Initiated

by Steffanie Holmes

  “I hate to break up the reunion,” Trey hissed. “But we need to get back to school before we’re missed.”

  Zehra’s face swung around, seeing the rest of us for the first time. “Trey Bloomberg, you haven’t changed a bit. I still remember the first day I came to this school. You had Ayaz steal my diary and you read my poem aloud to the entire dining hall. You made me want to die. Guess the joke’s on you.”

  Trey’s smirk froze. I dig this chick already.

  “He did something similar to me,” I said, offering my hand for her to shake. “We didn’t formally introduce ourselves last time, friend. I’m Hazel Waite, scholarship student, currently one of only three living students at Derleth Academy.”

  “Zehra Demir.” She shook my hand with a firm grip. “I know all about you, Hazel. That was a hell of a deal you made with the devil.”

  “I’m told that we’re not supposed to call the Great Old God a devil or demon,” I said. “Apparently, it upsets him.”

  “I meant Headmistress West,” Zehra grinned. “She’s the devil incarnate.”

  “No argument.” I grinned back.

  “I’m not sure why we’re still hanging out in this cave.” Zehra led me back towards the entrance. Trey protested, but I was only too happy to ignore him. “So, tell me, if you’re a scholarship student, how did you end up with my brother and the two biggest dicks in the school?”

  “I actually don’t have an answer to that question.” I shrugged. “I guess they’re trying to help me.”

  “Hazy’s my girlfriend.” Quinn came up behind us and tried to throw his arm over my shoulders. I shoved him. His foot slipped and he skidded back, landing on his ass in a puddle of brackish water. He winced and I ran to help him, knowing that must’ve hurt with his injuries.

  “Fuck!” Trey growled as Quinn splashed filth up his trouser legs. “Thanks a lot, Quinn.”

  “You’re welcome,” Quinn said, deliberately splashing Trey again as he let me help him stagger onto his feet.

  “I amend my previous statement,” I said to Zehra. “Trey and Ayaz are helping me. Quinn is trying to get into my pants.”

  “Why are you back here, Little Turk?” Quinn asked as he slipped into step behind us, keeping a bit of distance this time. “Surely there are better things to do with your freedom than hiding out in caves and spying on us?”

  “Well, Quinnanigans, I’m trying to get your life back,” Zehra punched him in the arm. I smirked. Quinnanigans – I’ll have to remember that. “All the time I haven’t spent escaping assassins and learning how to surf, I’ve been trying to figure out exactly what happened here. I’ve tracked down a woman who used to work with Headmistress West, back when she was plain old Dr. Hermia West at Arkham General Hospital.”

  “So?” Trey demanded.

  “So… didn’t you read those articles I left for you?” Zehra’s eyes flashed, just like Ayaz’s did when he was frustrated.

  The articles… I remembered the stack of old newspaper clippings in the storage room. They weren’t there now. “There was one about the fire. I went to show it to Ayaz but then I got waylaid by some shadows and next time I looked they were gone.”

  “Waylaid by shadows… jeez.” Zehra rubbed her forehead with her hand. “I thought you were the brains of this lot. Guess it’s going to have to be me, as usual. All the answers you needed were in those articles, and if someone at that school has their hands on them…”

  “You’d better catch us up,” Trey said. “What did you find?”

  “Three years before the fire at Miskatonic Prep, Hermia West was fired from Arkham General after it was discovered she was experimenting on bodies in the hospital morgue.”

  “If that’s true, how did she get the job as headmistress at a prestigious school? Surely that would’ve come out in the media?”

  “The hospital would do anything to avoid litigation by the families of the deceased. According to my source, West had a wealthy benefactor who swooped in and offered a generous donation to the hospital if they kept the story out of the papers. By the time Hermia West appeared in front of the school board, she had a glowing recommendation from one of their own.”

  “Let me guess,” Trey said darkly. “Vincent Bloomberg II.”

  Zehra shot finger guns at Trey. “This guy’s cleverer than he looks.”

