by Bob Dattolo
“Yeah, I totally missed that. When I changed my spells to freeze the person fucking with me? I overlooked you not being out and about and figured I accounted for everyone and let you go when I killed the spell. I shoulda just kept it going.”
She gave me a nearly silent golf clap, “Bravo! All it takes it to leave you massive signs and arrows for you to figure out it was me. To what you said? Yes, you gave me information on how to be more powerful, and I ran with it. You have no idea what it’s like being me. I’ve been afraid my entire life, so to come here and know that I’m prey? It’s fucking devastating. Then I found you. Someone more of a target than I am. Someone trusting. Little did I know that you had actual worth and could help me. I thought you’d last long enough in the challenge to possibly get me through…or to give me your power. You did way more than that. I watched you. I learned from you. And yes, I’ve taken in quite a bit of power. It is, after all, what this school is for. Now I’m much more powerful than when I started, and I have a leg up on the others. After all, I know that you can cast spells without letting your hair glow…” She didn’t say that she obviously learned how to do it too.
“So now what? Now that you have power you lord it over others? Is that it?”
“Is that it? Hmm, how about yes?” She smiled at me. “I went from weak to strong, and now I’m going to live it up. My parents were below me when I got home for the summer. Now I’m much higher than where I was. I go home. Have some fun. Then come back next year. Make it through and complete the trial and take the ascendent trial and go on with life. That’s what this place is for. Sure, I hoped someone would kill you this year so that you never found anything out, but that never happened. You have a pesky way of winning when you shouldn’t.”
“You deliberately fucked up my life, Kaylee.”
She rubbed her thumb and index finger together, “Oh, boo-fucking-hoo, Maddie is sad. See my tiny violin? Welcome to my world. You’re strong. Now I’m strong. Deal with it. We have one more year, then we never have to see each other again.”
My smile turned feral, which she somehow missed, “See now, that’s the funny thing. I said it a bit ago. How once I identify who’s been fucking with me? Wrecking things? Things that you then helped me replace and then wrecked them again? The person that spread rumors, making me stay by myself for an entire fucking school year?”
“So sad, welcome to being me last year and this year!”
“Kaylee?” I sighed, “See now, you’ve missed some things. You weren’t there for a lot of discussions.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“You picked me to be your beard. To get people to pay attention to me and not you. That worked for you. Then you set about keeping me to yourself. Then you fucked up my life. You missed some key things. Such as, even though I come across nice for the most part? All my stupid comments? The ones that piss people off?”
She waved her hand through the air, as if brushing off my question, “Oh please, just because you’re a twat that can’t hold a normal conversation? What’s the big deal with that?”
My smile grew, “Kaylee…I liked you. I did. I really thought I was helping you. Instead, you fucked me. How about I illuminate things a little for you. My comments? They’re not because I’m stupid. They’re because I’m pretty sure I’m psychotic. I keep that part of me buried inside and I use humor and those comments, which I think are funny as hell, to keep things at bay. To hold off the darkness that wants to creep out and take over and watch the world burn. I don’t mean that like an expression. Six times this school year, I had to hold off burning down the dorms in the middle of the night. Just to listen to the screams as I fucked myself raw with anything I could find to cram up in inside of me. I’ve told others, the things I want to do? They’d be considered war crimes around the world. I don’t do them because I don’t want to be that person. Yet I desperately want to be that person. I told the group what I’d do to the person that fucked with me.”
She waved me off again, “What a joke. You talk so big. I’ve watched you. You’re powerful, but you’re so fucking stupid. You won’t do shit to my family. Or to me. You’d never take it that far.”
My spell barrier around her faded, although she didn’t seem to notice it. “You’re not a very observant person then, you’re really not. I think it’s time you meet the real me. Feel free to scream through this. I’m gonna find something big and fuck myself with it as I listen to the recordings. Then you go have fun this summer. I’ll see you back here next year. I’ll give you another year, then I hunt, and your family pays the price for you attacking me.”
She snorted, “You don’t even play being evil very well. That huge water dragon you killed last year played a better villain.”
She watched me turn my phone on, “Have you ever watched Dexter?”
She shrugged, “Dexter? The one about the guy that kills people? Why? Talking to you is like talking to a six-year-old. You can’t keep to a single topic.”
“Dexter. Interesting show. I watched a bunch of them since gaining my eyesight back. Want to know the problem I have with him?”
“Sure? Why not? Listening to you prattle and make a fool of yourself has been endlessly amusing this past year.”
“I know, right? I can see that.” I shuddered as I released more of my control, “The problem I have with Dexter is that he wasn’t dark enough.”
“Umm, dark enough? He was a psycho.”
“I know. And yet? Not dark enough. Here, let me show you what I mean.”
“What the hell are you ta…”
The screaming started right about then.
