Initiated

by Steffanie Holmes

  Love kept them bound to Miskatonic Prep. Love forced them to torture the outsiders until they didn’t know any other way.

  Love makes you vulnerable. I knew that all too well. It painted a target on your back and ripped all the humanity out of you until there was nothing but a broken shell.

  I sucked in a breath. My finger pressed into the scar on my wrist. I hadn’t allowed myself to feel anything since the fire. I’d come to Derleth Academy a broken shell. Now, my three tormentors were threatening to open me up again. They were burning me inside and out.

  Somehow, I was burning them right back. And in that fire were all the feelings we thought we’d destroyed. All the hope and love and longing that made us weak.

  The question was, would the resulting inferno destroy us all?

  Chapter Fifteen

  Courtney and her friends never showed up at the Halloween afterparty. I heard they spent most of the night trying to detach their various appendages from their bodies. Old Waldron’s infirmary appeared to be stocked from the 1800s and didn’t have anything that could dissolve the mess. Superglue was a bitch to get out, especially when you stuck it in your hair.

  Or on your nipples. Poor Courtney.

  Greg and I got 20 points each deducted by Dr. Halsey for ruining the costumes we borrowed. The night had been more than worth it – we got into the Eldritch Club, Courtney superglued her nipples, I met Ayaz’s sister, and every time I thought about the grotto a deep, hot ache flared inside me.

  Over the weekend, my burn blistered. I cleaned it out and changed the dressings, relishing the god’s anguish as I rubbed it with antiseptic. It still emitted a dull ache when I walked on it, but nothing I couldn’t handle.

  In class on Monday, both Courtney and Tillie showed up wearing hats pulled low, covering their hair. When Mr. Dexter scolded them for breaking the uniform code, Courtney refused to remove hers and accepted a 5-point demerit. Tillie, however, couldn’t face losing the points. She scrunched up her nose and flung her hat at the teacher.

  “There. Are you happy?” She slouched in her seat.

  I had to cover my mouth to stop a laugh escaping. The other students weren’t so polite. Titters erupted around the room as everyone took in Tillie’s nightmarish ’do. The hair on the top of her head stuck up in clumps from where she’d had to cut the ears out. Her entire scalp was red and peeling from whatever chemicals they’d used to try and remove the glue. Even Mr. Dexter’s eyes widened, but he composed himself quickly.

  “Thank you, Ms. Fairchild.” He glared around the room. “I expect you all to maintain decorum until the bell, or I’ll deduct points from the whole class.”

  While Mr. Dexter read out the day’s announcements, I watched Tillie and Courtney from the back of the room. Tillie’s shoulders sagged as she stared at her desk. She kept raking her nails through her hair, scratching at her irritated scalp. Courtney lifted the edge of her beanie and scratched at her scalp. She kept shifting in her chair, rubbing her palms over the front of her shirt. I bet those nipples are sore, I thought smugly.

  A draft caught the back of my neck, reminding me that last quarter they’d snuck into my room and smeared black tar all over my hair. I’d had to cut off the dreadlocks I’d been sporting since freshman year, yet another link to my old life destroyed by this school. Courtney and the other Queens deserved everything they got.

  The bell rang. I leapt to my feet, eager to beat Courtney out the door. “Nice hat,” I said sweetly as I walked past her desk. “It suits you.”

  “You’re dead, bitch,” she hissed, but there was no bite to her threat.

  “Not as dead as you are,” I smiled back at her. Courtney’s lip curled back, but she didn’t get out of her chair. Quinn threw an arm around me, guiding me toward the door.

  I cast a final look back at Courtney as we headed down the hall. She remained rooted in place, staring straight ahead with a deer-in-headlights expression, like she couldn’t believe what had happened to her.

  You may be undead, but you’re still vulnerable. I’d found the chink in Courtney’s armor. She believed that she had power at this school. But I’d just shown her how fickle her power was, and how little it really mattered. She could be toppled just as easily as the kids she tortured, and once I took away her power, she would have nothing left.

