Prelude
“You thought I wouldn’t do it?” The man laughed. “You all thought I was a coward. Well- jokes on you, I’m not. You are- you deserved it. I couldn’t just- just not do it. I was right. I did it. I’ve done it before. I don’t regret. I never regret it. I’ve never regretted it. I don’t regret it. I don’t regret it. I don’t-” The man trailed off and began mumbling to himself.
Regulus looked around the quiet library to try and see who the man was talking to, but he quickly found that he was the only person on the floor. The only person besides the man covered in blood. He wondered what he was supposed to do in this situation. Being alone in a building with a bloody raving lunatic wasn’t in the stranger danger handbook.
The man clearly wasn’t talking to Regulus. He wasn’t even facing him, instead, he was facing a bookshelf that contained books on romantic languages. Regulus didn’t think that the man was trying to taunt the books, but he had no idea who he would be talking to. There was no one behind the bookshelf that he could tell. As far as Regulus knew, the man had shown up on the top floor of the library just two minutes ago, very much alone.
After a few beats, the man collapsed on the ground. Regulus couldn’t even imagine an explanation for what was happening right then. Could he get in trouble for not doing anything? Regulus knew absolutely nothing about how the United States government worked, but he thought it might be negligence or something if he got caught leaving without doing something, but maybe the man was fine. He could have been putting on some sort of weird performance for no one. He tried to think of the easiest solution to get out of this situation without getting into trouble. Regulus Black did not get into trouble. It was one of his most prominent personality traits- not getting into trouble, just ask his brother.
Looking around once again to check that there really was no one else around, he walked up to the man slowly. The man was sprawled on the ground with his eyes closed as if he had just sat down and fallen asleep there. With the utmost respect for the situation, he gently prodded the man with his shoe while holding his breath. ‘Please don’t wake up- please don’t wake up,’ he repeated in his head. The man responded by moving his head slightly but he appeared to remain asleep.
Regulus frowned. He couldn’t very well just leave him there (or could he? He really should do something, Sirius would do something. But probably not what Regulus was intending to do). The whole situation with the blood and raving would probably make him a witness to something. So, Regulus went to the bathroom to grab a few wet paper towels and cleaned the blood off of the man’s face and hands. He then struggled to remove the sweatshirt that the man was wearing which had a considerable amount of blood on it. It took him a few minutes and was extremely awkward and uncomfortable, but finally, the man was left with just his t-shirt on. Luckily his pants didn’t appear to have any blood on them.
Regulus meticulously checked that there were no traces of any blood on or around the man, then went to dispose of the evidence. He went into the bathroom and stuffed the bloodied sweatshirts and towels in the trash. Then he pulled a few more towels out of the dispenser and crumpled them up before he put them in the trash too until nothing was visible.
Regulus did his best not to act like he was in a rush. It was just past one in the morning on a Sunday night in his school library so it was unlikely that there would be anyone else barging in on his questionable choices. However, he still wanted plausible deniability and to do that, he had to not be caught looking suspicious.
Before packing up his things and leaving, he took another look at the man who was passed out on the floor. He wasn’t bad-looking. Tall- probably- Regulus had a hard time telling while he was lying down. Regulus thought he was probably Indian. The man had messy black hair and wore round wire-framed glasses. If Regulus didn’t know any better, he’d say that the man looked nice. Not the type of person who would show up places covered in blood. Though, he guessed, you never really know about people.
Regulus shook his head, readjusted his bag, and headed towards the stairwell. He kept his face down in case there was still anyone on the lower floors who would be able to recognize him. Once he left the building, he took a right and went towards the nearest telephone booth.
“Chicago Police Department, how can I assist you?” A woman said into the phone in a pleasant but serious tone. It was his first time calling the police and he wasn’t entirely sure how this was supposed to go. He wondered if they recorded the phone calls.
“I was just on the fourth floor of the University of Chicago library- Regenstein Library- when someone collapsed and remained unconscious. I think they may need medical attention.” He explained in a dry tone. He wanted to make it clear that he thought this wasn’t a big deal. “He’s probably just drunk but I wanted to make sure.”
“We will send someone right away to look into this.” She responded seriously. “What were they-”
Before she could finish asking the question, Regulus hung up the phone. He had done just enough to be able to clean his hands of the situation. He could go home and not worry about the police or the man ever again. He would never see the strange nice-looking man ever again, and he preferred it that way.