by S. L. Stacy
“Mr. Hart was last seen on your premises, correct?”
Victoria shrugs, throwing her hands helplessly in the air. “I suppose he was.”
“Yes or no, Victoria,” the president of Panhellenic Council says crisply.
“Oh, good God,” I exclaim, standing up. “This is a Panhel meeting, not Law & Order.”
The president turns and glares at me through the black frames of her cat-eye glasses. “You had your turn, Siobhan. Let her answer the question.”
“Yes, and I already told you: Jasper was at our house that evening. He dropped me off and left.”
“And that was it?”
“Yes,” Victoria and I say together, probably a little too quickly.
“Look, no one else—like the actual authorities—is pressing charges against us,” I point out. “This is really unfair. You have no right to grill us like this.”
“We have…no right,” the president repeats, every part of her quivering with laughter except the shiny bob of her hair, sprayed perfectly into place. In a lavender skirt and white blouse, a string of pearls glistening at her throat, she looks like an aspiring Stepford wife. “The administration is considering banning Greek life at Thurston. All Greek life. They see…sorority formals gone awry, sex tapes being leaked, students going missing.” She paces back and forth while she lectures, patent leather shoes clicking on the floor. Victoria watches her warily from the hot seat at the front of the room. The rest of us sit behind the amateur prosecutor, opposite Victoria. “All of these things have a common denominator: Gamma Lambda Phi. We promised the administration we would handle this in our own community—following our own bylaws. And I can promise you one thing: If Gamma Lambda Phi is going down, the rest of us are not going down with you.
“Now, maybe we don’t exactly know what happened to Mr. Hart. But we do know that, only days later, you reported junior Carly Dragonjac—one of your own sisters—missing.”
“Yes. She is one of our own,” Victoria says, sitting up a little straighter. “We would never put any of our sisters in harm’s way. And, even if we did do something to her—which we didn’t—why would we report her missing?”
“Um, to look less guilty.”
“You’re unbelievable!” Victoria shakes her head, upper lip curling. “I am sitting here, putting up with all of your inane questions and accusations, when you have no hard proof to back them up! When a bunch of us heard Carly’s phone ring, in her pocket!” She points at Samantha Carson, who’s sitting somewhere behind me. “That’s a much better lead to go on! You have nothing on us!”
“Carly presumably went missing Friday night, after the first day of rush. You didn’t file the missing person’s report until Saturday evening!” the president fires back. “What took so long? One of your sisters was missing! You should have been sick and frantic with worry!”
“We were! Of course we were!” My big sister shrinks back into her seat. “We got a text from her saying she was with her boyfriend, so that’s what I assumed up until the first party. But when Siobhan asked Alec, he said he hadn’t seen her!”
“And yet you still didn’t do anything about it until after your rush parties were over.”
“I—I was hoping she’d turn up. I didn’t want to get campus police involved if it turned out to be nothing—”
“And you still finished out recruitment. You all looked like you had a blast at the masquerade—”
“Oh, come on. Even you know we had to put in a good showing. We can’t just abandon our pledges—”
“In fact, none of you have seemed to be the least bit upset that you don’t know where she is! Although you were quick to blame the Alpha Rhos—whose president, I might add, had an unfortunate accident at one of your dances—”
“There was a flash flood!” The protest comes out as a squeak. The corners of Victoria’s mouth tremble, her amber eyes flickering around the room, absorbing all of the accusatory faces. “We would never hurt anyone!”
I glance behind me at Rebecca, sitting quietly beside Samantha. This seems to be her queue to stand up and announce to the entire room what Victoria did to her. She wrings her hands in her lap, but her lips remain sealed. I wonder how Farrah convinced her to keep her mouth shut.
“You couldn’t possibly think we would hurt anyone, especially one of our sisters,” Victoria continues. “My own roommate. My friend.”
“Oh, but I do.” The president of Panhel turns her back to us, creeping closer to Victoria. “I think you did do something to that grad student, and to your own sister. I know we can’t prove anything here today, but we will get your charter revoked—”
“You can put down your knives and pitchforks, ladies.”
We all turn as one to the back of the room—toward the last voice I expected to hear today.