  “You’re the one who’s brilliant.” Ayaz squeezed Zehra so tight I thought her eyes would pop out of her skull.

  “That’s not even the full story. Before the morgue incident, there were two cases of mysterious patient deaths. In both cases, someone punctured the patient’s IV drip and administered a concoction of drugs – none of which were doctor prescribed or listed on that patient’s chart. Both patients died in agony while their bodies were in complete paralysis – they couldn’t call out for help. Also, a bunch of medications and chemicals went missing from hospital stores. Neither the thefts nor the deaths were ever connected to Ms. West, but the other nurses and the internal hospital risk manager suspected she was the one behind them.”

  “What does this have to do with the school?”

  Zehra’s eyes flashed. She hadn’t forgotten the things Trey had done to her, and hearing the impatience in his voice brought that all back. When she spoke again, her voice had an edge to it. “You think it’s a coincidence West got the headmistress job even though she’s not exactly qualified, and then three years later a whole bunch of students die in a fire, and those same students then end up as reanimated corpses, confined to the walls of this very school?”

  “You’re saying it wasn’t the deity that brought us back from the dead?” Ayaz frowned.

  “Correct.” Zehra threw her dark hair over her shoulder. “I think it was West. And my source believes that if we can get the formula for the chemicals she uses, or even research notes on how she does it, then we could find a way to…” she stopped.

  “To do what?” I asked.

  Zehra squeezed my hand. “Sooooooo… it’s unclear. Maybe we could restore you guys to life, give you the ability to age, to step over the boundaries of Parris’ home, to live. Or maybe all we can hope for is to lay you to rest and set your souls free.”

  “We don’t have souls any longer,” Trey muttered.

  “I’m not sure you ever had one to begin with, Trey Bloomberg,” Zehra said, swiping her hair out of her face. “But yeah, I can’t promise what’s going to happen, so if we’re going to do this you have to be prepared that…”

  …that the guys might die for real.

  All three of them looked to me, their faces a mix of anger, of horror, of regret. A sick feeling churned in my stomach. Even though I’d seen their gravestones, it was still so hard to think of them as dead – not when they laughed and fought and held me and kissed with lips that burned.

  But they were dead, and for twenty years their souls had been trapped inside bodies frozen in time. The torture they’d undergone at the hands of Ms. West and the Eldritch Club had robbed them of their chance for a future… and a vital piece of their humanity. No wonder they were capable of such cruel bullying – they’d known only cruelty themselves, their abuse baked into their skin.

  The thought of them dying for real hadn’t occurred to me. I always expected that if we lifted the spell, they would return to life. But Zehra was right – they already had one foot in the grave. They died in that fire twenty years ago – whatever unnatural process Ms. West had subjected them to had trapped them in this half-state, this life-that-was-not-life. To set them free, to truly break the curse of Miskatonic Prep, I would have to say goodbye. Forever.

  Shit.

  I fucking hate goodbyes.

  Tears sprung in the corners of my eyes. I swallowed hard, forcing them back. Quinn met my eyes and flashed me a wobbly smile, and they almost spilled over. But no fucking way was I crying in front of the monarchs. I wasn’t giving them that power over me, of knowing how much they meant to me now.

  “Personally, I think we’re owed a shot at
life.” Quinn flexed his biceps. “I can’t die without unleashing all of this magnificence on the world.”

  “We have to try,” Trey agreed.

  “This isn’t about us, anyway. If we could stop this happening to others, then I want to find out, even if that means…” Ayaz sucked in a breath, unable to finish the sentence. “Where would we find research notes?”

  “My source says that Ms. West must have a lab somewhere in the school. It would have to be cold, or have some kind of cold storage for any bodies she collects. That’s where you’ll find your evidence… ow, lay off, you’re crushing my ribs.”

  A lab, like a mad scientist from a stupid horror film. I knew that this lab was where she planned to take me at the end of the school year, when my end of our bargain came due. She’d cut me open and experiment on me, trying to figure out why I hurt the god. I doubted I’d survive the process.

