by Ivy Clyde
Entering it, I roamed the empty corridors, looking into vast halls that were lined up with exercising equipment. It looked like a gym with several floors, catering to the students of the academy. Since it was lunch hour, the place was mostly deserted.
It seemed like a good place to hide until lunch hour was over and I could go back to the Science building for the rest of my classes. It was better to go hungry than face Andrei at the moment or worse, find myself in Dimitri’s company again.
I sat down on a bench in a vast empty room with a polished wooden floor and an entire wall made of glass. My gaze went to the drying scratches on my knees. They looked ugly and dirty. Getting back to my feet, I decided to go to the bathroom and clean up the wounds. Maybe I would even have time to go to my room and put some band-aids on them.
The bathroom was located on the far end of the corridor outside the dancing studio. Reaching it, I pushed the heavy door open.
My feet barely moved inside when the sounds of splashing water and pained moans reached my ears. I spotted two girls with their backs toward me, standing inside a stall with the door open. They were shouting obscenities and laughing. The sound of someone’s struggles reached me next.
It didn’t take a genius to figure out that a bullying scene was playing out before me. I was about to turn around and walk away when a voice stopped me in my tracks.
“Where do you think you’re going, freak?”
“I’m getting out of the way,” I said, facing Miranda. She had a sneer on her pretty face as she beckoned me with a finger. “I think I’ll find another bathroom to use.”
She chuckled softly, glancing toward the stall where her two minions were most likely torturing another kid. “Bring her out. I want the newbie freak to take a look at what we do to those we don’t like.”
Three girls came out of the open stall, dragging an almost unconscious kid between them. It only took a closer look for me to recognize the person who was slumped between them. It was the same girl who sat with me in the Computer Science class. Her clothes were sopping wet. Water dripped from the ends of her braids and she was barely able to keep her eyes open.
“What did you do to her?” I asked in a tight voice.
“Nothing much,” said Miranda with a shrug of her petite shoulders. “We were just trying to flush away the dirt from this disgusting whore.” The pleasant smile on her pretty face was in complete contrast to what she’d done to the girl. There were dark bruises on her face and the exposed parts of her arms and legs. They’d also probably forced her head into the toilet to choke her.
“I don’t want any trouble,” I said, taking a step back from Miranda and the girls who kept their gazes trained on me. “You guys do what you have to do. I won’t tell anyone.”
Miranda and her gang laughed like I’d said the funniest joke. “Who will you tell, freak? And who will believe you?”
I stared at the expectant smile on her face as she twirled a lock of blond hair around a long, slender finger.
The bullies and delinquents of Kensington High could never compare to the monster that stood before me. They carved their bodies with tattoos, wearing their inks like armor, warning people to stay away until they wanted trouble. Miranda had no such marks on her. The girls around her looked like pretty runway models with flawless complexions and beautiful hair.
They are all monsters with angelic faces, I thought as Dimitri’s face flashed in my mind.
The world of Knightswood Academy was different from my old one. There was no way to know who or what you were facing.
A gagging sound turned all our attention to the girl who’d been left to slump against the door of a stall. She gagged again, proceeding to vomit all over the floor.
“Eww!”
“Gross!”
The girls screamed in disgust, rushing past me to get to the door. Miranda stared down at the girl like she was repulsed by the sight of her. “Until next time, freak,” she said in a low, laughing voice as she walked past me.
The stench of bile made me scrunch my nose. For a moment, I wondered if I should just leave the girl lying on the bathroom floor, covered in her own puke. It would definitely keep the bullies off me. “Yeah, right,” I scoffed under my breath. “They’ll never leave you alone.”
I kneeled down beside the girl who was softly whimpering now. Pity rose up within me. They’d roughed her up pretty badly.
“Hey, can you get up?” I asked in a soft voice.
She whimpered, keeping her face turned away from me.
“I won’t hurt you. Please let me help you. I’ll take you back to your room.”
A moment passed.
She slowly turned her head toward me. “Who are you?” she asked in a low, rough voice.
“I am Skye. I sat next to you in class today. Remember?”
“Yeah.”
“Do you need help to get up?” I asked. “Let’s get you cleaned up and then I’ll take you back to the dorms.”
She nodded as she tried to push herself into a sitting position. Groans escaped her. I moved forward to get my arm under hers and hauled her to her feet. A part of me lamented as vomit spread on my spotless white shirt.
“There you go,” I said, encouraging her as she slowly trotted toward the sink. Nikolai would buy me a hundred shirts if I asked, I told myself. He was already giving me a generous “stipend” for every month that I was spending at Knightswood Academy. It was more money than I’d ever made working for Sergei.
I put my arm around her waist as she attempted to wash her face. Tears flowed down her face as she hiccupped from the constant sobs escaping her.
“What’s your name?” I asked after a while.
“I am Stella Savant,” she said through a choked sob. Her fists balled tightly at her side as she swallowed hard. She was desperately trying not to cry.
“It’s past lunch hour already. Let’s go back to our dorm so you can use the shower to clean up better.”
