by Bob Dattolo
“You’re such a romantic, Levi. Really. I can see why the girls flock to you. As for pissing on me? Go for it. If I’m dead, I don’t give a shit what you do to me. Want to get your rocks off and bust a nut in me? On me? Don’t care. Try any of those when I’m alive, though? I’ll eat your tiny cock before you can even think to tuck it away.”
He hit the table and stood, “I’ll show you a tiny cock!”
“No thanks. Keep your shriveled pee-pee to yourself.”
He growled, but Shane cracked a smile that Levi walked into that. Good, they’re not complete losers. “I pray to God that I’m the one that gets a piece of you.”
“Me too.” His eyes widened at my response. “Then we’ll see who’s better. Stronger. The mighty and majestic gold dragon in the form of a bully 18-year-old kid with an attitude. Or the seven-foot-tall freak of a dragon with no known affinity.” I drained the last of my hot chocolate and stood, “We only have to wait until Wednesday. Then we’ll see what’s what.”
He snorted and sat down. “Get lost, stricken. Go hunt for memes about trash so that you can say bye to your family.”
Instead of making a comment about his parents killing themselves to get away from him, I walked past their table and left. They all made various comments about me, but none sounded like they were going to come after me.
More and more hints about them being responsible. Two groups making the same comments? Are they seriously working together? That’s possible, yet in a school like this, how likely is it? Am I that much of a threat or that hated that people would really band together like that? I’m not really sure how many people know that my wins weren’t luck. Okay, total luck. So far it seems that I’ve been hiding things at least decently. So if that’s the case, why would they bother to band together?
A familiar face caught my attention, and I headed in without meaning to. Angelica stood near one of the racks of clothes, looking at a shirt. She caught me looking, “What do you think?”
“Umm, it’s nice?” She’s looking at a shirt that I just bought. A different color, but still the same.
“I was thinking about buying some things, but…if everything goes wrong on Wednesday, I’m not sure it’s worth it.”
“Uhh, yeah. True.”
She stared at the rack for a moment, then turned towards me, “What’re you up to this morning?”
She continued walking, so I fell in beside her even though I wanted to go a different direction. “Just wandering mostly? People are being weird. I ran into Levi, Wes, Ryan, and Shane.”
“What’d they say?”
“Just…stuff. Levi wants to kill me first. I won’t make it out of the trial alive. That sort of thing.”
“Yeah, well, he can try. Lord knows people are gonna be hunted. That’s pretty much a given. You have more power than he knows, so I have a feeling he won’t like running into you.”
“He’s a known threat.”
“Right? It’s the unknown that are the worst. Hard to plan for, that’s for sure.”
Is that a hint? “What are you doing if you’re not buying something?”
She shrugged, but continued her slow walk, “Don’t know. You’re right. People are being weird. Not that I don’t get it. I feel weird. Last Saturday before the trial? Could be the last one ever if something goes wrong.”
Okay, that’s a bit too close to what I said earlier. Is she listening to me? Was she there when I talked to Kaylee? “I was wondering if it’d be worthwhile going into town.” I so did not mean to say that. I also didn’t entirely mean it.
“That’s a possibility?” She continued walking. “Dangerous. Like you saw with Alison. So easy to trip up and get torn to pieces out there. I know second and third year classes go out more. I was thinking about hanging out until lunch. Maybe watch something online. You want to join me? Kynal and Gage are playing some sort of game. No idea what it is.”
“Umm…no thank you? I may skip going into town due to the threats. But…I don’t know. I may just go back to my room.”
“Okay. Have fun. You know where I am if you want to do something.” She left without looking back, leaving me behind as I slowed to a stop.
Now my mind is really whirling like crazy. What the fuck, man. Were those hints about her destroying things? Clothes and online and being torn apart…it’s like she’s taunting me. Yet we’re allies! Or supposed to be.
Except turning on an ally is an artform here.
So is she doing that? Or were those just innocent comments?
More wandering before I found myself back at our room. There’s a sticky note on the door from Parece saying they decided to swap rooms to give me space to myself. Ookay? No idea why they’d do that.
Tears came to my eyes as I stepped in as frustration welled up.
My sheets and blanket are confetti. The pillowcase has to be in the mix since the pillow looks to be whole. My newest laptop? Crushed. Again. I had a couple things on the desktop, and they’re also destroyed.
The door shut behind me as I moved in, sniffing again and again, trying to get more information from what’s there already. I don’t smell anyone unfamiliar. My roommate and her friends were the last in here. I can’t tell when they left. I can’t tell if any of them touched any of this stuff. It doesn’t smell like it.
Hmm, no one touched my dresser, so let’s see if…destroyed. All of the clothes that I put in here are wrecked. Torn to shreds.
Including the shirt that Angelica was just looking at.
“Who the fuck is doing this?”
Everything got collected and I shoved it all in a bag as I fought more tears. My closet door is closed, so nothing in there was touched. That’s good. I hate to think that I’m more broken up about stuff getting destroyed than me being attacked, yet here we are.
Once I was sure I cleaned up the evidence of everything, I stared around the room more. “I don’t know if this is worth it. I really don’t.”