  Ayaz didn’t loosen his grip on Zehra. From the haunted look in his eyes, I knew he’d realized that if his soul was freed, he’d be leaving her behind.

  Trey glanced at his watch. “Ayaz, we should go.”

  Zehra untangled herself from her brother’s grasp. “I’ll walk you to the entrance.”

  Ayaz’s eyes bugged out. “You’re not… living in this cave, are you?”

  She laughed – a musical sound that filled my head with light. “Of course not. Right now, I’m living out of an RV on the edge of the village. I can’t get the bloody thing up this road, so I hike up here as often as I can to search for Rebecca’s sigils, and to check up on my older brother here. I’ve gotten pretty good at using the caves and tunnels to sneak around without being seen.”

  My gaze flew back to the sigil on the wall, forgotten in the thrill of meeting Zehra. “So you know about Rebecca Nurse, too? And you can see the sigil?”

  She nodded. “But none of the guys can. Either because they’re edimmu, or because of some other reason. It’s the only one I’ve found so far, but I believe there must be others. I also gave you an article about Rebecca Nurse, but I’m assuming you didn’t read that, either.”

  I sighed. “Nope. Although someone at the school has had some interesting night-time reading.”

  Zehra shuddered. “I hope those articles haven’t fallen into the wrong hands.”

  “Me, too.” As we walked to the entrance, I asked Zehra how she ended up at Derleth. “Surely the school wouldn’t be so stupid as to accept a student who already had a sibling at Miskatonic?”

  “Yeah, they only accept orphans for that reason. Basically, everyone fucked up. The political situation between Turkey and the United States has changed since Ayaz went to live with the Bloombergs. My parents were so desperate for me to come here and get the same education that when they heard there was a scholarship program for orphans, they sent me here to apply with a different name and a different history. They didn’t even care that Derleth was on the same grounds where Ayaz had died. I played my part so well that the school didn’t connect that I was Ayaz’s sister. So of course, when I show up here and see my brother who is supposed to have died eight years ago, I’m a bit suspicious.”

  We emerged above ground. The rising moon peeked through the trees, throwing an eerie pale light over the landscape. Zehra threw her arms around me. “I won’t go any closer to the school, in case you’re being watched. I’m relying on you to look after my brother and his two idiot friends. But you have my permission to kick his ass if he ever bullies another person.”

  “Deal.” I didn’t want to let Zehra go. I wanted to cling to this dark-haired ball of fury and hope forever. I wanted to follow her down the peninsula to her RV and drive as far from this fucking school as we could get. But she was right – the guys needed me here, and it was dangerous for all of us if they discovered her. We had to say goodbye.

  Zehra took a phone from her pocket, but then frowned at it. “It would be nice to find some way to communicate that doesn’t involve you having to walk all the way out here. I forgot that you’re not allowed phones.”

  “Whoa,” Quinn peered over her shoulder as she swiped the screen. “They’ve changed a lot since we last had them.”

  “If we could find where Ms. West keeps the ones she confiscated, maybe we could take one.” I thought of all the pictures on mine – mostly selfies of Mom and Dante and me – memories I’d brought with me to Derleth to remind me of what I’d lost. It hadn’t even occurred to me to try and steal the phone back.

  Zehra took a scrap of paper from her pocket and scribbled a number on the back. “This is my phone number. If you ever manage to steal one of the confiscated ones, you can contact me on this. Otherwise, I’ll be in the entrance of the south tunnel – the one that leads from the forest by the pleasure garden into the god’s cavern – in a week’s time. If you want to see me again, be there.”

  “We will.” Ayaz embraced his sister again. Trey grabbed his shoulder and dragged him away. Zehra stood by the cave entrance and watched us until we submitted the crest of the hill. When I looked back one last time, she was gone.

  Ayaz walked in a trance, frequently having to stop to re-orient himself. “I can’t believe she’s alive. All these years, I’d convinced myself…”

  “Not only that, but she might have a way to save you.” My mind churned with the possibilities. For the first time, we had a direction, a cause. “If what’s been done to you is a scientific process that happened under Ms. West’s knife, then there could be a way to reverse it.”

