Breaking Barriers

by Bob Dattolo

  Seriously, what in the world have I gotten thrown into? If Steph’s right, I should expect to get raped soon, even though they don’t look at it that way. I sure do! I just don’t think that’ll matter. So I either get ready to be hurt and raped, killed, or…or I kill them. Can I do that? Can I really take a life?

  The lingering feelings rushing through my body tell me that I can. I can and will. And I will enjoy it.

  Yet I’ve never…I don’t even know where to go with that. Have I thought about killing people? I have, but my parents always taught us that killing is evil.

  Except my parents are murderers and I can’t trust anything they taught us.

  Not that I think murder is good. I don’t think they lied that much. The world wouldn’t work any longer if that was the case. It’d be wall-to-wall dead bodies for one reason or another.

  I fell silent the rest of the way to the cafeteria area, ignoring her frequent looks as the silence continued. The feelings inside of me kept running around, getting faster and faster, all the while leaving me in a strange world of static.

  The cafeteria barely made an impact on me other than smelling the combined scents of dozens of different dishes, each smelling better than the last. She tugged my hand along towards the start of the lunch area and a stack of trays, but my feet became plastered to the floor as voices from my right called out to me.

  “Just leave me alone!” A girl’s voice practically begged.

  The guy laughed softly. “Don’t even go there, you know you want it. It doesn’t have to be a bad thing. Just meet me at my room tonight and everything will be fine.”

  “Please, Corey! Don’t do this. I don’t want to have sex with you.”

  My roommate tugged on my arm, but that didn’t stop me from heading towards the little tableau. I think she was asking me not to do anything stupid, but I didn’t have ears for her.

  “Rachel, just give it up, you’re mine tonight. If you keep giving me issues, I’ll invite more folks and we can see how you like being fucked in your ass at the same time.”

  I assume this is Rachel, our vampire classmate, since she’s pale beyond belief. Why she’s putting up with this guy is beyond me, but he’s terrifying her. I wouldn’t have thought it possible, but she paled even more than before. “Please, Corey…”

  When the tugging on my arm got to be too much, I yanked my hand free and continued walking, planting myself directly in between Corey and Rachel.

  He jerked back a step. “Who the fuck are you?”

  The static in my head grew and I think I smiled at him. “I’m Ceri. I’m new. Rachel gave you her answer.”

  He laughed, but it didn’t shock me. It simply made the feelings inside and the pictures of what I could do to his corpse get stronger. “Oh, looky here, we have a new classmate! Rachel, you’re off the hook, I think I’m gonna enjoy a new piece of ass tonight.”

  “You won’t be touching me, either.”

  He stepped in, smirking, “I don’t think you understand, Ceri. I’m gonna be balls deep inside of you by 8 tonight and you’ll be screaming my name.”

  “The only way you’ll be balls deep inside of me is if I’m a corpse. Don’t you have some sheep you can go molest? Or are they sick of your crap too?”

  His eyes flickered down to my hands and he smiled again before I felt a strange wave of something flow from him towards me. My hands instantly felt like they were being parboiled from the inside out.

  Unfortunately for him, instead of the pain I expected, it felt good. Good enough that I had to stifle a moan of pleasure when I knew others would be screaming.

  Screaming…so much screaming in my head.

  Then, more screaming in the room as I drove my thumbs into his eye sockets, popping the little orbs like diseased grapes. Then the screaming in the room almost matched what I really wanted to do with him.

  He grabbed my wrists and dropped to his knees, bellowing. Something inside of me pulled at his pain and I felt invigorated as he screamed even louder. I let it go on for nearly a minute before pulling my hands free with a thick, wet plop. “Maybe you should get a Band-Aid or something, Corey. Don’t bother Rachel again.”

  The static continued to fill the room, only lessening when I put my right thumb into my mouth and began sucking the blood and juices off, moving on to lick my hand where it dripped, then to my left hand. The static calmed down enough for me to hear more screams in the room and barking adults. Too bad my own internal screaming is louder. This time, it’s not from the images in my head, it’s from the realization that I’m licking someone’s blood and eye goo from my hands. I knew exactly what I was doing, but I didn’t know why and I sure as heck didn’t want to be doing it right now.

  Even though it filled me with satisfaction and a desire to experience tasting the rest of him.

  An angry adult grabbed my arm and I hissed at him without meaning to. He released my arm immediately. “What is the meaning of this?!”

  I’m pretty sure my smile caught him by surprise, because he jerked back from me.

  “This?” I waved at Rachel and Corey. “This is me interrupting a little rape in the making that your boy Corey was trying to set up. When I stepped in, he planned to do it to me and used magic on me to force it. I stopped it. As I will every other attempt at it.” I stared out across the other students.

  “My name is Ceri. I’m a new student as of today. For those of you that care, I’m a virgin. For those of you that plan on ending that? You’d better be prepared to kill me or stay awake for the rest of your lives, because I will find you and make you suffer. And, if I can’t find you? Your family and friends don’t know that they shouldn’t sleep, now do they?”

