by Sam Crescent
“Don’t cry,” I said.
“I’m sorry. But, what the hell? He paid a fortune for this uniform and look what they’ve done.”
“You’ll be fine.” I went to the supply closet where spare uniforms were kept. I grabbed replacements but then I saw she was still standing there with her arms wrapped around herself, clearly trying to protect herself. “I know the gravy isn’t that great. Come on. You don’t want to be stinking of it all day. It’s horrible stuff.”
She was still crying.
“Don’t cry,” I repeated. “They’ll know they’re getting to you and that’s never good. You’ve got to be a fighter here.”
“I’m not a fighter.”
“You’re in the deep end, Ash, you’ve got to do something.” I pushed her into the shower, keeping out of the way as the water cascaded over her head. I didn’t even know why I was helping her. There was nothing I can do. My dad would have a fit if he knew I was helping a no one.
“I didn’t want to come here.”
“No one ever wants to come here. This is what we do though. We find a way around it.”
“This is what you did?”
“It’s what we all do, Ash. Don’t let them get to you. Come on. Get out of those clothes.”
She sniffled and I waited.
I wasn’t going to strip her out of her clothes. This was the fight she needed.
“I can’t believe you hit that girl with your food tray.”
I thought about the way she sat on Gael’s lap several weeks ago. “She deserved it.”
“I don’t think anyone deserves to be hit.”
I didn’t say anything else. This girl, I didn’t know where she came from, but it was clear she wasn’t from around here. She certainly wasn’t a part of the life either. This world wasn’t for her, not even by a little bit.
“Thank you,” she said.
I turned to see she’d stripped out of her gravy-stained clothes. “What for?”
“For not abandoning me. I … I don’t know what I’m doing.”
I should leave. This wasn’t my fight and I was already trying to make it through high school. The Monsters had made it a lot easier for me, but I couldn’t seem to move. Folding my arms across my chest, I nodded. “No problem. You’ve got to learn to protect yourself.”
“We’re not supposed to have to protect ourselves in school.”
I blew out a breath. “This isn’t like any other school, Ash. You’ve got to learn fast, or next time, it won’t be gravy they’re pouring over your head.”
Chapter Eleven
Vadik
Blood was on my hands.
Blood covered all of our hands. Not right now, but I knew it was there. I counted my victims. Today, my personal death count rose to fifteen.
I sat outside on one of the many benches my father had installed. The truth was I wanted to go and find Emily. Everywhere I turned, arrangements were being made for this fucked-up ball. I didn’t like it.
It wouldn’t be long before I met Emily’s betrothed. She had no idea her father had sold her.
“You okay?” Caleb asked, walking toward me.
“Yeah, I’m good.”
“How come you didn’t turn up?”
Normally, after a raid and kill, I would go hang out with Caleb. We’d talk about bullshit and it would make me happy.
“Didn’t feel like it.”
I hated killing people. Caleb knew that about me, and I thought, in a way, he understood, but at the same time, he also wasn’t quite on board with my reasoning for it. Some of the lives we’d taken, they’d been innocents. With my hands resting on my thighs, I didn’t see what was in front of me, but I saw the wife of one of the men who tried to report us to the police. He’d been working for my father and because he wasn’t paid the right salary to which he felt he deserved, he turned rat. The entire thing went ugly. My dad took his death as a personal responsibility and to the whole of the Monsters, he used it to teach me. That was what Caleb, River, Gael, and myself, always were, a teaching episode.
Our parents didn’t truly care, not really. Well, maybe in some way they did, but it never lasted. Their caring lasted as long as their teaching, or until the next teachable moment. Anyway, the man himself had been chained up. Unlike Caleb’s dad, mine liked to prolong the torture of his victims, so he hadn’t been fed for nearly a week or given any water. He was dehydrated and starving. His wife, she’d been chained up, given sustenance. At my father’s command, I was to shoot her in the leg, in the stomach, in the arms, and then in the head.
I couldn’t not follow his command. At the time, I’d been twelve years old.
This was how fucked up our world was.
We didn’t have the kind of fathers who wanted to play soccer or go to parent-teacher night. No, our dads taught us how to be killers. None of us had any right being at that school. Being around people, let alone near Emily.
She was good and pure.
The kill she made, that was the anomaly.
My dad had ordered me to shoot that woman, but he’d waited hours between commands. Her husband watched her bleed out. Listened to her sobs and her begs until it finally ended.
“What’s wrong with you?”
“Nothing.”
“You don’t seem to be yourself.”
“I’m just not feeling any of this.” I shrug.
“You mean the ball?”
“Yeah, the ball, whatever.”
Caleb looked around. “You know you can’t have these feelings, Vadik. If you do, and they find out, they’ll make sure you suffer more. They’ll train you more.”
I turned to look at one of my best friends. This was why my feelings were so odd. When it came to protecting my boys, I was all over it. No one could hurt them. I guessed when it came to innocents, I wasn’t as much of a monster as I thought I was.
