Chapter Ten

"Dun dun, dun dun dun dun, dun dun dun dun, da da badabaaaa badabaaaa"

"Jesus Christ Jesse, will you shut up" Aubrey groans as they walk, well Aubrey, Chloe and Beca walk, Jesse is crouching whilst periodically doing forwards rolls, through the corridors of the English department.

Aubrey waved off the strange looks Jesse was earning from various literature students walking past them. It was not everyday you saw an adult creeping across campus in full camouflage gear whilst humming the mission impossible theme tune.

Jesse huffs at Aubrey's interruption, straightening up and beginning to walk normally although Aubrey can still hear the faint sounds of Jesse humming under his breath.

"If you don't stop that I'm going to-" Aubrey begins, her voice on the brink on a yell but she is quickly interrupted by Beca's yelp of excitement. Aubrey thought it sounded more like a bark but didn't want to embarrass Beca by calling attention to it.

"There it is!" she points towards the polished mahogany door with the words 'Proffesor Mitchell - literature" etched on the wood in gold lettering.

"I hear he had that put on there himself when the university wouldn't pay for it" Chloe mutters as she rolls her eyes at the mans obviously inflated ego.

"It's a good thing he did or we would have spent the best part of an hour looking through all these doors" Aubrey answered as she gestured to the large expanse of identical doors that littered the long English corridor.

"Should we knock?" Jesse asks, beginning to raise his hand without waiting for an answer. Aubrey quickly reaches out and snatched his hand away with a hiss.

"And what? Ask him nicely if he would hand over the keycard so we could go into his extremely private lab and save Beca's mother who he's been illegally experimenting on for years?" Aubrey questions frustratedly.

"Uh, yeah?" Jesse answers with a 'duh' tone in her voice.

Aubrey stares at him for a moment, trying to gauge whether he is serious or not. After a moment of intense eye-contact she turns away, a newfound respect for anyone who spent time with Jesse without wanting to punch him in the face.

"You three go hide around the corner and I'll knock, he won't recognise me and if he asks I'll just say my professor wanted to speak with him or something like that" Aubrey suggested.

Beca frowned as she contemplated the idea. "But he's dangerous, how will I protect you from around the corner?" Beca asked as she glanced backwards, her voice genuinely confused.

Aubrey feels her heart melt slightly as she hears Chloe coo in the background. She smiled softly before pushing Beca gently towards Chloe. "Nothing bad will happen, I'll be just round the corner" she assured.

Aubrey waited until Chloe and Jesse had dragged a reluctant Beca around the corner before turning to the door and knocking clearly, a crisp three knocks was a tip her father had instilled in her at a young age. According to him 'the stronger the knock the stronger the person'.

After a few moments of silence she reached for the handle but as her hand clasped around the brass door knob it was yanked open and stood on the other side was somebody that made Aubrey's expression drop into a scowl.

"Well, well, well. If it isn't pukezilla herself"

Bumper Allen, leader of the treblemakers and all round garbage dick. His smarmy grin appeared on his face as he creepily eyed her up and down. "What brings you to Professor Mitchell's office?" he asked as he waggled his eyebrows.

"I'll have you know Professor Mitchell sent me here to retrieve his key card" she answered, thinking on her feet "Now get out of my way" she hugged as she attempted to move past the singer into the office.

"Tut, tut, Aubrey Posen telling fibs" he snarked as he grabbed her upper arm tightly "As his TA I know for a fact he doesn't just let anyone touch that key card" he said with a smug smile.

"First of all, get your hand off me" she glared him down until he released his grip on her arm but he sadly remained in her personal space. Aubrey was starting to think it was Bumpers B.O that made her throw up last year not the stress. She wrinkled her nose in disgust.

"Secondly, it is none of your concern as to why Professor Mitchell sent me. Maybe you should go back to your group of tone-deaf dick licks and leave me alone" Aubrey stated coldly as she crossed her arms over her chest.

"You bitch!" He grunted as he lunged to grab her arm again, squeezing so tightly that Aubrey gasped in pain. she was sure to have a bruise tomorrow. "We'll go see Professor then won't we, he'll take care of this" he grunted and began dragging Aubrey down the corridor.

Aubrey hissed at him to let her go with no response. She glanced around frantically hoping Chloe or Beca would peek around the corner quickly.

As they neared the end of the corridor she heard the scrambling of feet rushing from the other end. Bumper too heard the noise and turned, expecting to see a person running down the hall he didn't notice the dog rushing towards him until it leapt at him, teeth clamping down in his upper thigh.

With an extremely high screech, one that Aubrey didn't know men could make, Bumper let go of her arm. His hands clamping around the dog in attempt to pull it away but with no success.

Aubrey backed into the wall as she watched Bumper attempt to punch his fluffy attacker, when he landed a punch and Aubrey heard a whine she saw red.

Just as she was preparing to tackle Bumper to the ground he suddenly froze. His body began to shake slightly before he fell face first onto the ground. His body shaking as his eyes rolled up into his skull.

Standing just above his head with a taser pointed downwards was Jesse who was watching Bumper froth at the mouth with shock.