  “Young lady, you can’t go threatening…”

  The rage in my blood blossomed, and heat poured out of me that I knew he felt. “I can’t go threatening? How many people here have been forced to have sex with someone else because they’re stronger? Guess what, I may not be stronger since I don’t have a clue what I can do with my magic, but I will end it. You want to threaten me with rape? That’s my threat back to you and anyone else. Harm to me is harm to you and everyone you loved that I can reach. You’d better be prepared to kill me, because I will enjoy spending time with your family and friends before I find you.”

  I patted Corey on the head. “Since you were perfectly fine with him threatening Rachel with rape, then I have to assume you’re perfectly fine with me protecting myself from the same thing. If you’re not perfectly fine with that, then you’re part of the problem here.” My eyes moved back to him. “Are you part of the problem here? Are you perpetuating that the strong can do whatever they want without repercussion?”

  “Young lady, that is how our world works!”

  I rammed my fingers into his eyes, tearing them out and sucking up his screams and pain. “In that case, you’re fine with this, right?” He fell to the ground, screaming, leaving me standing over him, licking my fingers. “If that’s how our world works, then I plan on taking advantage of it.”

  More adults poured into the room and took in our little scene before rushing to the aid of the downed guys as I licked my fingers clean. The niggling voice in my head telling me what I was doing was beyond gross and disturbed was crushed under the inrushing tide of deliciousness and the feeling that everything I did was just right. Nope, nothing evil about blinding two people I don’t even know, nothing at all.

  Corey fought away from the hands trying to help him and pushed himself unsteadily to his feet, making me laugh as I took in his bloody sockets.

  Let me be clear that no part of me should be okay with laughing at him, yet only the tiniest portion of me had a problem with it.

  “You fucking bitch! I’ll kill you!” His entire body was wrapped in flames that burned his clothes away, and his limbs began contorting as his bones snapped one by one.

  The flames called to me, exactly as they should never call to someone, and I reached out and grabbed his head, feeling the h
eat on my hands for the briefest moment before a wonderful tendril of pleasure tore up my arms into my chest. Oh…I like this. I like this a lot. I closed my eyes as whatever is inside of me reached out and yanked on the power, pulling more and more of it inside where it nestled in nicely, bumping into the other things floating around inside. I felt tingles down low as my body reacted to the influx of pleasure, then it was shattered as I was thrown violently to the side, to crumple up against the wall.

  I didn’t mean to, but I found myself standing, growling, before I even thought to get up. Ahead of me, the adults were gathered around in shock staring at me and Corey, who seemed to be stuck mid-shift, fire no longer coursing along his body.

  “Ms. Driscoll! What is the meaning of this!” a huge guy, writhed in radiating waves of something demanded.

  “I have it on good authority that the strong can do whatever they want in this school, as advised by one of your people and Corey’s own words. One of your students was being threatened with rape. When I stepped in, I was threatened. When I retaliated, I was cut off by one of your people. To me, that means that you condone rape in your school, but not fighting back against it. Is that how you handle things here Mr. I’m in charge but can’t even bother to introduce myself?”

  He frowned as he looked around at the students. “I am Headmaster Burnes!”

  More something flowed through my body as I stalked forward. “Is that what you support, Headmaster Burnes? Do you allow people to be raped against their will and punish those that fight back? I’m being told that the strong can do what they want, yet I’m being stopped?”

  Visible light cascaded around him. “Listen here, you are not strong!”

  I laughed. “Tell that to your blind teacher and whatever the hell is wrong with Corey.” I sniffled as I looked down at them. “Seems like I should get to finish this now. Corey threatened to kill me.” I’m not sure what I planned to do once I reached him, but I darted forward anyway, only to be met by a huge wave of power coming from the headmaster that ate at my nerve endings and made me scream.

  For a nearly endless minute I screamed in the ray of power coming from him before yet another thing inside of me clicked. Once that happened, the pain changed to pleasure, which allowed me to move in even quicker. I had Corey in my hands before the world went black.

  Chapter 7

  “What are we supposed to do now?” A woman’s voice asked.

  “What are we supposed to do? We kill her!” A man’s voice responded.

  “Kill her? Are you serious? For what?” The woman asked.

  “For what? She attacked another student! She attacked a teacher!” The man yelled.

  A familiar voice sighed. “She did, but we have witnesses that back up everything she said. We’ve never stepped in between challenges before, what grounds do we have right now? Corey was most definitely threatening Rachel and then did the same to Ceri when she stepped in.”

  “I don’t want to hear it, she blinded me!” A different voice yelled.

  The woman laughed. “She did, but you basically told her that she could do it. You can’t blame her now for taking advantage of it. You were standing up for that little bastard and his plans, so she took you down.”

  “You support her? You support her attacking faculty?”

  She laughed again. “Do I support her standing up for herself? You’re damned right I do. Just like I do for the other students that stand up for themselves.”

  “If we allow her to live, there will be anarchy in this school.” The man stated.

  I cracked my eyes open to see a group of eight adults standing nearby. The bastard I’d blinded was there, eyes fully functional again. The teacher, not Corey.