  I wasn’t even nearly done with her yet.

  Greg wasn’t as enthusiastic as I expected when I revealed my revenge plan during our private rehearsal that evening. “I just don’t think it’s worth going after them like that.”

  “After they tormented Loretta? She wanted to kill herself.”

  “Yes, but she didn’t. And they’re her friends now,” Greg pointed out. “What if this made things worse for her again? The superglue was funny, but you know Courtney won’t allow it to stand without retaliation.”

  “I don’t think they really are her friends.” I slumped over the piano, my chin in my hands. “And as for Courtney retaliating, I plan on making it so that’s the last thing she wants to do.”

  Greg frowned. “You’re not going to hurt her, are you?”

  “No…” A slow grin spread across my face. “Maybe a little bit.”

  “I don’t like this, Hazel. Aren’t we just stooping to their level?”

  “People like Courtney think they can get away with treating others like shit. They think that because we don’t have money or we’re not born white or we’re not straight or whatever, then we don’t count as human. The only way they will learn is if we turn that around on them, show them what happens when they become powerless. I promise I’ll do all the actual revenging. I just need you to make the formulations, and then I’ll have to figure out how to swap out—”

  “If you’re intent on doing this, Andre might be able to help with that,” Greg said. “He’s got a friend on the maintenance staff.”

  “He does?” I remembered I’d seen Andre gesturing to one of the women who worked in maintenance. Was that her? “Do you mean a lady friend? Is that why we hardly ever see him outside of class?”

  “I think it might be,” Greg grinned. “He won’t talk about it, but I keep seeing him hanging out near the laundry chute, and he’s got a big dopey smile on his face all the time. Bet if it helps you he’ll finally spill the beans. I’ll talk to him about it tonight.”

  “You mean you’re gonna help me?”

  Greg swiped a hand through his blond hair. “I wish you’d just leave them alone. Things are good now. But I’m also not gonna let you do this by yourself, girlfriend.”

  I hugged him. “You’re the best.”

  “I know, honey.” Greg kissed the top of my head. “This is it, right? After we do this, you’ll call it even on the Queens?”

  “Hell no. What we’re plotting right now is just the warm-up. I need something bigger, something that doesn’t just target Courtney but shows everyone at this school they can’t treat people like trash and get away with it. I just don’t know what it is yet.”

  “Just don’t go getting yourself in deeper trouble. It may seem like we’ve got the protection of the three Kings right now, but that could change in a heartbeat.”

  “I know. Don’t worry, we don’t need them,” I said with more conviction than I felt. “I don’t need anyone.”

  When I said I didn’t need anyone, it wasn’t entirely true. I needed Ayaz to keep translating Parris’ book because I couldn’t read Medieval Latin. I needed Trey’s protection. I needed Quinn’s smile to make the long days go faster. And as much as I hated to admit it, I was starting to look forward to seeing the Kings, sitting next to them in class, feeling the jolts of fire when our arms brushed in the hall.

  But just when I thought I might be falling for one of them, or all of them, just when I started to unclench my fists and let my guard down around them a tiny bit, I’d remember one of the horrible things they’d done to me, or get a flash of Ayaz fucking Ms. West, or recall the crossed-out photographs of previous scholarship students who they�
��d tormented.

  I knew they should be included in my revenge plans, but what I didn’t know was if, when the time came, I’d be able to go through with it if it meant hurting them. Greg’s moralizing had started to rub off on me.

  But I didn’t have to worry about that now. I was still focused on the Queens. I worked with Greg over the next week on perfecting three ‘concoctions.’ I loved that word because it made us sound like mad scientists cooking up something. In a way, we were – a plot to destroy Courtney.

  For his mid-year chemistry project, Greg had decided to formulate a small makeup range – he’d already been experimenting with different recipes at his old school, but the faculty there had put a stop to his experiment. “They claimed it was because my work was potentially dangerous,” he told me. “But that’s not true. Some kids were making organic weed killers, which are way more toxic. The school didn’t want a boy making lipsticks.”