This is wearing me down. I feel like a nub. The pressure of the trial coming up quickly and this clandestine from the shadows bullshit? I’m a fucking nub right now. Let’s go throw this crap away and maybe think about not buying another laptop.
Chapter 29
Waking Sunday morning didn’t find me in a better frame of mind. At all. I had hoped I would be. Prayed I would be. I’m not, though.
Every dream last night was about this crap. Waking up to find things destroyed. Walking in to find things destroyed. That’d happen, and the walls wall fall down all around my room and reveal who did it. One time it would be Levi. One time Shane. Parece. Samantha. Paige. Kynal.
The worst was when the walls would fall down, and it’d be all of them. Every other student. Including ones I’ve never even spoken to. Including dead ones.
Needless to say, that doesn’t put me in a fantastic frame of mind this morning as I stare over at a sleeping Parece.
The roomie that’s not there.
What the fuck?
I’m out of the bed on silent feet and to the door to the bathroom in a flash. No sign of her. She’s not in the shower. Not using the toilet. Not at the sink. I don’t hear her breathing over in the other room. Where is she? She’s never been awake before me before. She definitely slept in the room last night. She was asleep before I was, and her sheet and blanket are messed up from her being there. I even remember seeing her at one point when I rolled over between nightmares.
Yet now she’s not here?
No note on my desk. Nothing out of sorts. Nothing broken. Torn up. Not much to tear up. I bought extra sheets and a blanket, and they’re in the closet.
So where did she go? Why so early?
More confusion clouds my head as I throw on some clothes and put my hair back. I’m gonna need food here soon, and I’m at a loss on pretty much everything. Every step forward that I take, I end up with more and more confusion coming back at me. Like I’m looking in a fun-house mirror and seeing on into infinity as the tunnel of mirrors bends up and away.
It’s just that every iteration comes with mounting confusion. Fears. Hesitations.
A soft knock at the door has me opening it not even a second later, finding Kaylee there. She’s leaning against the door jamb and manages to look up as blood drips from her face. “Help…” I had to catch her before she hit the ground.
She didn’t move as I brought her in. “What the fuck? Kaylee? What happened? Who did this to you?”
She didn’t react other than to groan as I put her down on the couch, laying her out so that I could check her over. She’s bruised to hell. Her face is already showing black and blue marks. One of her eyes is swollen, although it’s not shut entirely. She has blood coming from a spot above that eye. From her nose. From her mouth. I can’t tell if she’s missing any teeth, but her jaw looks swollen on one side. She has blood coming from that ear, although that’s dried. Her throat looks like someone grabbed it and squeezed. Hard. There’s a literal handprint of black and blue there.
She doesn’t react as I lift her shirt a little, looking for more bruises. Someone punched her chest more than once, and I’m seeing at least six black and blue marks that look suspiciously like fists. I can’t tell if her stomach is bruised.
Her feet are bare and splashed with blood. Her legs are also splashed. She has shorts on, with black and blue marks on her thighs poking out from them. My fears increase as I lean in and sniff. I don’t smell cum, so I’m praying no one raped her. She doesn’t move as I lift the legs of her shorts as much as I can. They don’t look like handprints, like from gripping, I just can’t tell what the bruises are from. Pulling her waistband out doesn’t show me anything that makes me think someone tried to rape her, so that’s good. I don’t smell any blood from there, which is an even better sign.
She doesn’t even twitch as I head to the bathroom and grab a wet washcloth and come back to see if I can clean her off. Blood comes away from her face as I lightly blot so that I don’t hurt her bruises. She still moans through it, which has me trying to go lighter.
Rinse and repeat.
I didn’t notice it, but her hands are bruised. She fought back? If so, who against? I don’t smell anyone on her, but I’m not sure if that really means anything when it comes to something like this.
It takes more than 20 minutes of lightly cleaning her before her eyes open and I know she’s seeing me. She’d been in and out before that, and I was getting worried that she was more injured than I thought.
“Jesus, Kaylee, are you okay?”
She looked around, smelling like panic before she tried to sit up. It took holding her shoulders down before she stopped fighting and tears came to her eyes. She started to smell even more like fear as she clutched at my hands, “Is anyone else here?” Her voice is low and creaking, as if it’s work for her to be heard.
“No. It’s just us. What the fuck happened?” I held up the bloody rag, “You showed up here and someone beat the shit out of you at 5am?”
She clenched my hands tighter, “I…I don’t know what happened. I woke up and was going to try to meet you. I got dressed and went into the bathroom. When I came out, everything was wrecked. My sheets. Blanket. Computer. Everything in my drawers. I…my closet door was open…”
“Fuck. They got everything in your closet?”
“It’s all destroyed. I…I didn’t feel safe, so I left to find you. I don’t know who attacked me. I swear there were at least two. All I saw was movement from the side, and I was hit into a wall. Then…I never saw who they were.” She sniffled.
“I’m so sorry. This is so fucked up.” I want to hug her, I’m just not sure she’ll be okay with that. “I tried to clean you up as much as possible. Do you want to try to take a shower?”
