by Mae Doyle
“I’m sorry,” I tell Clementine, cutting her off in mid-sentence, “but I need to pee. Is there a bathroom?”
“Oh, sure.” She points behind the building I saw earlier and I dart off to it, hoping to reach it before the devils realize that I ran off.
There are loudspeakers somewhere in the clearing and the music they’re pumping is full of a low bass that I can feel in my veins. I have a panicked feeling as I cut behind a tree and lean against it, the bark digging into my bare arms.
Music fills my ears but I think that I made it out of there in time. There’s no way that the devils saw me run away from Clementine, and after they’ve stopped looking for me, I’ll be able to go back out there and find my friends. I just…I can’t be caught on my own.
They wouldn’t really hurt me, would they?
Before I can give that question too much thought, the snap of a twig behind me causes me to whip my head around. Asher’s right there, flanked by the other three devils, all four of them grinning at me.
“We thought that we saw you leaving the party, Kiera,” Asher says, “and we didn’t know what would make you run off so quickly when things were just getting started.”
I stare at him. It’s the first time he’s said my name, and the way it rolls off his tongue makes me shiver. I could like that. I could like him saying my name.
I shake my head. There’s nothing good that can come from me having thoughts like that. Asher doesn’t want me here, and if I do decide to stay, he’s made it very clear that there’s going to be something that I owe him.
“I just needed a little fresh air,” I lie. Even though my body is screaming for me to run, the only place where I could easily go are the dark woods behind me, and I don’t want to run off there. I don’t know my way around. If the devils catch me out there on my own…
I can’t think about that.
“We’re happy to take you on a walk.” Parker steps forward and reaches out for my arm, but I take an instinctive step away from him. Even worse than going into the woods would be letting one of them touch me.
I know that one of them actually touching me would be dangerous, but part of me longs for it. I haven’t had anyone hold me since my parents died. Any hopes that I had of my aunt and uncle being caring and supporting me while I mourned were dashed as soon as I got off the airplane.
“I’m going to go see my friends again,” I tell them, side-stepping around them. I’m almost free, and I think that I can make a run for it, when Caspian’s voice stops me in my tracks.
“Did you sign the papers? Or are you going to suck our cocks?”
My face flames red and I bolt for it. I’m only twenty yards away from the crowds of students, and once I reach them, I have every hope that the devils will leave me alone. Before I can get away from them, though, something hits my foot and I trip, sprawling in the dirt.
Rolling over quickly, I look up at the devils.
“Oops,” Luca says, shrugging. “Looks like you tripped on my foot, darling. You know what they say about guys with big feet, right?”
“We have big cocks.” Asher squats down next to me and I sit up in the dirt, pushing backwards to get away from him. My skirt has pulled up around my thighs and my knees are starting to bleed from the impact of falling and sliding on the ground.
His eyes flick down to my exposed thighs, but then he reaches out and brushes a bit of hair behind my ear. “You get to decide, Kiera, what you want. If you want to stay, you know what you have to do. Or, you can leave, and I can have my cousin back. I miss him, Kiera, but the thought of cumming in your tight little pussy is appealing.”
He’s so close to me that I can feel his breath on my cheek, and I squirm backwards, trying to get farther away. In response, his hand darts out and he grabs my thigh, squeezing it hard and pinning me to the ground.
“Two weeks. That’s how long I’m going to give you to decide, Kiera, but I need something from you in good faith tonight. How about just a little kiss and then I’ll be able to trust you?”
He grins at me and my heart flips in my chest. This is not how I wanted my first kiss to go. I thought that it would be with some boy I really liked, not forced on me in the woods by a devil.
I shake my head. “No. I’m not kissing you. Let me go.”
Asher laughs but he doesn’t let go of my thigh. Instead, he begins to squeeze tighter, his fingers and his thumb pressing into my skin. It hurts, but there’s no way that I’m going to let him know that. Instead, I grit my teeth. I know what I have to do.
Lifting my chin a little, I motion him to lean closer. He does, a glint in his dark eyes.
He thinks that he knows what he’s about to get.
“Good little white trash. I’m glad to know that I’m at least going to get something out of you.”
I close my eyes to his words and muster up all of my courage.
He leans forward, fulling expecting me to kiss him. Taking a deep breath, I clear my throat and spit right into his face.
It hits his cheek, and he immediately recoils, letting go of my thigh and standing up.
“You fucking bitch!” He screams, his voice carrying easily throughout the clearing. People are going to look, but I don’t care. I have to get out of here. “I fucking hate you! White trash whore!”
He wipes his cheek off and stares at me.
For a moment, I feel pinned in place, but then I scramble to my feet and run back to the clearing. There’s music there, and light, and my friends.
The devils are behind me. I know as well as they do that they could easily overtake me and prevent me from reaching my friends, but they don’t move.
I don’t know what they have planned for me next, but I’m sure I’ll find out soon enough.
Chapter 8
“I still can’t believe that you spat at him.” Lila regards me over her smoothie before taking a huge sip. “He’s out for blood, you know that? Keeps saying that he’s going to have a virgin sacrifice before the weekend is over.” She laughs, like it’s ridiculous, but I can’t help that her words turn my stomach a little.