Chapter 52
Parece sat next to me on the bench, waiting for the researchers to arrive, “Seriously? You fucking wrecked her!”
“You think she appreciated what I meant by dark by the time I was done?”
She smiled at my question, “I sure as fuck hope so. I swear, how she didn’t pick that up from you is beyond me.”
“I’ve been told I’m one hell of an actress.”
She laughed with me, “True, that’s true, but…wow. You think she’ll tell her parents they’re gonna be hunted?”
“Umm, 50/50 so far. When do you think she’ll be out of the hospital?”
She stretched her legs out, “Oh, wow, umm…a month? If she’s lucky?”
“I’d say…yeah, she’ll tell them. I already have their names and I hired a private eye to find her other relatives. They’ll keep tabs on them. That should be fun.”
“Maaan, you really are vindictive.”
“I am. Completely and utterly. I’m still a unifier, though. It’s just that I’m perfectly fine with slaughtering those that don’t want to unify. Like I said? I support the group because I’m part of the group. I’m part of we. Those that don’t want to be part of we?” I didn’t bother answering my own question. I knew she understood.
“I swear, norms and mages don’t have a fucking clue. How they can’t see that in you is so far beyond my ability to understand.” She laughed softly, “Still, though, it’ll be interesting to see if she comes back next year. You fucking held her down and ate a hand and one of her feet? Then one of her eyes? Her power’s down to about five percent of what it should be, and she can’t run or really fight. What’re the chances she’ll kill herself rather than come back?”
“Don’t know and don’t care.” Most of the class was in the caf by the time I made her scream, so I didn’t have to explain things to most of them. “If she’s smart? She’ll go to Mexico. She won’t escape me there, though. Personally, I’m hoping that she comes back and tries to make it through. I plan on making her suffer if she does that.”
“I’m so fucking glad I got on your good side.”
“So am I, I like you.”
“Good. I want to stay in the like category. Seeing you chew her up with your human teeth? That was fucked!”
“Well, I’m glad I got it on video. I have to stop at an adult pla
ce and pick up a toy. I plan to abuse myself to that until I’m freaking raw.”
“Yeah, you do that. Then let the current you out to play with the rest of us. Psycho you is a little tough to deal with day-to-day.”
“I feel you. Same for me.”
She looked around the grounds, “Almost everyone is gone. We really driving around again?”
“So far, yeah.”
“Levi coming?”
“No. He has to take care of some things at home. He may try to catch up at some point. We’ll see.”
“So just the four of us again?”
“Seems like it. You guys pick a good place to go yet?”
“Not yet. We’re gonna throw some ideas out while they test you.”
“Good plan.” I kicked my legs out like hers, “So…yeah, second year is done.”
“Second year is done. It was touch and go, but…we made it.”
“We did. We’re done and we get three months off and then we’re back. One more year.”
“We’ve done two, we can do one more.”
“We can.”
We both fell silent at my response. I’m sure she’s thinking the same thing I am.
Just because we made it through the first two years means nothing for the third. Nothing at all.
We made it out with our allies next to us, those that survived. Will they stick with us next year? We hope so, but they might not. It’s all a mystery, made worse by being here, where betrayal is as common as breathing.
There are three months of free time ahead of us. Time to live and relax. Hopefully. Time to explore. Get to know each other again. Get to know ourselves. See how a second year here has changed us.
All the while hoping and praying that the others with us don’t have their sights set on us. Like my former ally did.
She nearly had me killed last year so many times. I ended up being ostracized this year because of her. I spent it lonely and fighting depression so often. All because of her.
I need to take that lesson from her to heart. Even the person that you think will go after you the least may very well do it.
Betrayal is the name of the game here at Sorrowfeld Academy.
Except we made it. We passed the trial. Which means that we can rebuild. We can come back stronger. We can step back onto these grounds ready for what comes in year three.
I know we can. I can feel it. I’m a unifier at heart, and the unifier in me is dead set on making it out of here next year.
And I’ll do it with my allies by my side and over the corpses of every single person that dares to stand in our way.
But first? Vacation. I wonder if I can get some massages this year? Something tells me I need to relax more. Maybe get a diffuser and more essential oils. I have a sneaking suspicion my friends would appreciate me barricading bloodthirsty me behind doors of calm bliss.
I guess that’s just a grenade I’ll have to throw myself on.
C’mon, researchers, let’s get going. I have some relaxing to do, and it won’t do itself.
Author’s Note: One day I’d love to find out how many people actually read these notes. If you’re still with me, thank you so much for hanging and continuing to read for a minute or two more.
This is book two of the Sorrowfeld Academy series. I hope you enjoyed the second story following Maddie and her rather strange life. I have enjoyed writing her quite a bit, especially allowing her to have control over things that happen at times.
