Cruel Devils

by Mae Doyle

  He’s silent and the tones sound over the intercom. I realize with a start that we’re the only ones still in the hall. Everyone else has escaped into their classrooms. I’m sure that this means that we’re going to get in trouble later, but I don’t care.

  “Give it to me.” I take a step towards Parker, and he tears a tiny rip in the top of the picture. I freeze in place and he grins.

  “I don’t think that you’re in a position to tell us what to do, do you, Kiera?” Another tiny rip and I feel myself start to sweat. I need that picture. I can’t let him rip it.

  “I’m sorry,” I lie, even though I’m not. The only thing that I’m sorry about right now is that I can’t beat the four of them up. Glancing around, I see that all of the devils are staring at me, Caspian included. “Please you guys, let me have it.”

  “Aww,” Luca says, “listen to her. She sounds so pathetic, don’t you think? Why don’t we give it to her?” I stare at him, trying to tell if he’s joking, but it’s impossible for me to read his face. I have a very good feeling that he’s just fucking with me, though.

  “I think that Kiera here needs to learn her lesson.” It’s Asher, but I don’t look at him. I can’t take my eyes off of the picture. “What do you think, Caspian?”

  At this, I do manage to tear my eyes away and I look at the fourth devil. He has his jaw tight, like he’s not sure how he’s going to answer. He’s the one of the four devils that I think may be on my side. If any of them are going to show me compassion, it’s going to be him.

  “Please,” I whisper, but what he says cuts me off.

  “Kiera, you have to learn. You don’t make the rules around here, do you understand? The sooner that you learn that, the sooner you’ll be happy. Just leave.” Caspian clamps his mouth shut like there’s more that he wants to say but he’s afraid to.

  “Yeah, Kiera, just leave.” Before I can stop it, Parker rips the picture completely down the middle.

  “No!” I leap at him, but Asher grabs me, holding me around the waist so that I can’t get to his friend. “Let me go!” I grab his hands and dig my nails in, trying to force him to release me, but he’s so much stronger. Even though I sink my nails into his skin, he doesn’t let me go.

  And I thought that I may have a chance fighting them. It’s laughable, but right now I’m not thinking about that. All I can do is stare at Parker.

  He’s turned the pieces in his hands and slowly rips them again, his eyes locked on me. His lips are parted slightly and I see the pink tip of his tongue dart out as he tears the pieces again and again. They’re confetti now, and he throws them at me just as Asher lets me go.

  I fall forward, tiny bits of the picture hitting me in the face as I try to catch my balance. Instead, though, I land on the floor with a thud, my hands splayed in front of me.

  I can’t look up. The tiny pieces of paper all flutter around me and fall to the ground, and I can’t even lift my head to look up at the devils. From here, I can see their feet, and I can hear them talking, but they’ve broken me.

  Hysterically, I scoop up the pieces, pushing them together with my hands into a small pile in front of me. Maybe I can piece them together. Maybe, with enough time and tape, I can have this picture. Holding my breath so that I don’t breathe on them and scatter them again, I pile more and more together.

  That’s it. I can do this.

  A tear drips from my nose and splashes on the floor in front of me, and I wipe my hand across my face. I didn’t even realize that I was crying, but once the first tear fell, it’s like a dam breaks. A loud sob forces its way out of me as I kneel in front of the devils.

  “Just go!” I sit back suddenly and scream at them. Caspian is the only one who has the presence of mind to look ashamed, the other three stare down at me like I’m finally where I belong. “Don’t you think you’ve done enough?!”

  Asher laughs and kneels down next to me. He brushes his hand through my hair and I jerk away, not wanting to feel him touch me. I don’t want anything to do with them. None of them. I hate them all and I wish they were dead.

  “I think you’re overreacting a little, don’t you? Is it that time of month or something?” Before I can lash out at him, he stands up, stepping back out of my reach with a chuckle.

  “Women.” Parker scoffs at me and turns to go. Asher and Caspian turn with him, but Luca stays. Even though I don’t want to look up at him, I can’t help myself.

  He has a cup of coffee in his hand and takes a huge sip while I watch him. “You think you’ll be able to get those pieces put back together?” There’s genuine interest in his voice, and I nod.

  “I hope so,” I tell him. “I think that I – ”

  He cuts me off by dumping his coffee on top of the pile of confetti in front of me. The liquid immediately soaks all of the pieces, turning them brown and making the edges fray.

  “No!” I scream again, trying to pluck pieces out of the pile. It’s not possible to save them, I know that. They’re already turning to a soft paste and sticking together. “Why?” I ask, looking up at him.

  He shrugs. “You don’t belong here. When are you going to get that through that thick head of yours?” Before I can respond, he turns and walks away. His footsteps echoing back at me as I kneel on the floor.

  It feels like forever that I kneel on the floor. The sound of someone hissing my name makes me look up. Sophia leans out of the door nearest to me.

