We followed them to the hospital, where the doctor gave us a strange look and said, "Young people chasing thrills still need to be careful."
Only then did we learn the truth: Elise and someone had been fooling around in a storage room full of high-powered stage lights. The door had locked behind them, and they'd been baking inside for a full three hours until she collapsed from dehydration.
The campus erupted. University leadership issued an immediate order to expel Elise.
When she came to, she sobbed and screamed that she'd been assaulted, that her attacker had already fled.
The university pulled the surveillance footage, but the recordings had been deleted.
When they pressed her for details, she refused to talk and threatened to throw herself off a building.
Benjamin also threatened to pull his research funding, pressuring the administration to drop the investigation and bury the whole thing.
I couldn't understand it. Again and again, I tried to get justice for Elise.
But every single time, Benjamin shut me down with that sharp, scolding tone of his.
"Stop making trouble! Digging into this isn't helping her. You're only forcing her to relive the trauma!"