There are more than a few gasps of appreciation as Jasper saunters in, tugging at the material of his black silk shirt. “As you can see, I am very much alive. My dead body’s not lying in a ditch somewhere or sinking to the bottom of the Ohio River. It’s going to take much more than a bunch of ditzy sorority girls to get rid of me.”
“We are not ditzy,” our fearless Panhel president says through gritted teeth.
“Still, now you know the Gammas aren’t luring unsuspecting students into their basement, dismembering them, and hiding their body parts in bags all over Shadesburg.” Jasper smirks as she brings a hand to her mouth, her face turning green. “Party’s over, Panhel. Now we can get back to more important things, like agonizing over the theme for Greek Sing.” Despite his callousness, I have to suppress the urge to run up and fling my arms around him. I try to catch his eye, but his midnight blue gaze is focused solely on Victoria. She gapes at him, partly in astonishment, but mostly with relief. Her eyes fill with a fierce kind of hope—as though, through this one small act, she and her half-brother will finally recover from years of animosity.
“I don’t see why this asshole showing up changes anything,” Samantha says, charging angrily to the front of the room. “So he’s back, alive, whatever. That doesn’t mean they didn’t hurt Carly. And what about all that other stuff? Their formal, the sex tape, ruining one of our rush parties—”
“We’ve all gotten a little crazy at our formals from time to time,” the vice president of Panhel admits, rising to her feet. “And we can’t really prove they had anything to do with the video that got posted—except for your word. Or that they ruined one of your rush parties.”
“But what about Carly—”
“What about Carly? Like Victoria said, you’re the one that had her phone in her pocket. But it’s more likely none of us had anything to do with that, and we should be working together to find her. As for the rest of it? This is starting to feel an awful lot like a feud that needs to be settled between Alpha Rho and Gamma Lambda Phi—not something that has to involve Panhel. I vote we drop this and let the administration know we have no reason to suspect the Gammas of something foul. If they still do, they can get the authorities involved.”
The president gives a resigned sigh and says, “All in favor of dropping all charges against Gamma Lambda Phi, raise your hand.” All arms, except for Samantha’s, go up in the air. “Panhellenic Council has agreed to drop all charges.” She turns back to Victoria. “You are free to go.”
Everyone makes a lot of noise as they get up, chatting excitedly, moving on quickly after putting me and Victoria through the emotional wringer. I break free from the crowd, running out into the hall to look around for Jasper, but he’s already gone.
“Looks like we’re in the clear,” Victoria says behind me. I turn around to find her punching the air in triumph. “Yay!”
“You are the worst sorority girl, ever,” I tell her. “This is how it’s done.” I start jumping up and down, squealing and clapping my hands. After a careful glance to the left and right, Victoria joins me, and soon we’re hugging each other and crying tears of relief.
“If you ever tell anyone I just did that, I will kill
you,” she says once we’ve calmed down.
“You better not say that too loudly,” I remind her, lowering my voice.
She cringes. “Good point. Look, I know you’re still mad at me. You have every right to be.”
“I’m trying to get over it. Really, I am. I know how it feels to do something out of desperation, but there had to be another way. You don’t have to go it alone, you know. You should have come to one of us. Asked us for help.”
“I know, I just…panicked. This whole thing feels so hopeless. I’ve never been in the dark like this before. I’ve never…lost before. And letting the Alpha Rhos get away with everything started to feel an awful lot like losing.”
“That’s what I keep trying to tell you: It wasn’t them. We’ve been looking at this all wrong. It had to be the Sigma Iotas. Like Tanya said, we went to their party that night. And Alec was acting really weird the next day.”
“Fine,” she concedes, “but that doesn’t get us any closer to finding Carly. If the Sigmas are all under Eric’s control now, they’re not going to tell us a thing.”
I give her another brief hug. “We’ll figure it out.”
“I hope so. Let’s go back to the house,” she says, starting for the doors. “Tell everyone the good news!”
“You go ahead,” I tell her, spotting Rebecca coming out of the ladies’ restroom. “I’ll catch up. Rebecca! Hey, Rebecca!” I call out, jogging up to her. Rebecca stops and turns reluctantly toward me.
