Grimmstead Academy
Submission
Candace Wondrak
© 2020 Candace Wondrak
All Rights Reserved.
Book cover by Melony Paradise at Paradise Cover Design – Premade Book Covers Group
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Chapter One – Felice
Chapter Two – Bram
Chapter Three – Felice
Chapter Four – Dagen
Chapter Five – Felice
Chapter Six – Bram
Chapter Seven – Felice
Chapter Eight – Lucien
Chapter Nine – Felice
Chapter Ten – Ian
Chapter Eleven – Felice
Chapter Twelve – Bram
Chapter Thirteen – Felice
Chapter Fourteen – Payne
Chapter Fifteen – Dagen
Chapter Sixteen – Felice
Chapter Seventeen – Payne
Chapter Eighteen – Felice
Chapter Nineteen – Koda
Chapter Twenty – Felice
Just as a warning, there is some M/M content (meaning male on male) in chapter fifteen of this book, so if you are not a fan of that, you can be aware and skip that part if you don't want to read it. Flip the page to start Chapter One!
Chapter One – Felice
You know those days when you wished you could stay in bed and never get up? Just block out the entire world and, for a little while, pretend your problems didn’t exist? Yeah, that was me today, mostly because my brain pounded with the intensity of a wrecking ball, apparently seeking to break out of my skull.
Bad brain. Brains were supposed to stay inside your head, not try to leave it.
A blanket was tucked in around my body, adding an extra layer of warmth—which was good, because I remembered being so very cold recently—and I struggled to open my eyes. Images of red flashed in the back of my head, a dark and maroon liquid.
Blood. I couldn’t remember where I’d seen blood, but I knew I had, and the fact that I couldn’t remember, regardless of how hard I tried, only served to further freak me out.
My eyelids were like two thousand-pound weights. Neither one wanted to lift or even flutter. They wanted to remain shut and probably sleep the whole day away. But, alas, that was the issue here. I didn’t want to sleep. My head might hurt, my eyes might not want to play nice, but I had to get up. I had to.
I didn’t know why I felt the urge to get up so badly, but I did. It was one of those unexplainable things, a feeling nesting deep within my gut. Like my conscience, whispering commands into my ear.
For whatever reason, I didn’t think it was the first time I’d ever felt like this. Couldn’t say when I’d ever felt similarly, but I knew I had. I knew it in my core. Wherever I was…it wasn’t right.
Finally, after what felt like a ceaseless, unending struggle, my eyelids lifted, and I viewed a dark room. The walls were made of stone, nothing hanging on them. Nothing to say that whoever lived here had a personality.
I slowly sat up, moving my arms out from underneath the blanket on top of me, feeling the sides of my head as it came to me: wait a moment. I lived here. This was my room.
I think.
Truth be told, it was difficult for me to remember anything. How I got here, what led to this, how the heck I was here, in a strange bed, feeling both out of place and at home.
And then, like a tidal wave in my heart, it dawned on me.
Grimmstead. I was in Grimmstead Academy. Not as a student, but as a tutor of sorts. A maid when the occasion called for it. Whatever this place needed me to be, I became. I couldn’t remember getting paid for my work, but living here, money was the last thing on my mind.
The first thing? I…wasn’t sure. I couldn’t remember why I was alone in bed, during what looked like a nice, sunny day. A lone window sat to my far right, just before the door that I knew led to the attached, private bathroom, showing me what I was missing as I lay in bed with a headache and a confused brain.
I heaved myself out of bed, glancing down at my body, finding that I wore a dark grey dress. One whose length sat at my ankles, one whose fabric came up all the way to my collarbone. Long-sleeved, the opposite of immodest. My boots were still on, too.
Kind of nasty, wearing shoes in bed, but maybe I’d been too tortured with this headache to want to take them off.
There had to be some kind of pain medication around here somewhere. A nurse? Some kind of in-house doctor?
My feet drew me to my bedroom door, which was closed. After I threw it open, I spotted a small black figure sitting in the hallway, staring up at me as if it had expected me to come out right then.
A black cat with shiny yellow eyes and a thick coat.
Midnight.
“Hey, boy,” I spoke to him, slowly kneeling down before him. I was ninety-nine percent sure Midnight didn’t like most of the others in Grimmstead; for whatever reason, he took exception to me.
Midnight yawned, flashing his sharp, pointed teeth. He then let out a meow and trotted down the hall.
I watched him go, wondering if he wanted me to follow him. It was as good of a plan as any. I had to find the others, had to talk to…had to talk to who? My mind drew a blank when I pictured the headmaster’s office. I could picture the desk, the windows, the walls of bookcases on either side, but I could not recall who it was who sat in that big, tall, leather chair.
Did I hit my head? Was this some type of concussion situation? I was certain I’d met the headmaster, because he was my boss, but I couldn’t remember him. Not even a little.
In fact, now that I thought about it, I couldn’t remember any of them. Not a single soul that I’d met in Grimmstead lingered in my head. It was like their faces and their names simply vanished out of my head in a puffy cloud, going poof.