By now, the entire school knows that I spat in Asher Reed’s face. I’ve had a few people secretly smile at me this morning in the cafeteria, but a lot of other people are giving me cold stares, like I made him try to kiss me or something.
“I didn’t mean to,” I tell my friends before taking a bite of eggs benedict. There’s something different in the sauce, and I can’t figure out what it is, but it’s good. “I just…really didn’t want him to kiss me, you know?”
Clementine laughs. “You’re in the minority then. Honestly, though, Kiera, most of the girls here would kill to have Asher try to kiss them. Some of the boys, too,” she adds, with a smile.
I try to smile back at her, but my spirts are as dark as the weather outside. The storm started up this morning and hasn’t let up once. We all got soaked running over here to get something to eat. The twins and Sophia all had on cute slickers and rain boots, but Aunt Serafina and I hadn’t thought about shopping for anything like that, so I’m dripping wet.
“It certainly made for an interesting party last night,” Sophia adds, nudging me with her elbow. “Honestly, Kiera, I don’t think that I’ve ever seen him that mad before, even when he found out this his cousin was going to get kicked out.”
“About that,” I say, stabbing a piece of English muffin and dragging it through the hollandaise left on my plate. “What do you guys think about me just leaving? I don’t want to, and I can only imagine what my aunt and uncle would say, but he’s pissed.” I point at Lila. “You said so yourself, that he’s out for blood.”
Sophia shakes her head. “No, I’m sure that by now his cousin has bought his way into another school. Leaving would fix the problem, sure, but it wouldn’t make things better with your family.”
The three girls nod. They all know about the issues I have with my aunt and uncle. Leaving Meyer’s Grove would handle the problem of the devils, but then I�
�d have to deal with Uncle Levi and Aunt Serafina. They wouldn’t try to kill me, not really, but I can only imagine how they’d react.
It wouldn’t be pretty.
My heart tells me that staying at Meyer’s Grove is the right choice for me, but I’m honestly afraid. I’m not sure what the devils will do if I decide to stay and I tell them that I’m not playing by their rules. I’ve never been one to really stand up for myself before, but if I don’t start now, then I’m in big trouble.
Before I can tell this to my friends, the doors to the cafeteria burst open and the four devils walk through. They scan the cafeteria quickly, and when Luca sees me, he points me out to the other three. Immediately, they make a beeline towards me.
The cafeteria grows silent. All eyes are either on the devils or on me, and I shift uncomfortably in my seat. When Asher locks eyes with me I can still imagine the feeling of his hand on my thigh. My core twists and starts to ache when they all look at me.
This is what it’s like to be prey. To know that you’re the focus of the hunter. The four of them look like they’re starving and I’m the only thing in the cafeteria worth eating.
“White trash.” Asher addresses me from across the table. Caspian and Parker are behind me, and Luca is off to the side of the table. He looks bored, but when I glance at him, I realize that he’s just keeping an eye out.
For what? I don’t think that there’s a single student here who is going to stand up to them. Not to the devils. They’re all afraid of them.
See, but the thing is that I have the most to lose by not standing up to them. All of the other students have parents who will do anything necessary to protect their kids. Not me. I’m on my own.
I stiffen my back and lock eyes with Asher. He’s clearly the one in charge, although I don’t trust any of them.
“You need another shower, Asher? That why you came back to see me?”
Sophia starts to giggle but cuts off the sound when Luca stares at her. Asher doesn’t move, and although I want to turn around and look at Parker and Caspian, there’s no way that I’m going to take my eyes off of the ringleader.
“That was a low blow last night, Kiera, and not the kind I want from you. You make up your mind about staying or going? Because if you’re going to stay then I’m in the mood for a little one on one time with you right about now.”
I make the mistake of letting my eyes slide down his body. He’s tight and muscular, and I realize with a start that I can see his cock pressing into the front of his pants. I mean, I’ve never seen a guy naked before, but that doesn’t stop my mouth from watering.
I have to rip my eyes up to look at him again, and when I do, he’s smirking.
“See anything you like?”
My face burns but I manage to shake my head. Nobody else in the cafeteria is moving. They’re all holding their breath, waiting and watching to see what’s going to happen next.
Yeah, me too.
“Not a thing. There’s literally nothing about you that interests me, Asher. Sorry to tell you that, it looks like you’re used to getting what you want, but that ends now.” To prove my point, I take a sip of my coffee. It’s cold, and my hand is shaking, but I don’t want to let on.
His face darkens. “That’s how you want to play this game? You stupid piece of trash. You know what?” He leans forward between my friends and slams his hands on the table, making everything rattle. “The second option is off the table. I don’t want my cock anywhere near your filthy trashy mouth. You’re going to leave Meyer’s Grove, and by the time you’re finally broken and you give in, you’ll be begging me to fuck you. To let you stay. And I won’t.”
My blood runs cold and I feel a chill at the base of my spine, but I do my best to lift my chin and stare him in the eyes. There’s literally nothing that he can do that would push me over the edge. He doesn’t know that I’ve knelt in my parent’s blood.