  But at Derleth, no one cared what Greg did because they saw him as expendable. It was like we were cattle on a ranch. As long as the cows ate their grass and popped out babies, the farmer didn’t give much thought to their intellectual stimulation. At least it meant that no one asked questions when Greg wanted to spend extra time after class in the chemistry lab.

  While Greg toiled with the chemicals, I snuck out of bed to rummage through the recycling. The maintenance staff cleared them first thing in the morning, and I needed to sneak my treasures back to my room without being seen. After a week, I had all the bottles and jars I needed. The Miskatonic Queens went through a lot of beauty products.

  I had everything I needed for phase two of Hazel’s revenge. All that was left to do was to countdown to D-Day.

  Chapter Sixteen

  “I can’t believe you’ve scheduled extra tutoring with Dr. Morgan during the movie night,” Quinn pouted over breakfast. “I was looking forward to snuggling with my girlfriend.”

  The Eldritch Club was hosting a movie night tonight in the dining hall. Students could bring blankets and pillows from their dorm rooms, and instead of our usual fancy three-course dinner, the catering would be pizza and popcorn and fries. It sounded like fun. Too bad I was going to miss the first half. But I had a very good reason.

  “Yeah, well,” I shrugged, popping a piece of bacon into my mouth. “It’s a pity both me and your girlfriend will be missing it, because I was really hoping to meet her.”

  “Haha,” Quinn stuck out his lower lip. He still labored under the belief that if he called me his girlfriend enough times, it would be true. Although every time he said it, Ayaz’s back stiffened, which I… liked more than I wanted to admit. “Seriously, though, why are you worrying so much about your grades? You’re hanging out in the middle of the rankings. That’s better than most scholarship students could ever dream of. You should be kicking back like me.” He leaned back and tried to put his arm around my shoulders. I shrugged him off.

  “What you call ‘kicking back,’ I call ‘being a lazy slug,’” I said. “Right now, I’m kicking Trey’s ass. I don’t want a bad grade on my Egyptian Pharaoh essay to ruin that.”

  At the other end of the table, Trey snorted into his eggs. It was true that I’d pulled 35 points ahead of him, but only because he’d given me 500 of his own points to save me from being sacrificed. We both knew it, but that didn’t mean I wasn’t going to rub his dicksome nose in it.

  “I’ll help you study. Here, look at this.” Quinn grabbed my plate and sculpted my pile of crispy bacon into a pyramid.

  “Didn’t your mother ever teach you not to play with your food?” I growled, whipping a piece of bacon from his hand before he could add it to the stack.

  “My mother taught me all sorts of things.” Quinn waggled his eyes.

  “You’re disgusting.”

  Greg tipped the salt shaker on its side and placed it at the entrance of the tomb. “Here’s the mummy off to its final resting place.”

  “Don’t you start.” Greg and Quinn cracked up laughing. They’d been getting along really well together lately, especially since we hardly ever saw Andre. Pity Quinn didn’t have eyes for Greg – they’d make a cute couple and it would get him off my case about the girlfriend thing.

  I’d never been anyone’s girlfriend before, and I wasn’t going to start with Quinn Delacorte. Although it was tempting. I still got a jolt of fire down my spine every time he touched me, and I needed more of his kisses in my life. But I knew he only wanted to go out with me because it would stir up trouble, and… my lips still burned from Ayaz’s touch in the grotto. And Trey… the way he looked at me sometimes, like he was trying to see into my soul…

  I needed to sort out my own feelings before I agreed to be anyone’s girlfriend. Especially since I was clearly crazy in the head for falling for not one but all three of my bullies. There were more important things to focus on right now, like my imminent sacrifice to the Great Old God beneath the gym.

  Ayaz and I had been translating spells and reading occult books every spare minute, but we were no closer to figuring out what the god was and how to send it back into its void. Every day without answers was a day closer to the end of the year, when the god would come to collect. I’d made it my mission to break the hold the god had on this school and find a way to give the whole student body their lives back.