“Dude, I’m sitting on a bench keeping out of the fucking way. There’s a seamstress waiting to keg me out in a tux. Believe me, I’ve got no fucking problem with the shit that went down. I’m keeping a low profile.” The lies spilled from my lips so easily.
“Wow, sorry.”
“You should be. I don’t know what the fuck your problem is, but it’s got nothing to do with me.” I ran my hands down my thighs and stood. “What do you think of this ball?”
“It’s our way for our dads to feel out Crane’s position.”
“You got any more word than the deal he’s made for Emily’s cherry?” I asked.
“Not a one.” Caleb ran his fingers through his hair, looking up toward my dad’s big house.
I hated the monstrosity. It wasn’t a home.
“What is it?” I asked.
I’d noticed for the past couple of days that Caleb had been acting weird and for me to see it, well, something had to be bothering him.
“Do you know anything about babies?”
“You knock someone up?”
“No.”
“Then, no, not a clue.”
He reached into his jacket pocket. Anyone else, I’d have snapped his neck from the threat. This wasn’t anyone else. This was my best friend. He pulled out a folded-up photo and handed it to me.
I’d seen this many times.
“It’s a picture of us when we were kids. What’s the problem?” I asked, about to hand it back.
Caleb put his hand against mine and pushed it toward me. “Look at it. I mean really look at it.”
Taking a deep breath, I opened my eyes wide and stared at the photograph. Like always, all four of us were together.
“Damn it, Vadik, look at the back.”
I flipped the picture over, seeing that this was supposedly taken a few days after we were born.
I looked again at the kid that I knew to be Caleb, and now I wondered. “Why the fuck are you sitting up?” I tilted the picture back to see if he was rested against something, but he wasn’t. He was actually sitting up with no support while looking at the three of us.
“Yeah, you t
ell me how a newborn baby can sit up. I checked it online, it takes months for a newborn to sit up without support.”
“What are you getting at?” I asked.
“Something stinks about Dad, about everything.” He looked up toward the house.
“My dad has better things to do than to spy on me.”
“Oh really, you think he doesn’t have a maid or a guard?”
I grabbed Caleb’s arm, turned away from the house, and started walking. We left the grounds. I always had a weapon in close reach so no one could stop us or question where we were going.
What we needed was some privacy. I didn’t know how far we had to walk to get it, but I kept on moving. We walked down the street and I was accustomed to people crossing the road to get as far away from us as possible. This was what people did. They tried to leave or avoid us.
When we’d put a good distance between my house and any prying eyes, I turned toward him.
“Tell me.”
“My dad warned me about Emily. He told me that the four of us couldn’t share her, not indefinitely. Our natural instinct would be to compete for her affection. For one of us to want her more than the others. A jealousy.”
Shoving my hands in my pockets, I looked at him. I didn’t feel jealous that Gael had touched her pussy first, or River had tasted her. I didn’t even care that Caleb took her lips either. When it came to Emily, all I cared about was what I’d gotten, and the kiss we’d shared in the bathroom had replayed in my head several times over the past few weeks.
I’d never been jealous of my friends. I didn’t care that Gael seemed to find humor in anything, or River’s obsession with knives along with his skills. Nor Caleb’s natural ability to lead.
They were my friends. My brothers. I had their backs just like they had mine. We were one whole, not four separates.
“What does this have to do about the picture?”
“My dad told me this was what he’d gained from experience. It’s clear in this picture I’m the oldest one, Vadik.”
“I still don’t get what you mean.”
“I think there’s something in our dads’ pasts that binds them all together. What if they had an Emily?” Caleb asked.
“But they’ve got wives.”
“Who they really couldn’t give a shit about. Think about the way they treat them.”
It wasn’t old news that their wives were protected, but in truth, not exactly lovingly embraced by our dads. It wasn’t like our fathers were well-known for affection either.
I laughed. “You’re turning this into some kind of soap opera.”
“I believe our dads were just like us. There’s a woman, or was a woman they shared, and I believe I’m the result of that affair.”
I looked at Caleb.
He looked exactly like his dad, but with his mother, there was no resemblance.
“You think you’re older?”
“Yes.”
“What does any of this mean?”
“It means fucking nothing. I don’t know what it means exactly.”
“You’re confusing me right now. Are you trying to prove something or not?” Either way, I wasn’t going to stop pursuing Emily. I’d waited too long, and I didn’t expect us to go after Emily. She’d been on the edge of our lives for as long as I could remember.
We’d all gone to the same nursery. She’d never gotten close to anyone then either. Through kindergarten, and now up to high school.
She’d been there with all of us.
Only, none of us had made a claim to her, not until she made her presence known with killing to save one of us.
Running fingers through my hair, I looked around. We were at the edge of the town. I saw a couple of curtains twitch and smiled.
“You talked to Gael and River about this?” I asked.
“Not yet. I thought I was losing my mind.”
“Come on, let’s go and see what they’ve got to say.”
I texted River to find out he was hanging out with Gael in his basement, playing video games. We made our way over, going straight to the basement. Even in Gael’s house they were making ball arrangements.
Gael tossed me a beer, which I caught, opening the lid while Caleb got them up to speed. River and Gael studied the picture.