I’m not afraid of him or his stupid fucking friends.
The devils. Yeah, right.
What a load of shit.
“I’ll never beg you,” I tell him, locking my eyes with his. “I’m here to stay, Asher, and you and your stupid little friends just need to get used to it. There’s nothing you can do make me leave.”
I think that he’s going to be mad, but he just smiles, a slow grin that splits his face. “Fine, then,” he says to me, and then looks over my head. “Do it.”
Do what? Honestly, I’ve forgotten that Parker and Caspian were still behind me. I feel someone grab my shoulders and push down, pinning me to my chair so that I can’t move. His hands are strong, much stronger than I would have though possible from someone in high school, and even though I buck against him, I can’t free myself.
“Let me go!” I scream, but the hands don’t relax, and my voice simply echoes through the cafeteria.
The other devil behind me – Caspian or Parker, I don’t know – slowly pours something over my head. I feel it start to drip down my cheeks and it runs into my eyes. Instinctively, I reach up and wipe it off of my cheeks, trying to blink it away.
It’s thick, and cold, and slow as it slimes its way down my head. The hands on my shoulders release me and I stand up, flicking my hands to get the stuff off of them.
“What is it? Get it off! Get it off of me!”
It’s not blood. I know that it’s not blood. There’s no way that they could have found blood and they wouldn’t pour it on me, but it feels like it, and I’m going to be sick.
Why would they do this? Even with my eyes closed, I can still see all of the blood spread all over my house when I found my parents and my dog. Whatever this is that they’ve poured on my head isn’t blood, but it feels like it.
I can’t breathe.
Closing my eyes, I try to breathe through my nose, but it’s hard. I can practically smell the sharp scent of blood, the way it filled the room and suffocated me.
Oh, god, I can’t breathe.
Tears stream down my face and a sound hurts my ears. It takes me a moment to realize that the sound isn’t coming from somewhere else in the cafeteria – it’s coming from me.
I’m screaming.
“Kiera! Stop!” Sophia’s voice cuts through my panic. “It’s just some egg! You’re okay!” She grabs my arms and pulls me to her, making me trip a little, but I catch myself and shut up.
Egg. It’s just egg. My heart feels like it’s going to burst out of my chest, but I take some deep breaths and slow it down. Just egg.
Not blood.
They don’t know about what happened to my parents. I can handle a little egg.
Even though I never want to see any of the devils again, I can’t help but look up at them. Asher’s face has gone a little pale and he has his eyes locked on me like he’s never seen me before. For a moment, I think that I see a flicker of compassion in his eyes, but it’s gone as soon as I try to really look for it.
Yeah, right. I don’t think that the devils have compassion for anyone in their lives, and certainly not for me.
***
“You know, Kiera, people pay really good money for hair masks, and it’s like you just had a DIY one.” Lila tries to sound positive, but I glare at her from my position where I’m bent over my bathroom sink.
The girls are helping me wash it out. I wanted to get into the shower and turn it to as hot as I could stand, but Clementine realized what I was doing and stopped me. I hadn’t thought about the eggs cooking in my hair.
“I’ve never had a hair mask before,” I tell her, right before Sophia pours a cup of cold water on my head and I squeal.
“Oh, sorry, that was really chilly!” She says, then starts to massage soap into my scalp. “But I promise you, you’re going to have some really bouncy hair when I’m done! The cold water closes up the follicles and makes everything really sleek and shiny.”
“Great,” I mutter. “I’ll remember that the next time someone pours beaten eggs on my head in the cafeteria.”
Sophia stops
massaging my hair for a moment and I can almost hear her thinking. “So, what are you going to do about it? I’ve known Asher Reed and his friends for a while now, and I don’t think that he’s one to just back off because you ask him nicely.”
She resumes digging her nails into my scalp, making it hard for me to think, but I can’t help but mull over what she has just said. The devils don’t back off easily? Okay, then I’ll just have to show them that I mean business and that I’m off the menu.
After she rinses my hair and wraps it in a towel for me, the four of us curl up on my bed. “I can’t leave here,” I burst out, making them all turn to look at me in surprise. “I don’t have anywhere else to go. My aunt and uncle made it clear that Meyer’s Grove is really my own chance, and that if I blow it, I’m on my own.”
We’re all silent for a moment while I gather my thoughts. Someone shifts on the bed, and I sit up straighter in response. “Asher and his little devil friends want a fight? Then I’m going to give it to them. I have no intention of leaving the school and also no intention of giving them what they want.”
Lila turns to me. The concern in her eyes is obvious, but I try to ignore it. These girls know the devils far better than I do, and if she’s worried about my standing up to them, then that’s not a good sign.
“You just let us know what we can do, okay?” She grabs me by the shoulders and gives them a little squeeze. It hurts, but I like it. I feel grounded.
“Anything,” Clementine says from behind me. “You just let us know, okay?”
Sophia leans over and gives me a hug from the side, pulling me down on the bed until all four of us are laughing. “You want to take on the devils of Meyer’s Grove, Kiera? You’re going to need us. Don’t you dare forget it.”
