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"Are you sure you don’t want us to cal your parents, ruff but kind, and his eyes orried

For a second, Meredith let herself picture having the kind of parents he : ones ould swoop in to rescue their daughter, wrap her up and take her hoes of her friend’s death faded

Her parents would just tel her to get on with the job Tel her that any other reaction was a failure If she let herself be weak, more people would die

More so because Samantha had been a hunter, from a family of hunters, like Meredith Meredith knew exactly what her father would have said if she had cal ed him "Let this be a lesson to you You are never safe"

"I’l be okay," she told the security guard "My roo her climb the stairs with a distressed expression "Don’t worry, uy"

Meredith bit back her first reply, which was that he see a lot of faith in a police force that had yet to find any clues as to the whereabouts of thepeople or to solve Christopher’sto coave a little wave

She hadn’t been any more successful than the police, not even with Sah, had been too distracted by the new place, the new people

Why now? Meredith wondered suddenly It hadn’t occurred to her before, but this was the first death, attack, or disappearance that took place in a dorm room instead of out on the quad or paths of the campus Whatever this was, it came after Samantha specifical y

Meredith reirl, a girl who said she didn’t re Meredith recal ed the flash of pale hair as the figure turned away Did Saot too close to the kil er?

Her parents were right No one was ever safe She needed to work harder, needed to get on with the job and fol ow up on every lead

Upstairs, Bonnie’s bed was e, curled up on her bed Part of Meredith noted that Elena’s face ith tears and knew that usual y she would have dropped everything to co Samantha’s kil er

Meredith crossed to her own closet, opened it, and pul ed out a heavy black satchel and the case for her hunter’s stave

"Where’s Bonnie?" she asked, tossing the satchel onto her bed and unbuckling it

"She left before I got up," Elena answered, her voice shaky "I think she had a study group thison?"

Meredith flipped the satchel open and began to pul out her knives and throwing stars

"What’s going on?" Elena asked again, more insistently, her eyes wide

"Sae of a knife against her thumb "She wasthis campus, and we need to stop it" The knife could be sharper - Meredith had been letting her weaponsfor a whetstone