  But today, today wasn’t about saving the undead. It was about making them pay.

  As I wrestled what remained of my breakfast off Quinn and Greg, a faint noise reached my ears. At first I thought it was the toaster on the buffet acting up, but then I realized that it was coming from the wall behind us. The unmistakable scritch-scritch of rat claws.

  That’s the second time I’ve heard them outside of the dungeon and the gym. I glanced around, but no one else seemed to have noticed. The din of the dining hall nearly completely obscured the noise unless you knew what you were listening to. I shrugged and went back to my food. Rats in the walls were just part of life here. Who cared it they were migrating around the school? Maybe it would do these spoiled rich kids good to encounter some rodents.

  I forgot all about the scritching as we left the dining hall and headed toward the lockers. Andre dashed past me in a hurry to get to the breakfast buffet before it closed. His body brushed against mine and something cold dropped into my blazer pocket. A key.

  The master key for the student dorms.

  He came through for me. I knew he would.

  The school day dragged on. I watched the clock like a hawk, counting down the minutes until the final bell. Even then, I had to wait. Rehearsals started immediately after the final bell. Today we were in the main auditorium, blocking some of the musical numbers. For the first time since learning our parts and lines, Trey and I would be together on stage.

  The production was an original written by Dr. Halsey with the help of several drama students, including Courtney. It was obvious from the first reading that my part had been written with Courtney in mind. It was a rags-to-riches story with a love triangle, which seemed ludicrous in this school where everyone believed you were who you were born as. I played a waitress with ambitions to be a fashion designer, and I was been fought over by two guys – a rich all-American hero type, played by Greg, and a dangerous biker from ‘the hood,’ played by Trey.

  Despite all the problematic aspects of the script, the songs were great and I loved dueting with Trey. As soon as he stepped on stage, his whole body changed. All his sharp edges ironed out, and the muscles in his face unclenched. Just for those few moments under the lights, he got to become someone else.

  And that someone just happened to be locked in a passionate dance with my character.

  We spun around the stage, the song rising in intensity as he lunged at me and I leapt out of the way, and then I chased him down and he’d hide. It was a dance of seduction, where our hearts and minds clashed against each other as our characters battled their own demons. Behind us, a row of backup dancers led by Courtney mimicked some of our movements to hei
ghten the tension.

  As I lunged at Trey during the first verse, his eyes widened and I really believed – just for a second – that he would rock forward and grab me. But he executed the steps flawlessly, spinning away and singing his lines about how he wasn’t good enough, how he’d ruin me. And then it was his turn to come after me.

  He leapt across the stage, landing on his knees and sliding toward me. Under the stage lights, his dark hair looked like dusk, bursting with flecks of starlight. Those blue eyes turned up to me, broad arms held wide, and his voice broke as he sang his last, mournful line.

  My breath hitched.

  My heart pattered.

  Heat pooled in my core.

  This isn’t real. He’s acting.

  But it didn’t feel like an act. It felt like Trey Bloomberg’s mask was starting to crumble.

  I don’t know how I managed to get my next line out, but I sang it in a daze, my eyes locked on his, a million unspoken things passing between us. Trey grabbed me by the hips and lifted me over his head for our finale, tossing me into the air like a leaf on the breeze. His hands on me lit a blaze that burned long after he’d set me down and the wave of applause from our fellow cast members washed over us.

  “Congratulations, you two,” Dr. Halsey beamed. “That was perfect.”

  The only people who didn’t look happy as we climbed off stage were Courtney and Tillie. I could feel their scowls on the back of my neck as I settled into the front row of seats to watch the next scene.

  “Wow, honey.” Greg leaned over to give me a fist bump. “You nailed it. You and Trey were smoking.”

  “He really can sing,” I admitted, picking up my script to follow along.

  Greg waved a hand. “Sure, he’s technically proficient, but I was referring to the fact you two burned up the stage. Your chemistry together is el fuego. It’ll melt the panties and jocks off everyone in the audience. I’m surprised the curtains didn’t catch on fire.”