“What do you want?” she asks, frowning.
“I just…I just wanted to say I’m sorry,” I tell her in a rush. “For everything. I know you guys didn’t post the pictures, and…I know it wasn’t you in the video. And Victoria really screwed up. We all really screwed up.”
Rebecca’s soft gray eyes study my face. “So did we. I can’t say I speak for everyone in Alpha Rho, but I’m sorry, too.”
“Thanks for not saying anything earlier,” I add in a whisper. “About yesterday.”
She gives a strange, amused chuckle. “You have your house mother to thank for that.”
“What did she tell you?”
“She reminded me to look at the bigger picture,” Rebecca recalls. “That we shouldn’t be fighting like this—we should be working together. Protectors of the air”—she points to me, then to herself—“protectors of the water, against a common enemy. I’m mad as hell at Victoria, so it’s hard for me to see the big picture, but I’m trying. I’m trying.”
“Thank you for that. We’ll try to see it, too,” I promise her. I watch her rejoin Samantha, who glares at me as she takes Rebecca’s arm and tows her out the door. Pushing into the ladies’ room, I bend over the sink, splashing my face with some cool water to wash away all the sweat and tension from this morning.
How did it feel, killing Sam?
I bring my face up, clutching the edge of the counter until my knuckles turn white, as Eric’s presence slams into me.
It felt good, didn’t it? he taunts me through a head-spinning, telepathic laugh. I knew it would. I knew you’d like it. Underneath, we’re all the same. We’re all predators. Humans put on some fancy clothes and high-tech gadgets and call themselves civilized, but underneath they’re still the same monkeys that came hobbling out of their caves, hoisting clubs over their shoulders. Killing is just like breathing. Or eating. Sleeping. Pissing. Fucking. Just another part of survival.
Killing is wrong, I think back. I’m only partially aware that I’m staggering around the bathroom, clutching my head. Sam was going to kill me. I was defending myself—only I took it too far. I never meant to kill him. I wish I’d stopped myself.
But you couldn’t. You didn’t want to. Just admit it to yourself: You’re a killer, Siobhan—
Get out of my head—
You’re as bad as they come. You’re the worst. You don’t belong with Gamma Lambda Phi. You don’t have any honor, like Victoria. You belong with us. You belong to me—
“GET OUT OF MY HEAD!” My screams echo back to me off the bathroom walls as I roll around on the floor, unable to bear the weight of Eric’s possession any longer. I pour what’s left of my strength into giving him a huge, mental shove. “GET OUT! GET OUT!”
Just as suddenly as his presence seized me, I feel it let go. I even imagine I see it lifting out of me—a formless, white, smoky thing. For a moment I remain curled on the floor, breathing heavily, bracing for the moment when it dives back inside of me.
When it doesn’t, I use my hands to push myself up, getting shakily to my feet. I look at my reflection in the mirror, the color drained from my already pale face, my violet eyes practically popping out of my head. They flick to the shield pendant knocking warmly against my chest, emitting a soft, yellow glow. I reach around the back of my neck, applying pressure to the clasp with my thumb—
Don’t take it off yet! Please!
I hesitate, shuddering at the unfamiliar voice breaking into my thoughts. It’s too weak and faint to be Eric’s, so I take a second to say, I told you: I don’t want any part of the army. I’m taking this thing off. Severing any connection to you—
You won’t if you want to help Carly.
I’m overwhelmed once again—this time, with an image of Carly, floating unconsciously in a dark abyss, just like in my dreams. I drop my hands. What do you know about Carly? Who the hell is this?
Apate’s brother. Your friend Carly is with me.
She’s what? You let her go, you son of a—
He cuts me off with an irritated sigh. I can’t. We’re trapped. You have to come and rescue us. And you’d better be quick about it. Carly isn’t doing too well.
Chapter 28
Back at the house, our living room swarms with sisters and pledges, the air filled with nonstop chatter and joyous laughter. Tanya circulates the room, expertly balancing a silver platter of brownies in one hand. She beams when she sees me. As she winds her way toward me, hands reach out to snatch brownies off the tray. By the time she proffers it to me, only flaky brown crumbs remain.