She nodded, then shook her head, “I don’t have any clothes to change into.”
“Just put on what you have. Or you can borrow some of mine. We’re close enough for that to work.”
“Can I?”
She let me help her up and get some clothes for her, then help her to the bathroom. She’s walking better by the time we get there, which is good.
“Umm, do you mind staying? I don’t really feel safe right now.”
“Yeah, I can do that. Just wait here?”
She looked away as she nodded, “Yeah, please?”
“I won’t leave.”
She stank like fear as she went into the shower area, so I made sure I was in the same exact spot when she got out. She looked like she felt better, which is fantastic to see. She was already dressed in the clothes I got for her. She used my deodorant and brushed her hair, all the while the scent of fear kept wafting from her. It probably didn’t help that her bruises are pretty clear in the mirror and are obviously still hurting her based on her wincing.
She joined me back in the room and leaned against the couch, “I don’t know what to do. I’m so hungry, but…” she cradled her stomach, “everything hurts. I don’t want to be beaten to death any more than I want to be killed in the trial.”
“I’m so sorry. I haven’t eaten. We can go together. Safety in numbers?”
“You’d do that?”
“Yeah. C’mon, let’s get some food.”
“Okay. I have to stop at the stores and pick up more things. I just want this to end.”
“Me too. Let’s go. I’ll go with you and help get things.”
“Okay.” She joined me in the hall, then had to head back in, coming out with her phone. “I’m sorry. Other than the clothes I had on when I got here, this is the only thing that made it. I was playing a brick breaker game.” She showed me the one I have on my phone.
“Mindless fun, right?”
“Yeah. Sometimes you just need something that’s not this mess. That won’t turn on you and try to kill you.”
She fell in at my side as we headed for the caf. There aren’t many people awake this early normally. Fewer on a Sunday. So we didn’t run into anyone until we reached the caf. No one stood out to me, so we picked up food and then retreated to a table to huddle together. She sat right next to me, smelling even more like fear as we faced the entire room.
“Don’t worry. Just eat. We’ll figure out what to do.”
“Okay. Thank you for helping.”
“What are allies for?” Seriously, I want to know why this crap is okay with people. None of this makes sense.
Her fear scent was much lower by the time we were done eating. We talked for a bit, then only had to wait about a half hour for the stores to open. That started a mini shopping spree. She tried everything on as I waited, trying to watch everyone around us. Do they look like they’re gloating about what’s happening? Wes walked by at one point. I’m not sure he saw me. he didn’t seem to be acting like he did it. Gage walked by another time. Same with him.
All around me, I’d feel magic firing periodically. I couldn’t really track it or figure out who was doing it. At least for the most part. One girl was listening in on a conversation in the next store, but that seemed pretty normal to me. At least given where we are.
It took just about an hour for us to get what she wanted. She didn’t want to buy everything again in case they go after her once more, so it was a good number of bags but nowhere near what it would have been otherwise.
I helped her unpack and then left her to a nap when she couldn’t stop yawning. I was tempted to stay there and tuck her in and watch over her, but that seemed a bit much. Instead, I headed back to my place.
The first thing I noticed when I opened the door was that my closet door was open the tiniest bit. Fuck, I never closed it after getting clothes for Kaylee. Thank God no one…
My world stuttered, and tears started. My sheets and blanket and pillowcase…
Fuck. My body was numb as I stumbled farther into the room. I left my phone here by accident and never realized it. It’s destroyed.
Something stuck out from the closet door in the little crack, and my heart dropped as I reached the door and swung it open. Everything…everything’s destr
oyed.
My knees cracked as I hit the floor and stared at everything. Shoes…destroyed. Everything in the cubbies…destroyed. My hands are shaking as I start to root through things. Nothing and more nothing intact. It takes a billion hazy years to search it all. Literally the only thing not destroyed is my paperwork from the school, which I hadn’t even realized was in folders that seem to have a protection on them. Kinda like what’s on the closet, just weaker. Wait, what about the grimoire?
Ancient confetti. After however many decades and decades, some fuckhead here destroys it.
Rage blossomed as I stood, trembling, and staring across everything. I so didn’t even realize everything looked slightly smaller and farther away until I tried to step back into my room and smashed my head into the top of the doorframe.
I shifted and never even realized it. The clothes I had on are fucked and spread out around me on the floor.
I now have zero clothes and an overflowing river of unfettered rage.
My wings go out, but they can’t spread in here. I want them to spread. I want to tear into things and feast on them. I want deaths by the hundreds. Thousands.
Magic swirled out of me as I concentrated on what I wanted, and everything that’s destroyed was picked up and hidden behind a black shadow as I stalked from the room. Two girls from farther down the hall stopped dead as I stepped out and let the door close behind me. I didn’t bother stopping to question them and demand they stop staring. I doubt they’ve seen a dragon in a dorm room before.
No one stopped me as I walked out. Gaping mouths and shocked expressions galore. People calling others. No one even tried to stop me. No one said anything questionable. No one said anything that makes me think they were involved in what I just found.
That’s good, because any even vague hints would have resulted in my claws ripping them to shreds.