“Yeah. The sink’s not enough to get the stink off me.” She suddenly turned toward me, her large brown eyes filling up with tears. “Why are you helping me? Miranda won’t let it go. She’ll come after you too.”
“Miranda had it for me before I met you. She wouldn’t stop coming after me no matter what I did or didn’t do.” Exhaling a long breath, I added, “I honestly don’t care for her. I have bigger battles to fight.”
She blinked. Her crying stopped after listening to my little speech as she stared at me like she was really looking at me for the first time.
“Come on. Staying in those wet clothes can’t be pleasant.”
“No.” She stumbled forward but my arm around her waist kept her from hitting the ground.
“Go slow,” I advised, tightening my hold on her.
Her face was crumpled in an expression of pain but she was being brave, allowing me to take her out of the gym building. She hissed and gasped from time to time but had stopped sobbing.
I breathed out in relief once we reached the dorm building. The hallways were empty at that hour, allowing us to reach the elevator without anyone seeing Stella’s state. Entering the elevator, I asked, “Which floor do you stay on?”
“Eighth.”
“Cool. Same as mine.” I hit the side panel and the elevator jerked to life, carrying us upward.
Reaching the landing, we slowly made our way to her room which was closer to the elevators. A few people in the corridor saw us but no one came forward to enquire about Stella’s state or offered any help.
“Wait. This is my room.”
She hit the access code on the panel beside the door and opened it. I helped her inside, taking in the interiors of her room. The layout was similar to mine but it looked cozier. She’d probably lived there long enough to make a home out of it.
“Do you want me to stay?” I asked as she started unbuttoning her shirt.
“Please. I don’t know what I’ll do if I stayed all alone here.”
“Do you mind if I came
back in a bit? I need to change out of these clothes too.”
She gave a nod. “I’m sorry your clothes got dirty because of me.” Suddenly, she was sobbing again. “Miranda’s right about one thing. I am really dirty.”
“Hey, it’s okay,” I said, moving forward to stand before her. Brushing away the tears from her bruised cheeks, I said, “Just go and take a shower. I’ll be here by the time you come out.”
“Thanks.”
I watched her go further inside the apartment. Once the sound of the bathroom door opening and closing reached me, I hurried out to reach my own suite. It was the first day of school and I’d already missed classes that afternoon.
Going inside my room, I headed for the bathroom too. Helping Stella had me covered in puke and toilet water too. Stripping off my clothes, I walked inside the shower stall.
The hot, steamy water felt amazing after hauling Stella all the way up here. My muscles loosened up, relaxing me.
After the shower, I got dressed in casual clothes. There was no going back to school for the rest of the afternoon. Stella needed me to be there for a while. A part of me questioned whether I was doing the right thing by getting involved with her. The other option was to let someone suicidal stay on their own when they clearly asked for help. A frustrated noise escaped me as I walked out of my apartment. Why couldn’t I just walk away from dying, wounded people? Helping Andrei and Dimitri was the reason I was here in the first place, working for a mafia lord.
However, no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t get myself to regret saving their lives.
Reaching Stella’s room, I checked on her. She’d come out of the bathroom by then and was standing by a window. At the sound of my approach, she turned around.
“I didn’t think you’d be returning,” she said in a low whisper.
“Sorry, it took longer to shower and change,” I said, moving forward to stand beside her and looking out of the window. It had a better view of the woods fencing the grounds. “Have you reported those girls for hurting you?” I asked after a while.
A hollow laugh escaped her. “No one would believe without concrete proof. There’s only one unwritten law in this school. If you want to go up against someone, you better have proof with you. Don’t know if you’ve noticed but there are barely any cameras on this campus.”
“Really?” The lack of surveillance in the academy’s library did get me curious before. I’d assumed the rich, prissy kids who went here were so well behaved, they didn’t need cameras to monitor them. However, the reason had to be something else. Knightswood Academy was hosting two mafia lords as well as psychopaths like Miranda and her gang of friends. They probably kept surveillance as low as possible so that these predators could prowl the corridors, hunting their prey.
“If you’re smart enough to hide your tracks, you can get away with murder,” said Stella, turning grim eyes on me.
“What if I vouched for you?”
She shook her head. “Are you crazy? Tattletales are not tolerated at Knightswood.”
A heavy sigh escaped me. They weren’t tolerated in my old school either which was why I stayed away from everyone and hid under my hoodie.
“Are you new here too?” I asked after a while. “Why is Miranda after you?”
“I’ve been here since tenth grade,” said Stella, walking away from the window to sit at the edge of her bed. “Miranda hates me because her boyfriend lies to her about me all the time. She believes I throw myself at him. The truth is that he’s drugged and raped me. He’s the one who forced himself on me. Not the other way around. I tried to explain things to her but she won’t believe me.”
“That’s fucked up.”
“He even taped the whole thing. He’s got screenshots where it looks like we’re being totally intimate. Last year, he spread those photos all over the school and threatened to send them to my dad if I spoke to any of the faculty here.”
“So, you have to endure what he did to you and get stuck with Miranda’s torture.”
“Yeah,” she said with a nod. “I don’t know if I’ll survive this place until the end of the school year. Miranda’s violence is getting worse. She might truly want me dead.”
