who, then?"

"Adelaide." It's no real use trying to hide it from Madden, not really, because Sulli has only a couple of people they talk about, and Adelaide is at the top of the list. Meaning, that Madden would guess names, and eventually it'd be written all over their face once again.

"What about?"

"It's not a big deal, I shouldn't have brought it up." The pressure increases in their chest, and Sulli knows that it's better to talk about it to someone. And it's probably better to talk about it to someone who understands Adelaide, at least a little more than Sulli feels like they do right now, so they get more context. Sulli doesn't want to try to keep the information quiet, even if in the back of their mind they feel guilty over even discussing it again. "Club Lore. The private club she's in."

"...The private club?"

"Mhm." Sulli selects their own color, a muted sienna, before looking back over their painting. "It's not her fault. If it's a private club, I can't just go."

"Adelaide said it was a private club?"

Something in Madden's voice makes their hand still. "Is it not?"

"No- well, if Addy said it's a private club then I guess it is." His response comes out a little more rushed than it should, and in an instant, Sulli recognizes the implication. So it's not a private club, and Adelaide not only hid the club from them, but she lied about it too. Madden's smile is sheepish, glancing back towards Sulli, whose hand has stilled against the canvas before them. "I doubt she meant to make you feel um..outcasted, I guess, though."

"I'm sure she didn't." Probably not, at the very least, but burning curiosity about why Adelaide would lie to him about such a thing scarred the inside of his stomach. Addy would have a reason to lie to them, she had a reason for everything, and it just wouldn't do if Sulli didn't get that reason. They were probably overthinking this. They always overthink everything. But if they don't overthink all the time, what if they underthink once, and everything in their life that isn't broken yet, breaks?

"Don't think about it too much, Sulli."

Sulli laughs then, soft and light, and the feeling eases some of the heavy feeling that sits in their stomach like a rock. Madden gives them a strange look, but Sulli only waves them away, dismissing the convenient comment. "I'll try, Madden."

It doesn't matter anyway. Really, it doesn't. Adelaide doesn't want them there, that's the only reason they can really think of right now. If it's not a private club, and she hid it from them on purpose, it might be the only real logical assumption. Something about it still eats at them though, because if Addy didn't really want them there, then wouldn't she have just said that? She doesn't seem like one to mince words, especially to someone she hates enough to hide an entire club from them. So there has to be a reason. There has to be something.

"You're in Club Lore, aren't you?"

Madden looks up at them again at the words, hesitance crossing symmetrical features before he shrugs, "Yeah, I guess I am."

"What do you do? Just talk about folklore?"

"Sometimes, we mainly just kinda hang out with each other. It's based off of our love for folklore, but it's not the only thing we do there." Madden pauses, "Not that we don't do those things, but it's kinda just up to the majority of us on what we want to do during the meeting times."

"So do you have a president in the club?"

"Not really, at least- if we do I don't know about it." He laughs again, and it's easy-going and warm-hearted, echoing out the room with charming humor. "I guess some of us are more leadership like than others, but usually we just do things by vote."

By vote.

Maybe that's why Sulli couldn't join. But then again, it wasn't a private club, so they didn't have any real right to turn them away, did they?

Of course- there was the distant thought that maybe it was due to the fact that Sulli was non-binary, but surely Adelaide wouldn't exclude them for just that. And Madden wasn't exactly the straightest arrow in the quiver either, so homophobia wouldn't make a lot of sense. Transphobia was different, but Sulli kind of doubted Adelaide or Madden would join a club that was hateful towards other groups.

Whatever the case was, Sulli was going to solve it. Sulli solved everything.

And they weren't going to let this be any different.

What are you hiding, Adelaide? 

───────────────

WYN

the first chapter is all done! I hope you enjoyed it! I know it took me a minute to write it, and I'm a little worried it's not great, but the first part of the book is going to be just a little bit slower because I need to build some relationships first between characters, I hope that's okay <3

as another note, I wanted to mention real quick that Levi, [<3] Kelsey's creator, is going through some rough patches right now. They are currently excused from opinions due to the situation, and might not be super active - while they aren't active however, I think if we could send a little love and good energy their way (something they seem to do for everyone else) that would be nice! so I would encourage you to do that ^^ 

in other news! i love love love your opinions so far, so thank you all for getting those in or working on them when you can because they're looking AMAZING! I hope to be able to write your characters in a fluent, cohesive way <3

don't forget to comment and vote (which I would appreciate if you could)!

eat, drink (water), and be merry! happy holidays <3