by Graham Wynd
The devilish girls of Sigma Tau Nu
There’s simply nothing they wouldn’t do–
1958: Sandra Delites is packed off to college in Connecticut after an ‘incident’ with another girl. Her father thinks a small town university will be just the thing to straighten her out, only he hasn’t reckoned on the sisters of Sigma Tau Nu. Not just any sorority, their rites are bloody and the girls are hot – but not for the boys! President Trixie Faust sees a lot of potential in the newest pledge and Sandra is eager to learn: the thrill of the kill is just the beginning for these college girls gone wild.
Halloween will be extra scary this year. Forget black cats, you don’t want one of these sisters to cross your path.
Praise for Graham Wynd
‘Extricate blends forbidden passion and noir so seamlessly, it’s remarkable. Wynd has a very strong voice, and the prose just floats you through the story. I’m always looking for great stories that come from great writing, and Graham Wynd is someone I’m going to look out for in the future.’ -Liam Sweeny, author of Dead Man’s Switch
‘A twisty-turny noir tale of dishonor amongst thieves that is skewered with hot lust and cold blooded murder.’ -Paul D. Brazill, author of Guns Of Brixton and A Case of Noir
‘Crime meets erotica in a fevered novella. Graham Wynd has written a fluid and tight story with vivid characters in situations that are inextricably charged with a sexuality from which you will find it hard to extricate yourself.’ -Richard Godwin, author of One Lost Summer, Apostle Rising and Mr Glamour
‘A fantastic tale of friendship and deceit, interspersed with sex, drink, cards, a loveless marriage, dodgy dealings, but mainly sex as Peter’s obsession and addiction to his best friend’s girl leads him down a dangerous path.’ -Col’s Criminal Library
#11
Satan’s Sorority
Graham Wynd
#13 Press
ntp-13A11
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Copyright Graham Wynd, 2015
Cover design copyright Number Thirteen Press, 2015
All characters and events are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
All rights reserved.
Published by Number Thirteen Press
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for the Connecticut crew
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‘Some kill their love when they are young,
And some when they are old;
Some strangle with the hands of Lust,
Some with the hands of Gold:
The kindest use a knife, because
The dead so soon grow cold…’
from The Ballad of Reading Gaol, Oscar Wilde
i
“What the devil is wrong now?”
Sandra DeLites winced at her father’s outburst, but for once he wasn’t talking to her. The trunk he had been hauling into her room caught on something and jerked him back by his arm, until he managed to work it loose with another angry tug. Muttering curses under his breath, he shoved it into the corner.
Her father looked around the room, scowling. The effort of carrying things up the steps of the dorm had not helped. His black hair was thinning on top and the sweat made his greasy forehead shine. His Brooks Brothers suit was badly wrinkled. “These are a lot smaller than I remember.” He’d done nothing but complain on the ride up from the city, his voice echoing around the big old Ford coupe. As if it weren’t his choice to send her to this Godforsaken wilderness – or whatever it was you called Connecticut.
He decided. Sandra paid the price.
“Your roommate should be here soon. I checked up on her, called her folks.” Her father lit a Lucky Strike and exhaled a blue cloud of smoke in the small dorm room. At least it would smell like home. “A good girl. Well brought up, church and all.” Her father sniffed. “Not that it’s proof of anything, I know.”
Sandra knew that was her cue to look shamefaced, but she had grown tired of it. If you apologized and apologized and nobody ever forgave you, what was the point? “Can we go look around the campus? I haven’t even seen what it looks like and classes start tomorrow. I won’t be able to find anything.”
Her father considered this as he smoked and paced around the tiny place. “We’ll go find the library. You should spend a lot of time there, studying. Being grateful you got this opportunity.”
He’d say it was her fault. Because of ‘the incident’ as he now referred to it. You’d think he’d want to keep her close, under lock and key as she had been most of her life since her mother died. He’d always kept her on a short leash.
It was his sister who changed his mind. Aunt Margaret blamed the problems on her all-girl finishing school. “Send her to a big public university. She’ll learn to act normal.” Margaret sneered down her long cigarette holder, the tight curls of her Lucy-red hair bobbing slightly. “None of this artsy farting around. You been too soft on her.”
God, how she hated that woman. But what could she do? It wasn’t as if she could afford college on her own. Sandra dreamed sometimes of running away, but she’d seen what happened to runaways in the lurid magazines Cindy brought back from her beautician’s. Everybody knew that the white slavers got them, even if the girls all disagreed on what that meant. It was something to do with sex – something depraved.
Sandra shivered just thinking of it. Even college in Connecticut couldn’t be as bad as that. Lots of the other girls at school eagerly looked forward to sex, but the idea only filled her with dread. She supposed that’s what led to ‘the incident’ but it didn’t bear considering.
Except that’s all she could think about.
They went to the library, which was one of the old buildings so at least it looked decent. All the new buildings were ugly and functional. There was even a Quonset hut in one corner of the campus. Her father said it was probably just temporary, but it looked worn and old. He stopped them to watch the sports team running through some calisthenics on the field. The boys all looked like what Auntie Mame called ‘Aryans from Darien’ and Sandra sighed inwardly. She would never fit in with these people.