  “How will there be anarchy? She stood up for herself and for others. Is it only anarchy when we allow people to stand up for themselves? If so, then I don’t see how we’d have anarchy, since she busted Corey’s ass and she had no clue what she was doing.” She shook her head at the teacher I’d blinded. “And you, Robert, seriously? You stood up for a possible rapist and she brought you down a notch. To me, that makes her stronger than either of you. If that’s the case, then she’s allowed to do it by your own words. If she’s not, then you do not support the strong doing what they want, in which case you’re liars.”

  “She dies!” The man roared.

  I tried to sit up and couldn’t, finding that my entire body felt locked down somehow. My mind went wild at the implications and I felt tendrils of power across me on top of physical restraints.

  Both things whatever is inside of me chuckled at.

  I seriously need to understand what I’m able to do, because not even ten seconds later, that same clicking feeling happened and the tendrils of power around me absorbed, settling inside in a wash of pleasure.

  The adults jerked and turned towards me just as I flexed my arms, shattering whatever bonds were around me physically holding me down. They all moved to cover themselves with power of some sort as I stood up and brushed the leather and rune scribed bindings from me. “I think I’m done here.”

  “Young lady, you’re going nowhere!” Mr. Blind yelled.

  My eyes settled on his. “You were just arguing for me to be killed for standing up for myself. I’m not going to stay here and put up with this. It would have been better for me to just die like I planned than to deal with this garbage.”

  He raised his hands and power lit up around them.

  “Touch me with that power and if it doesn’t kill me outright, I’m going to do everything in my power to kill you, your wife, your parents, your brothers and sisters, and your children. I came here to learn about this screwed up world, and the first thing I get told upon arriving here is that my needs don’t matter. Then I get told that it doesn’t matter if I want to have sex with someone, I’ll be forced into it.”

  That made me smile. “Unless I can fight back.” Spreading my arms, I smiled wider. “Well, here I am. I fought back. Yet the moment I do, I get stopped by you,” I pointed at him, “then when I fight back against someone threatening to kill me, I get stopped by you.” I pointed at the headmaster.

  “I’m pretty sure I don’t want any part of your teaching then if that’s what I’m expected to learn here. What you’ve taught me so far is that this is an old-boys-club, and unless I have testicles, nothing I want is going to matter or be allowed to happen.”

  “You’re not going anywhere, Ms. Driscoll.” The headmaster said, not bothering to raise his voice.

  “Well, you’re partially right. If he hits me with whatever that is and kills me, I won’t be going anywhere. But if he hits me with it and I don’t die? Then I’ll be going. I’m not even sure where his family lives, so I’ll have to visit a bunch of places. After all, this school stands up for the strongest getting to do what they want, right? That means that unless you can stop me, I’m the strongest and you get to take whatever it is I care to dish out.”

  I focused back on the one I’d blinded. “You tasted delicious. I can’t wait to see what I can do with the rest of your body.” I have no idea where that came from.

  The headmaster raised his hands. “ENOUGH!”

  Slowly, the power surrounding the adults faded.

  “Ms. Driscoll is correct.” He dropped his own power and straightened his tie. “Our communities support might makes right and always have. I’m ashamed to say that a new student that didn’t even know that she was part of our community has called us on it so very quickly.” He tilted his head to me. “My apologies, Ms. Driscoll. You’re right and we are wrong.” The woman that had been supporting me cleared her throat and he smiled. “All right, not all of us were wrong.”

  “So I’m leaving, then.” I didn’t make it a question.

  “Oh my, no. It’s still lunch time, so you need to head over and get some food.” His surprise at my statement left me confused.

  “Why would I willingly stay in this madhouse?”

  The woman stepped in front of the group. “Ceri�
��you need to stay because you need to learn about what you are and what you can do.”

  “Yeah, I don’t really care about any of that.”

  “Then you need to stay because you’re a ward of the school under the FBI’s care?” She offered.

  I waggled my hand. “Meh, I don’t really care about any of that, either.”

  Her smile was small, but heartfelt. “Then how about because we have amazing food and you can finally make friends with people your age?”

  I’ll admit, that one had me. I do not really want to go out on my own into a world that I don’t even remotely understand. But I will. Yet I’ve never had really excellent food, and I sort of want a ton of it right now. I’d also love to have a friend. Even one would be a vast improvement over what I had.

  “If I stay, what should I expect in the way of retaliation?”

  “Why would anyone retaliate?” One of the previously quiet men asked.

  My snort was nearly my full response until I realized they didn’t get it. “Well, for one, I don’t know any of you or trust you, so I can’t believe that you’re not going to come after me at some point.” I pointed at the one I’d blinded again. “Then there’s Corey. I don’t think any of you can honestly tell me that I shouldn’t expect him to come after me at some point, can you? He already hit me with a spell to burn me from the inside and I’d only known him for like 45 seconds. If he’s willing to do that, then he’s sure willing to do worse after…well, I have no idea what I did to him there at the end, but I don’t see him not coming after me.”

  The woman smiled wider, making me like her more than the rest. “You’re safe from us. Faculty here should not be going after students in any way. Granted, going after someone in the faculty isn’t allowed either, but I think that should be allowed based on what was taking place at the time.”

  “Agreed. There will be no retaliation from you, Robert.” The headmaster supported her, much to Mr. Blind’s chagrin.