"I told you it would be useful" he finally said with a slightly smug smile as Aubrey gaped.

Aubrey continued to stare in shock until a small bark from her feet called her attention downwards.

Her remaining anger at Bumper melted away at the sight of stormy blue eyes staring up at her worriedly. She couldn't help but smile.

"I'm fine, you can shift back now" Aubrey said whilst trying not to feel insane for talking to a dog.

In a flash the dog had been replaced with Beca but the worried look still remained. "Are you okay?" Beca asked as soon as she was back.

"When did you learn how to transform at will?" Aubrey asked in return.

"Jesse's been teaching me" Beca shrugged her question off before repeating herself "Are you okay?".

"I'm fine" Aubrey assured her before she looks down at Bumper who was drooling on the floor with his limbs twitching. "He isn't though" Aubrey added as she poked his leg her foot.

"What do we do with him?" Chloe asked fearfully as she glanced down the corridor where anybody could walk past.

"Supply closet" Aubrey says after a moment of thought as she gestures to the grey door three down from Professor Mitchell's office. "I'll get the keycard" she adds.

Leaving Chloe, Beca and Jesse to struggle with Bumpers limp, twitching body she entered Professor Mitchell's office.

She entered the room, only taking a moment to survey her surroundings, the walls were a navy blue colour with dark mahogany wood lining the walls. She wrinkled her nose in disgust at the variety of animal head wall mounts that were littered around the room.

Closing the door behind her she quickly made her way over to the desk aware that someone could walk in any second.

Shifting the papers around the desk she searched for the keycard only to find nothing. Next she pulled open the first draw only to find it empty save for a couple of pens and a half eaten packet of crisps.

The second draw contained a couple of papers beneath which she found a rumpled magazine with a less than properly dressed woman posing on the front. Aubrey internally tutted at the sight.

The final draw only had more documents. Aubrey sighed in irritation as she slammed the draw shut. 'Where would he hide a keycard' she thought as she remained crouched down. An idea suddenly popped into her head as she remembered Jesse's earlier ramblings about the spy movies he had been watching.

"This better not work" she muttered under her breath as she reopened the bottom draw. Sliding her fingers around the edge of the draw she groaned when she felt the slight gap between the bottom and the sides of the draw. "Stupid Jesse being right" she mumbled as she removed the papers and pulled out the false-bottom of the draw to reveal a brown file with confidential stamped on the front, lying next to it was a silver keycard.

Aubrey let out a slight squeal as she pocketed the keycard before pausing at the sight of the folder. Sometimes her curiosity got the better of her.

Glancing at the door she made sure that it was sealed and listened for the sound of anyone approaching. All she could hear was the distant sound of Jesse hugging as he attempted to move Bumper.

She flicked the folder open, eyes scanning the contents with shock. Inside were the details of inhumane experiments that Professor Mitchell was conducting on animals. Aubrey felt her stomach drop at the images of abused animals in cages, she couldn't believe that this was all apparently going on beneath the university grounds.

The final page was titled 'Subject X'. Inside were images of a woman sat on the floor in what looked like a cell, her hair was unkept and her eyes tired. Her clothes were baggy and had faded into a dim grey with rips in the fabric. As Aubrey peered closer she could see the similarities between this woman and Jesse and Beca.

As Aubrey inspected the images more closely, trying not to wince at the obvious torture the woman had suffered, the door burst open.

Aubrey quickly hid the folder as she peered over the desk only to see Chloe standing in the doorway.

"Aubrey! Come on, we need to leave before someone walks by" she urged as she spotted the blonde.

Aubrey nodded with a quick shout of "Coming!". She replaced the false-bottom of the draw before placing the papers back inside.

Standing up she checked her pocket for the keycard before leaving the office with the folder in her hands.

She followed Chloe down the corridor to the door of the janitors closet. Inside Beca was just finishing placing duck-tape from Jesse's endless bag of supplies on Bumpers mouth.

"What happened to him?" Aubrey asked worriedly, not for Bumper but for the potential trouble they could get in if they killed another student. She would never get into a graduate programme with a murder on her record.

Jesse held up the bottle of chloroform in explanation with a wry grin.

Aubrey refrained from commenting as she recalled the fact that Jesse's stupid movies were the reason she found the keycard. Not that she was going to let him know that.

Beca finished duck taping Bumpers wrists together before tossing the tape into the closet as they exited.

As Beca shut the door she turned to look at Aubrey with a slight hint of concern. "Do you think he'll be okay in there?" she asked.

"Don't worry. Burt will come by some time today" Chloe said meaning the janitor. Aubrey shook her head, she never understood how Chloe managed to be friends with everyone on campus.

"Okay" Beca nodded even though she was unsure as to who Burt was and why him coming would help.

"Now let's get going because Bumpers going to be alerting Mitchell as soon as he's free" Aubrey told them.

As they set of towards in the direction Stacie had described to them Aubrey clutched the folder tighter to her side, suddenly scared of the state they might find Beca's mother in when they did finally get to her.

So sorry for the delay, I've been polishing of my uni application and it's finally sent off!

Thank you so much for all the follows/favourites and reviews :)