“You go to every game. Watch the guys play.” He inhaled another Lucky Strike as he watched the young men go through their paces. “But you’re not joining any teams,” he added with another frown.
“They might require me to take a physical education course or two.” Sandra knew she was trying his patience, but even a good girl had to make her mind known sometimes. Not that he would care, but she didn’t quite want to lie down and die. Not yet anyway.
“Then you do badminton or croquet or something. Nothing with jumping around and whatnot.” He ground the cigarette stub under his foot as if it were her objections or maybe her face. Her father pointed at her to emphasize his disgust. “You stay away from those sporty girls.”
Sandra’s face burned red. She looked around to see if there were anyone near enough to hear, but the rest of the casual audience was far enough away not to hear his shameful remarks.
“Oh, and one more thing,” her father said as they started back up the steps to her dorm room. “You’re going to join a sorority.” The way he said it meant she had no choice in the matter. For a moment her anger at having her life so completely managed by him drowned out any sense of despair. Wasn’t a person allowed to make mistakes? Could she never be forgiven?
“You know I’m not much of a joiner-”
He turned so suddenly she drew back on the stairs. His voice was almost a hiss in the quiet. “You will join a sorority so that there are people watching out for you and keeping you from your weaknesses and mistakes. No daughter of mine is going to… ruin herself.” He turned away and continued up the stairs, muttering, “Not if I have anything to do with it.”
/>
Sandra saw nothing but a blank wall that seemed to be closing in on her. A little part of her whispered, he can’t keep that close of tabs on me from the city, but if she was going to be surrounded by spies the whole time – what was the use?
“Hi, I’m Penny!” The cheerful voice of her new roommate greeted them at the door. She looked everything perky and suburban and, well, as Connecticut as Sandra could imagine. The two girls shook hands. Mr DeLites made a big show of cementing friendship between them.
“I know you’ll keep an eye on our Sandra. She’s not the most astute of girls. There was a bit of trouble in her school, but I hope she’s straightened herself out now and will keep on the righteous path.”
Sandra wanted to sink into the floor. Bad enough that her roommate would think she was stupid, but such a baby, too. She did her best to meet Penny’s cheery smile but it felt sickly on her lips like a wet noodle.
“We fresher gals have to stick together. We’ll be best pals in no time.”
Sandra couldn’t think of anything to say so she kept the rictus of a smile on her face, trying not to think about four years of this mortification.
ii
Trixie shouted through the impromptu megaphone she had made with a sheet of card stock. “Sign up if you dare! Sign up if you care! Per Ignem ad Lucem.”
Lois elbowed her, laughing. “You’re going to get us thrown out.” Despite her fears, the crowd filling the student center lobby mostly seemed to ignore them. People were either crowding around their chosen houses or ignoring the rush tables all together.
Trixie grinned down at her from the chair she was standing on. “Why? We have as much right to be here as the others. Just because our sorority is newer doesn’t mean a thing. We have a charter, we have members. And we only need one more.” The smile turned to a more predatory look. “Sigma Tau Nu, we need you!”
Most of the girls had gone to the big old houses already. Chances are they had sisters or mothers or aunts who had pledged to those houses and they wanted to carry on the family tradition. Or they wanted to be in the houses that were paired with the best frats. Trixie sneered at the Kappa’s table directly across the foyer. Big dumb guys who would spend four years drinking beer and then take jobs in their fathers’ or uncles’ or frat brothers’ businesses and complain about how hard they worked and why couldn’t those lazy poor do the same. She loathed every ounce of their white bread flesh.
Four years before, Trixie had come on a scholarship from a small former mill town, one of the poorest areas in the state. She had been meek and fearful. Now she was head of a sorority with a difference. The thought made her grin again. She had tasted power and decided she liked it – and her plans to make that power even stronger were nearly complete. All she needed was at least one new pledge.
Trixie was not a woman accustomed to disappointment. She did not expect to make a closer acquaintance with it today. Her gaze swept the crowded entry way looking for the right target, a girl who could complete the thirteen.
Then suddenly it was as if a beam of light shot through a window, like in the old paintings in her childhood church. A girl stood in the exact center of the lobby, her face showing confusion, weariness and a desire to escape. There was something in her look that suggested someone just searching for a way out. It didn’t hurt that she was also a knockout. Not like a matinee idol. The dolly didn’t even guess how hot she could look. In fact, she looked like a graduate of an all-girl school who’d never had a dab of lipstick on her pouter.
Trixie smiled like a barracuda.
Hopping down from the chair she pushed her way through the crowd to the angelic blonde. “Pledge with us! Don’t get lost in the crowd.”
The girl looked startled then gave a hesitant smile. “Which one are you?”
“Sigma Tau Nu, how do you do?” Trixie gave the girl a quick peck on the cheek and winked. “We’re friendly, too.”