“Oh!” Tanya cries, brow furrowing at the empty platter. “I’m sorry!”
“You didn’t make extras?” I ask hopefully.
“Harriet made them,” she says, pointing to where Harriet’s sitting on the couch, watching Maddie devour her brownie. “I guess she didn’t make enough.”
“I guess not,” I grumble, my stomach giving a desperate groan. “Well, that was thoughtful of her, anyway.”
“We’re celebrating!” Tanya sets the tray on the coffee table so she can throw her arms around me. “I knew you and Victoria could do it! I knew we’d be okay!”
“I can’t say we deserve all the credit,” I admit, pulling out of the hug. Or any of it. “Where is our big, anyway?” I do another scan of the crowded room. Farrah and Athena stand off to the side, solemn-faced as they confer quietly.
“Upstairs. She said she’d be right back.”
“Good. I need to talk to her. To all of you. It’s about Carly.”
Tanya’s mouth falls open. “What about Carly?”
“Everyone!” Victoria calls above the din, crossing the last few steps into the living room. “Can I have everyone’s attention, please!” The noise fades as we turn in her direction. Even Farrah and Athena cease their discussion, attentive eyes on Victoria. “First, let’s just take a moment to savor the fact that Panhel is off our backs!” Cheers and snaps go up around the room. Tanya pumps her fist in the air, letting out a mighty whoop. Victoria holds her hands out for silence. “We know we didn’t do anything wrong, but there are still those on Panhel that remain suspicious, so we have to be on our best behavior. We really dodged a bullet with this one, and I don’t want to give them any more reasons to come banging on our door again. That means our feud with the Alpha Rhos stops now. All of our efforts will go toward finding Carly—”
“Unfortunately, Panhellenic Council isn’t the highest authority you have to worry about,” Harriet interrupts, rising from the couch and stridi
ng to the middle of the room.
“Harriet, if you have something to say, please wait un…until…” Victoria’s thought trails off, eyes widening, lower lip trembling. We all watch Harriet’s legs elongate as she shoots several inches in height in the time it takes me to gasp for a breath.
Unlike Apate’s disguises—the manifestations of some sort of mind game that vanish in an instant—bones crunch and muscle bubbles as Harriet continues to grow, her figure filling out into a more classically feminine shape. A healthy golden glow returns to her complexion, her dark brown hair feathering around prominent cheekbones. Her eyes shrink, the brown irises dotted with gold flecks, while her pale lips plump and ripen like someone’s just injected them with Botox. The khaki dress she’s wearing doesn’t grow with her and clings to her newly developed body like an old skin she’s shedding.
I’ve been so busy watching Harriet transform, that it takes me several minutes to realize that Victoria, Athena and even Farrah have thrown themselves on the floor, heads bowed. The rest of us fall to our knees before our former pledge, because—well, when you see Farrah and Athena on their knees, you get on your fucking knees.
“My Queen!” Farrah keeps her gaze on the floor, a slight quiver in her milky voice. “Mother of Women! Supreme Leader! Your Gloriousness—”
“That’s enough, Aphrodite,” Hera snaps. “Get up! Get up, all of you!” Shoes squeak over the hardwood floor as we scramble to our feet.
“Your Magnificence! I didn’t know it was you!”
Hera gives a throaty chuckle. “I know you didn’t. Otherwise you wouldn’t have told Harriet she needed a makeover.” Farrah’s face turns stop sign red. “I had heard that not all was well here,” Hera continues, “but the state of your chapter of Gamma Lambda Phi is much worse than I had feared.”
Victoria takes a cautious step forward. “With all due respect—”
“Silence!” Hera booms, and my big sister’s mouth zips closed. “My claim, my family and my world have been threatened, and I come here only to discover that the very women charged with protecting them have devolved into a bunch of silly, materialistic, childish fools.” She looks like she’s parting the Red Sea as she sweeps up the center of the room, my sisters diving out of her way. “You’re more concerned with clothes, make up, parties, petty feuds and frat boys than guarding the walls between our universes. You are fodder for campus scandalmongers and an embarrassment to this institution.”