  “I can’t believe it,” Quinn kept saying. “All this time they’d been telling us it was the god who brought us back to be its servants. But really, it was Ms. West.”

  Trey walked in silence. I knew what he was thinking – that this tied in perfectly with his theory that the senior Eldritch Club members planned this, even before the fire.

  “Do you guys remember anything from after the fire?” I asked. “Any details you can recall might help us find the lab.”

  “I remember pain,” Quinn said. “A fuckton of pain.”

  “It was the night of the annual alumni dance,” Trey surprised me by speaking up. I waited for him to continue. He didn’t.

  “Can you say more? I want to understand.”

  “It’s a big event for the school, to celebrate the year coming to a close. We’d eaten in the dining hall, and afterwards the school had organized a dance in the gymnasium for parents and students. The parents went first for one of their private meetings, while we all went back to our rooms to get ready and drink and get high. By 8PM every student was in the gym, hitting the dance floor in their finery – Tillie wore this glittering gown that…” Trey cleared his throat. “We were dancing when I noticed something odd. The parents started leaving – first in pairs and threes, then it seemed as if there was a great exodus. I went to find my dad, but just before I could get to them, both gym doors slammed shut.”

  Angry tears burned in the back of my eyes. I couldn’t believe their parents – the very people who were supposed to protect these kids, to love them unconditionally – could have knowingly lured their kids into this trap. Was that how far they would go for more power?

  “I remember…” Trey’s eyes flickered. “I remember carrying Tillie across the gym, heading toward the doors. Her sparkly dress caught fire and she screamed and screamed. I couldn’t see anything through the smoke and there was this scritching noise, like rats running across the floor. Smoke burned in my lungs. I couldn’t breathe. My mind went white – I fell into this deep sleep punctured by brutal dreams. The next thing I knew, I woke up screaming, trapped in the dark, buried in a tiny box where the air was growing stale.

  “They’d buried us, alive but not alive. I could hear the priest’s voice overhead, the sound of parents and families sobbing. The earth above groaned with the weight of their pain. I banged my fists on the lid, but it wouldn’t budge. For hours I wrestled alone with the dark, screaming and begging for release. The air in my coffin must’ve run out, but I didn’t suffocate. The nex
t thing I remember was the scrape of a spade on wood, the lifting of the weight that bore down on me, a bright rectangle of pale moonlight as the lid was lifted and I peered out of my grave. Quinn helped me up. Everyone was there, climbing out of the ground or helping to dig the others out. We all looked alive, felt alive, but we weren’t. Our burns had healed, our lungs good as new, our minds wrung out of good memories and tender dreams. If there was a lab, they made sure we didn’t remember it.”

  Beside me, Quinn shuddered.

  There was no talking after that, nothing to say that could lighten the horror of Trey’s story. Ayaz fell in step beside me. His fingers brushed mine, raising the fire along my arm. I entwined my fingers in his, holding his hand all the way back to school.

  We emerged in the pleasure garden, finding it empty except for Nancy making out with a guy under the rotunda. I assumed it was Paul but when he turned his head, I realized it was Barclay, another guy from Trey’s lacrosse team. Nancy raised her eyebrows when she saw the four of us, but she didn’t stop us or call out. I guess she figured we all had to keep each other’s secrets.

  Trey went in the tunnel first. I followed behind Quinn, my mind racing as the dark closed around me again, the embers of the fire stoked by Ayaz’s touch still flickering inside me. So many things had happened tonight, so many secrets revealed and emotions laid bare. I didn’t know what would happen next, only that all options ahead of us were terrifying – but I did know that unless the guys did something awful to me, there was no way I’d be able to inflict my punishment on them. Not anymore.

  I also knew that right now, tonight, I was barely holding it together, and I didn’t want to be alone.

  As Ayaz emerged from the mirror behind me, I reached out and took his hand, feeling the fire roaring to life inside me. “You doing okay?”

  He shook his head. “I don’t fucking know. It’s a lot to wrap my head around.”