Call me psychic, but I knew that wasn’t good.
I followed Midnight down the straight hall. Other rooms sat on my right, while the back of the building was to my left, nothing but stone and windows, peering out over Grimmstead’s property, the woods sitting just behind it. Midnight took me to the grand staircase, his lithe body practically leaping down the stairs as he made a sharp left.
Midnight was only a cat. Odds were he wasn’t leading me anywhere.
When I stared down the first-floor hall, I froze for a moment, a chill creeping up my spine and causing my skin to grow cold. Further down, I knew there was a room. A room whose door was locked at all times, a room I was not allowed to go into, along with the door to the basement.
Rules were there for a reason. I shouldn’t think about it.
I trailed after Midnight, into the first office whose door was open. The headmaster’s office. I recognized the large windows behind the desk, along with the cluttered bookcases on either side of the room. What I did not recognize, however, was the man sitting at the desk, writing something down with what looked like a very old-fashioned pen.
He was handsome, though. His body wore a suit that was out of time itself, but it didn’t look bad. His brown hair was combed to the side, his angular jaw clean-cut, save for the thick sideburns near his ears. He was pale and slender, but an air of author
ity radiated from him.
Midnight hopped onto the desk, stretching out as if he’d been sleeping before plopping down and making himself comfortable…right on top of the paper the headmaster was writing on.
I was barely in the room. He’d been so focused on that paper he hadn’t noticed me yet. Didn’t know if that was a good or a bad thing. He let out an incredulous chuckle at Midnight’s audacity, and he ran a hand over the cat’s body, causing Midnight to begin to purr.
I didn’t think I’d ever heard Midnight purr, and I was also fairly confident Midnight didn’t like anyone else.
Also, why was I having the darnedest time remembering this man’s name? He was both familiar to me and unfamiliar. I knew I’d seen him before, but he still felt like a stranger.
“Um,” I broke my silence, causing the headmaster’s sparkling eyes to snap up to meet my gaze. “Sorry to interrupt. I—”
“Felice,” he spoke, abruptly pulling his hand off Midnight and dropping the pen onto his desk—which Midnight promptly swatted onto the floor. “How are you feeling? You hit your head pretty hard earlier when you passed out.” He moved around his desk, allowing me to see just how tall and lean his body was under that suit. His face was both elegant and mature; I’d put him somewhere in his thirties.
Totally too old for me. Also totally off-limits, since he was my boss.
But…if he was my boss, why did my mind flash to another man, someone who was gruff and surly-looking, someone with a beard and tired, hazel eyes? I didn’t know who the man in my head was, but there was no way a fine man like that could simply be a figment of my imagination, right?
Ugh. What the heck was going on here?
As the headmaster moved closer to me, I felt the back of my head. No spot seemed particularly more tender than any other. My brain did pound like crazy though, so what he said had to be true.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered, angling my head to meet his eyes. He stood about a foot in front of me, wearing a concerned expression, staring so intently at me my lower stomach felt like a cage for a thousand butterflies.
Any straight woman with eyes would declare this man a handsome one, even if his appearance did call to a time period long gone. This was the twenty-first century. Men didn’t wear suits like that anymore, and for most men these days, it was either a fully-shaved chin and jaw, or a full-out beard.
His brown eyebrows creased, and he looked at me so raptly I felt my cheeks blush. “Why are you apologizing to me, Felice?” My name rolled off his tongue, and my mind—through the pounding headache—wondered what else he could use that tongue for.
Okay, that was definitely too inappropriate a thought to ever repeat.
“I don’t…I’m sorry, but I don’t remember your name,” I said, hoping I wasn’t coming off as rude. The absolute last thing I wanted to sound to this man was rude.
He lifted an arm, swiping the backs of his fingers across my forehead gently. It was…almost a loving touch, if I didn’t know any better. “You must’ve hit your head harder than I thought.” As his hand fell back to his side, he gave me a slow smile that set my heart racing. “My name is Victor Grimmstead. I run this little academy.”
Victor Grimmstead. The name was both familiar and unfamiliar, but I knew, somehow, I shouldn’t question him.
“I’m so sorry,” I apologized for the third time, immediately wanting to smack myself. I sounded the opposite of smooth. Being in the presence of this man made me all sorts of confused. “I feel terrible for forgetting your name.” I really hoped Victor wouldn’t fire me and kick me out; that was truly the last thing I needed.
I might not have known much in that moment, but I knew I didn’t want to go home to my father and his knowing looks. My past…if there was one thing Grimmstead could help me forget, it was my mistakes.
“Don’t,” he said. “Like I mentioned, you took a pretty bad fall. I brought you to your room, hoping you’d sleep it off.”
“You didn’t call an ambulance?” I didn’t know why I had to ask that, but I did.
Victor gave me a warm smile. “We…don’t need those at Grimmstead.”
Okay. That was a weird thing to say. In a medical emergency, everyone needed an ambulance. I mean, besides some memory loss, I seemed to be fine, but still. What if I’d gotten knocked out from the fall and never woke up? What would he have done then?