“I don’t get what the deal is,” Gael said. “So your ass is older than us. Does it matter?”
I took a swig of the beer. It wasn’t chilled. I put the can down, leaned forward, pressed my hands together, and waited.
“Yeah, I’m with Gael. I don’t give a shit if you’re older than us or not. You’re still one of us.”
“It’s not about me being older or not.” Caleb ran a hand down his face.
“We’ve got ’til graduation,” I said, imparting that piece of news.
“For what?”
I look toward Caleb who nodded. “For us to have our fun with Emily. His dad gave him a time limit. Come graduation, unless our dads find another reason, she’s marrying that tycoon.”
“Or she’ll be dead,” Caleb said. “We all know what happens with traitors. Her life could still be on the line.”
This time, Gael stood and kicked the coffee table across the room. The glass smashed.
Seconds passed and a maid came scurrying into the room.
“Fuck off!” Gael yelled the order at her. “No, that shit isn’t happening. Your dad actually said this to you?”
He repeated to Gael and River what he’d said to me.
River shook his head. “No, fucking no. I’m not having any of it. There’s no fucking way they can do that.”
“They can,” I said.
“So, it didn’t work out for them,” Gael said. “Big whoop. I don’t give a shit what they say, we’re doing what we want. We don’t answer to them.”
“They’re still our fathers. They still have all the control.”
“And they can continue to kiss my ass, Caleb. They don’t get to win this. We’re going to find out what happened,” Gael said. “I’m not letting her go to some old asshole with a shriveled dick.”
I couldn’t have agreed more.
****
Emily
I hated my driver, so seeing him among all four of the Monsters and looking like the grim reaper was on his ass gave me a great deal of satisfaction. He’d made my life a misery.
“I have to take Miss Crane to school,” he said.
“What you have to do is go and suck your own dick,” Gael said.
I heard the door behind me open and I turned so my back was pressed against the stone railing leading down to the path. My dad looked at me, then at his driver. I saw the displeasure increase when he caught sight of my new friends.
“Hello, Mr. Crane,” Caleb said, coming forward. “I hope it’s not too much trouble, but we’d like to escort Emily to school today.” He looked the epitome of pleasant. I glanced down so he couldn’t read my face. I shouldn’t be laughing or finding amusement in this.
When the Monsters wanted something, no one could stand in their way.
“It’s not appropriate for you to take her,” my father said.
I was so going to pay for this. I didn’t seem to care. Watching my dad squirm was fun. He rarely was questioned or pushed like this.
“Are you saying we’re not good enough to take Emily to school?” Gael asked. “Because from where I stand, you’ve pretty much said we’re scum.”
My father’s face went a nice shade of puce. “That’s not what I said at all.”
“I don’t know,” River said. “I’m starting to feel dirty. I don’t like this. If you feel this way, then I’m going to have to tell my father about the way he was raising me. This isn’t a good image to have.”
This escalated so fast. I looked at Caleb then back at my dad, who smiled.
“I’m sorry, boys. You mistake me. I only mean for you to keep her safe for us. Emily means a great deal to me.”
“Oh, we’ll also be taking her out for dinner,” Ca
leb said. “We’ll have her back at nine-ish. Sound good?”
It wasn’t a question, not really. Caleb had already taken my hand. Much to my shame, I shook a little. Fear raced down my back at the gauntlet they’d thrown out. I didn’t even dare to look back. If I did, I’d see the threat there and I’d make this day a nightmare, wondering what pain or punishment he had in store for me. There would be a doctor’s visit, no doubt about it.
Caleb eased me into the passenger seat of his car. They’d only come in one vehicle. River, Gael, and Vadik were all crammed in the back.
“What the hell was all of that?” I asked, turning to look at them.
“You didn’t like how we got you out from your dad’s?” River asked.
“I loved it, but you know he is going to make you all pay.”
“I look forward to it,” Gael said. “I’ve already got plans for how I can hurt him. We all know he likes to fuck that art teacher.”
“Don’t remind me. It’s the only reason she’s nice to me.”
“It’s not the only reason,” Vadik said. “Regardless of how tough you look, you’re nice.”
“I’m not nice.”
“You saved me. I consider that an act of kindness.”
“Next time, do you want me to let them kill you?” I asked.
“Oh, baby, you’d be crying if something was to ever happen to me. We all know you love me the most.”
Caleb pulled away from the drive and I smiled, leaning against his plush seats, feeling free for once.
“Thank you,” I said. “For coming to get me.” I pressed the button on the window, watching it roll down.
I crossed my arms across the window and looked out, basking in the feel of the wind on my face. It felt so good, better than I imagined it would.
Tilting my head back, I took it all in, not wanting to waste a moment.
“You’re weird, you know that, right?” Gael said.
“Can we talk about the new girl?” River asked.
I looked toward Caleb, then behind me at the other three. “What about her?”
“We haven’t met her. We need to mark her as friend or foe.”
“You’re talking about Ashley March?” I asked.
“You met her?”
I told them about what happened in the cafeteria.