“We were planning to pledge with Delta,” said another voice. Trixie turned to regard the speaker – another young woman, clear eyed and no-nonsense. “My mother was a Delt, so was Sandra’s aunt.” Trixie noticed the golden girl wince a little at the mention of her aunt.
I can so work with this!
“No harm in checking us out, too, unless you’ve already made your minds up. We have some sweet fun for rush week. We are newer than the Delts, and smaller, but we like to think of it as intimate.” Trixie winked at the golden girl, Sandra, and shoved some flyers that they’d run off on the mimeograph into their hands.
“Small sounds good, Penny,” Sandra said at last, looking down at the flyer. Trixie liked her voice. The gal didn’t look very confident, but her voice was direct and clear, a surprisingly low contralto that made her want to lean forward to hear it more clearly in all the cacophony.
“But the Delts are the best,” Penny said. Trixie guessed they were roommates. There wasn’t the sort of warmth between them that suggested friends, even new friends. In fact, Sandra seemed particularly closed up on herself.
Curiouser and curiouser, and doubtless good for me.
“The Delts are the best for a lot of people,” Trixie said, looking only at Sandra. “But not everyone wants to be part of a crowd.” She winked again, like a bad habit suddenly acquired, and turned away. “Is that girl still looking over this way?” she asked Lois when she got back to the table.
Lois pretended to be fluffing the hair at the back of her neck. “You betcha. I think we have a chance there.”
“I certainly hope so,” Trixie murmured in a way that made Lois frown at her.
iii
The rush party lived up to its name. The crowds of chattering co-eds seemed to flow from house to house without a stop, almost without a breath. The stream of young men on the opposite side of the street helped create a maelstrom of tension as they flirted back and forth across the lane. The giddy mood infected almost everyone.
Sandra felt almost sick. The press of people at the Delta house made her feel faint and irritable. Penny’s voice seemed to raise an octave as she giggled and screamed with laughter in concert with the other girls. It had taken a herculean effort to prise her away from the arms of her sisters-to-be, but Sandra felt more and more curious about the other sorority house, the one nobody seemed to know much about.
“Sigma Tau Nu? Oh, those new girls,” the Delta rush coordinator said with a dismissive wave. “I don’t know what they’re up to. Not very chic and no history. What’s the point?”
“History has to start somewhere,” Sandra said but the woman had turned away already, pinning carnation corsages to the next arrivals. Even now, as they walked along Penny chatted excitedly about all the events to come that fall and how much she was looking forward to dances and football games and snagging a Kappa.
Sandra shook her head. That was no world for her. But Penny didn’t notice anything. She didn’t stop chattering until they arrived at the Sigma Tau Nu house to find red candles leading up the steps and a string of Christmas lights around the door.
“How strange,” Penny said with a frown. She held her skirts close, afraid they might catch fire.
Sandra followed in her wake. It was strange but she felt an odd prickling sensation on the back of her neck that made her think strange is good.
“Hello you gorgeous dames!” It was that woman Trixie again, a broad smile on her face. She was wearing a slinky cocktail gown, like a nightclub singer. It made her look much more grown up, not like the country club whites most of the rushing girls wore. Sandra suddenly felt childish, but Trixie only smiled. “Here, have a rose.”
She pinned a red rose next to the white carnation from the Delts. Lines from a poem they read in high school rose up in her mind: Oh rose, thou art sick! But she smiled and bent her head to smell its perfume. “That’s nice.”
“You’re not supposed to give roses until a girl’s been accepted,” Penny said, her tone officious. She always knew the rules.
Trixie smiled. “Sometimes you just know wh
en someone’s right. Shall I give you a tour around the house?”
“What’s that?” Sandra pointed to the girls playing a sort of game on a coffee table in the parlour.
“Oh, that’s a spirit board. We just play it for fun.” Trixie winked at her and Sandra felt that strange sensation again at the back of her neck.
“I know a girl who went insane using one of those,” Penny announced. “She was a friend of my cousin and she summoned up a demon and now they have her in a straightjacket.”
“It’s just a game,” Sandra murmured and stepped over to the bookcase against the wall. It was hard to see the books because the room was rather dark. There were candles in here too. Voices were subdued, not the chirpy cacophony of the Delta house. Sandra found it soothing and leaned closer to the barrister-style bookcase. A lot of the books looked really old and their titles were in Latin and other languages she didn’t recognise. She was surprised to see the case was locked.
“Some of the volumes are quite valuable,” Trixie said in a low voice. “Normally we leave the case unlocked but when we have strangers wandering through, well-”
Sandra nodded. “There was this amazing bookshop I used to go to in the city. All kinds of old books with weird illustrations and whatnot. The proprietor, Mr LeMarchand, loved to show me the rare ones, once he knew I was interested.”
“Philip!” Trixie seized her arm, pulling Sandra close. “He’s an old friend of the family. I adore him.”
A sudden rush of happiness filled Sandra. It had become a novelty to feel happy. Since she had arrived at the campus her days had been dull and empty. And before that – since the incident – happiness was something that happened to others. But there was something about the way Trixie looked at her. Suddenly she blushed and tried to pull away. “I- I should… mingle.”