“Everything that happens here is contained to the property. This place is, you’ll find, unlike any other.” He offered me his arm. “Come. You look as though you might benefit from some fresh air.” Victor spoke like someone who was alive decades ago, regal and refined, holding his nose up as he spoke.
He seemed…haughty. Haughty and yet, there was still something about him that drew me in. Like a moth to the flame. And, for once, in this analogy, I was the moth and not the beautiful fire.
I was hesitant to touch him in any way, but not strong enough to deny him. I slipped my arm through his, linking us, feeling his warmth seeping through his sleeve and into me. And you know what was strange? Just like that, I felt better. Just like that, my headache was gone. I felt…completely at ease with my arm linked through his, like this was always where I was meant to be.
Victor brought us out of his office, leaving Midnight lounging on his expansive desk, and led us to the grand front door. He pushed it open, leading us out, into the bright, unyielding sun. The light of day had never seemed so bright and harsh, and I found myself squinting as I gazed upwards at the endless blue expanse.
A drop of water hit my nose, and I recoiled, having not expected it.
“Is everything alright?” Victor asked, his arm tightening against his side, firmly locking my arm with his.
I used my other hand to swipe at my nose, but my fingers encountered no wetness. No random drops of water on this otherwise sunny day. Was there ever a droplet at all, or was it merely in my head?
“Yes,” I said. “It’s nothing.”
And then, would you guess what happened next? As Victor and I stood there, as my eyes scanned the green grass around us, something darted into view. Something strange ran right up to us, standing no taller than my chest.
A child.
A boy.
A boy who wore a uniform that was the male, childlike version of the dress I wore. Dark grey slacks that seemed almost a size too large for him. A white button-up shirt with long sleeves, tucked into those same slacks, along with a belt to keep it all in.
The wind tousled his black hair, his eyes a beautiful, lively green. His cherub face put him at maybe ten years old. I stared at him in shock for a moment, and then, what was even weirder, the boy lunged at me, wrapping both arms around my stomach as he hugged me.
Yes, the boy was hugging me.
“I’m so glad you’re okay,” he whispered, only pulling himself off me because Victor gave him a look.
“Koda,” Victor spoke with a slight frown, “where is Bram? You’re supposed to be keeping an eye on your brother.”
Koda let out a sigh, sounding very much like a petulant child. “He’s in the woods, with Payne—” He might’ve said more, but footsteps rushing through the grass behind me caused me to stop listening.
I threw a look over my shoulder, spotting another two boys playing tag, from what it looked like. Or, more accurately, one was running away while the other attempted to follow…and failing. The blonde boy had to stop after a while, bend over to catch his breath. They both looked to be around the same age as Koda, maybe a few years older.
Young kids. Grimmstead was a small academy for children. Right.
“You know he needs you to guide him,” Victor advised. He unhooked his arm from mine, kneeling down before Koda. “You have to be together, because when you are apart…” He trailed off, for it must’ve been a talk he and Koda had often.
Darn. I really wished I could remember.
“I know,” Koda whispered, jutting out his bottom lip and pouting. “Fine. I’ll go get him.”
“An
d bring Payne as well,” Victor spoke as he stood. “We’re going to have an early dinner tonight. I’m sure Felice is ravenous.” His eyes moved to me, dropping to my feet as he…checked me out?
Or maybe that was in my head.
“Will you be fine out here, or should I bring you back to your room?” Victor spoke, waiting until Koda had run off. “I have to notify the kitchen of our early meal.”
“I feel better,” I said, speaking the truth.
He gave me a smile that again set my stomach tumbling. My thighs might’ve also clenched a bit. How long had it been since I’d had sex? I knew it’d been a while since my ex…but, for some strange reason, even though I felt like I’d had sex recently, I couldn’t remember when or where. Or, heck, even who it was with.
“Good.” He set a hand on my arm, lightly touching my elbow, a tender gesture that made my skin hot all over. “Then I shall be back in a few moments.”
I watched him leave, watched as he disappeared inside the large, three-story structure that was a home to us all. A house for wayward souls…not sure where that thought came from, but I was almost certain I’d heard it somewhere.
I rubbed my hands against my arms, feeling bizarrely cold as I stood there in the early evening sun. My head turned toward the two boys who were playing tag. They were like night and day, based on appearances. One looked to have black hair and matching eyes, while the other was blonde with light eyes. They both looked happy, even if the blonde one had to stop every so often and catch his breath.
This was Grimmstead. This was my home. As strange as I felt here, alone among all these boys, I knew it in my heart of hearts.
I belonged here.
Chapter Two – Bram
I didn’t chase after her. Didn’t run. Felice might try to sprint away from me, but she would get nowhere. Felice still didn’t know the truth of this place, and that’s what gave me an advantage. At least for a little while, with Lucien and Payne dead, Koda locked away in my head and Dagen and Ian sealed in a room.
Grimmstead Academy: Submission Page 1