“How great is this boyfriend if she’s so crazy over him?”
“It’s Saxon McLaughlin,” she said.
“Who?”
“You don’t know Saxon McLaughlin?” she asked, her eyes wide like she was talking about Mahatma Gandhi and I was an idiot for not knowing about him.
“No. Who is he?”
“He’s the heir to the De Reers group.” She again stared at me like I should know who he was by now. When I stared at her blankly, she continued. “They are the largest distributors of diamonds all over the world. Saxon and his brothers are the heirs to the entire empire. Most of the girls at the academy want to hook up with him.”
“Great. Rich girls want richer boyfriends. Gotcha!”
“He’s not bad looking either,” she said with a sigh. “But he’s horrible. If he wants something, he gets it. There’s no one around to stop him. His money and contacts make him invincible.”
“We’ll see about that,” I muttered under my breath.
An anxious look came over her. “I really appreciate what you did for me today but don’t even think about going up against someone like Saxon. He’s a monster.”
“I’m getting used to being around them,” I replied. Letting a smile come back on my face, I said, “If you ever want to talk to someone, come to me anytime. Even if I can’t help you, I am always willing to listen.”
A ghost of a smile came on Stella’s lips. “Thanks. I haven’t trusted anyone in a while.” After a short pause, she continued. “Please, stay away from Miranda and her boyfriend. You don’t need people like them coming after you.”
“No.” To put her at ease, I said, “You want to go and have some coffee in the cafeteria? I didn’t get to eat lunch and I’m starving.”
“Same here. Give me a minute and I’ll get changed,” she said, gesturing at the bathrobe she was wearing.
I left her to change, walking out into the living room area. It was hard to decide whether I was making a mistake befriending Stella. Of course, she would never know what I was really doing at Knightswood Academy. As long as it didn’t affect the job, I doubted Nikolai would care.
Exhaling a long breath, I sank into a couch, planning about the stuff I needed installed in my dorm so I could get started with the job.
18
Skye
It had been hours since I went to bed. The room was dark, the only little illumination coming from the moon rays filtering through the curtains at the window. Everything was quiet.
Then, what woke me up? I wondered, staring up at the dark ceiling. As the haze of sleep gradually lifted, I became aware of the heavy arm draped over my stomach. My heart jumped into my throat as I hurried to get off the bed but was pulled back into a hard chest.
“Who are you?” I shouted, struggling against a powerful man. “How did you get in here?”
“Will you quiet down?” hissed a familiar voice.
“Christian?” His hold around my waist loosened, letting me scramble under the bedsheets to sit up. “How were you able to get in? I made sure the door was locked.”
“I know the access code.” He’d gone back to lying on the bed. I couldn’t see his face in the dark but his eyes gleamed in the faint moonlight. “Where were you this afternoon?”
“I got stuck in a bathroom inside the gym,” I replied as Christian’s warm hand slid along my leg. He stopped just as he felt the rough edges of the bandages on my knees. “Do you know a girl called Miranda?”
“What about her?”
“I got in trouble with her the first thing this morning. If it wasn’t for Andrei…”
“Andrei helped you?” he asked at once. “That’s the reason he was you with during English?” The tone of his voice changed completely. “You let him get close to you on the first try. Goo
d job,” he added bitterly.
“He wanted to get to know me.”
“Of course. Your looks are enough to draw him out.” He drew in a shuddering breath. “So what happened this afternoon?”
“I wanted to avoid both Andrei and Dimitri during lunch,” I said, feeling Christian’s hand on my bare thigh. “I went inside the gym building to use the bathroom and ended up coming across Miranda bullying one of my classmates. Long story short, I got held up trying to get the girl back to her room.”
“Was it Stella Savant?”
“Yeah.”
His fingers gripped onto my thigh. “Don’t get involved with her and Miranda. They’re nothing but a waste of space and time. Concentrate on getting close to Andrei and Dimitri.”
“I don’t want to get involved,” I said, kicking my leg to throw his hand away from sliding any higher. “But what am I supposed to do if Miranda comes after me again? She’s already nicknamed me ‘freak’. I doubt she’ll leave me alone.” Moving over to the side, I switched on the bedside lamp. At once, the room was washed in a warm glow.
Christian put his hand up to shield his eyes. “Why did you do that?”
“I want to see your face.”
A chuckle escaped him, lighting up his handsome features. The warm feeling that washed over me surprised me as I felt a grin come over my lips.
“If Miranda comes after you, deal with her in any way you can,” said Christian, turning his body toward me. His ash-blond hair was a mess. He was still dressed in his uniform but the shirt was crumpled and the first three buttons were open, giving me a glimpse of his hard, chiseled chest. “Uncle wants you to play the role of the helpless girl he picked up from the streets. Basically, play yourself.”
I frowned. “I am not helpless.”
“You’re not?”
Picking up a pillow, I smashed it on his face.
He snatched it away from me, glaring at me with his hair falling down his face. “Don’t get feisty with me.” His voice was low but full of warning. It sent a thrill of fear shooting through me but I held onto my anger.