That’s the fun part of writing at times for me. Where the character steps in and things that I thought would happen as the writer simply don’t because the character won’t allow it. Their mindset takes over, and then it’s more about telling what she wants said and what she’s experiencing rather than me making things happen. It’s a wonderful yet strange feeling, and I can’t get enough of it when it happens.
As I mentioned in a prior post, book three is finished as well and I’m waiting on a cover. Book four is just about in the same place, about halfway done, and I’m looking forward to finish that just as soon as I complete a YA book that one of my sons is interested in. I’m hoping folks like that and younger people can pick up something that I write without being scarred from it.
Yes, I’m aware that what I write can be a bit out there at times. I’m writing about powerful people, and that tends to mean that people let the worst of themselves out to play just as we see in our world today. I just try not to sugar coat it. Much.
As always, if you’re still reading, drop me an email? I mean it when I say I’d love to hear from you. What’d you like about the story? What’d you hate? I’m seriously about that, too. Reach out to me at [email protected].
If you like what you read, please consider leaving a review. Ratings are a solo writer’s world and can help get more stories written. If you hate what you read? Drop me an email and let me know? I’m open to people’s thoughts and, who knows, changes or edits are always possible.
OTHER WORKS
I have a number of other worlds that I am working on getting published, so feel free to stop and check out the other titles available below:
Other books by Bob Dattolo
Barriers Series
Breaking Barriers
New Beginnings
Forging Family
Coming Home
Birth and Rebirth
Goddess Exposed
Family Bonds
Tainted Series
Unwilling Sacrifice
Finding Center
Keeping Balance
Bringing Balance
Shades of Gray
Still Waters – A complete trilogy (although more stories are likely)
Still Waters
Dark Waters
Rushing Waters
Learning My Place
Learning My Place
Clarion Call
Silver Linings
Dual Lessons
Penny for Your Thoughts
Ragged Edge
Wild Ride
The Scars Make the Woman
Black Dogs and Destiny
Dance with the Devil
Sorrowfeld Academy
Survival
Betrayal
Rage – Coming Soon
Billie’s Story
Second Chance – Coming Soon
Pack Dammerung – Coming Soon
Book three in the Sorrowfeld Academy series, Rage, will be released in May 2021.
My life has been built on two things since that fateful day when I was nine years old and I asked my parents to perform the inducement ceremony on me. That spell that allows mages and dragons to take the step from near-human to what we’re going to become. Mages. Dragons. It allows us access to our magic and a dragon’s ability to shift.
The very day my parents attacked me. Beat me down. Drove spiked mortmagi into my skull, blinding me and stripping me of my power. And turning me into a stricken.
My name is Maddie Stricken now, and my life has been built on two things since that day. Pain is the first. Mortmagi are agony from the moment they go in and every moment after that. You can learn to deal with it. Barely. Yet it’s always there. Always crushing your spirit and trying to drive you into suicide.
The other thing?
Rage.
The people around me know that I try to bury it. I try to keep the human version of me towards the forefront. Yet that core of me is always lurking. Always watching. Always ready. Why? Because sometimes you need it to survive.
I needed it when I was young, and I didn’t have it. And now I do. And I will never be dominated again.
Except the world doesn’t care about my wants or needs. What happens when we’re forced from Sorrowfeld Academy to one that I’ve never heard of before? Forced into a situation where we’re being staked out to be killed?
It’s time to let me drive.
Human-me gets to step back and let the other part of me drive. Deepest, darkest rage steps to the forefront and takes over. I
need to protect myself. I need to protect what’s mine. I need to protect my new family. And it’ll take everything in me to stop them from dominating me. Us.
Our third trial and the ascendant trial are coming, and I want to be ready for it. I have a date with my parents once I find them. Then they’ll get to learn what pain is as they meet the part of me that they were the keystones in forming.
I just need to survive something most people don’t.
How hard can it be?
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
For my mother, who believed in me until the end.
For my father, who taught me to love reading from an early age.
To authors that have given up their time to speak to a hesitant author and provide guidance: Christine Dougherty, P.S. Power, R.J. Ross, and Alison L. Perry - thank you all for the many hours of fun and entertainment and for your words of wisdom.
To everyone that takes the time to reach out and those that leave reviews when the book is good enough to warrant it – thank you. It’s a fantastic feeling to think that others enjoy these people that live in my head as much as I do.
Last but not least - Thank you to my wonderful family for your support and allowing me to squirrel myself away in my office for hour after hour. Christine, Ross, Dominic, Bennet, Bella, Tino, and Leo – without you all, this wouldn’t even be worth it.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Bob Dattolo is a husband, father, and part-time author that dedicates his free time to family, reading, and writing paranormal/urban fantasy. He is new to self-publishing but has been writing for years and is working on sharing his eBook babies with the world.