  “You better get in here, Kiera,” she warns. “I don’t know what’s going on, but you’re about to be in so much trouble.”

  I can’t leave the pieces on the floor. It’s the only picture I’ve seen of my family since I left my aunt and uncle’s house, but as I look down at the soggy pile in the middle of the hallway, I realize that the picture is gone. There’s nothing that I can do to save it, and nothing that I can do to get another copy out of the devils. I push myself up off of the floor and stumble, catching myself on the wall before I make my way to Sophia. She grabs my hand and pulls me into the room, shutting the door firmly behind us both.

  Chapter 12

  I’m exhausted. Thank goodness for my girls, or I don’t think that I would have been able to make it through this day. We stumble up the stairs to our rooms, all bowed under the weight of our backpacks.

  By the time we turn onto our hall, we’re all breathing hard.

  “But are you going to be okay?” Sophia grabs me by the shoulders and turns me to her. “I’m so sorry that we weren’t there for you in the hall. We just got swept up in the crowds going to class and didn’t even notice that you were dealing with the devils.”

  She feels terrible, and I know that, but she really didn’t do anything wrong. None of them did, even though I wish more than anything that they had been there in the hallway with me. It’s not that they could have stopped the devils, but they could have been there.

  But there’re here now, and that has to be enough for me.

  “I’m fine,” I tell them, even though it’s a lie. “I just want to go to bed, really. This day has been…”

  “Shit?” Lila offers helpfully, and we all laugh.

  “Shit,” I agree. “Just utter shit. I had no idea that they could be so mean.”

  “They don’t call them the devils for nothing,” Clementine tells me, wrapping her arm around my waist and pulling me close. “But you are an absolute angel, and you know who always wins, right?”

  I get what she’s saying, but it’s not enough right now. “I know, but really? They’re just evil. Pure evil. I don’t know how I’m going to get them to back off.”

  Sophia glances at the twins and my stomach sinks. They think that I’m going to do something stupid, I can tell. It’s the same look that my parents sometimes gave each other when I had a harebrained scheme that I wanted to run by them.

  “We just want you to be safe, Kiera, that’s all. And standing up to the devils hasn’t ever worked out for anyone before, so there’s no reason why it would work out for you, you
know? Just…be careful.” She sounds genuinely concerned for me, and I frown.

  “I am careful, you guys, but I just don’t think that they’re going to stop unless I make them stop. I really don’t see how I can get out of this in one piece without – ”

  We all stop walking and my jaw drops open. My room is halfway down the hall and I’ve already walked past it a dozen times because all of the doors look the same, but not today.

  There’s something red dripping down my door.

  Paint?

  Oh, god, let it be paint and not blood. I feel my heart start to race and I break away from my friends, sprinting towards my room the best I can in my stupid high heels. Stopping in front of my door, I gasp.

  The smell hits me. It’s not paint.

  Someone has poured blood all over my door. It’s dripping down the door and the walls, and even though it hasn’t yet reached the floor, I take a step back so that I don’t accidentally step in it. I’m afraid to open the door and look in in case it’s in there, as well.

  My stomach turns at the sight and the smell and I bend over, wrapping my arms around my stomach to keep from throwing up. It’s the smell. It gets into your nose, and I suddenly find that I can’t breathe. When I reach out for something to support me, my hand finds the wall, and I grab it, holding it to keep from falling over.

  “What the hell?” My friends caught up with me and Sophia reaches out to take my hand. “Was this the devils?”

  Even with my eyes shut, I nod firmly. “Of course it was. Who the hell else would do this to me? And they accused me of being on my period this morning.” Hate flares in me and I close my eyes, breathing deeply through my nose to try to calm down, but the acrid smell of the blood just makes it hard for me to breathe.

  I have to get out of here, but I’m not going to run any longer. If I don’t deal with the devils and stop them from doing this again, I have a feeling that I’m going to keep dealing with their shit all year long. I’m not leaving.

  They have to get that.

  I drop my backpack on the floor and turn around to head back to the stairs. The boys are on the first floor of the dorm. I’ve never been on it, because girls aren’t allowed, but there’s nothing that’s going to be able to stop me now.

  “Kiera, wait,” Clementine says, grabbing my arm. “You can’t go after them. Not like this. You don’t know what else they may do to you.”

  “I don’t give a shit,” I tell her, wrenching my arm out of her grasp. “They think that they can just get away with this? No, they can’t. I’m sick of it. I hate them, you guys. Literally hate them. My parents…” A sob rips out of me and I have to cover my mouth to hold back more.

  “Tomorrow, Kiera, let’s get them tomorrow.” Lila begs, but I ignore her.

  I know that they want what’s best for me, and I know that out of all of the people at this school, my three friends are the ones that I should listen to. My parents would want me to pay attention to them and not to do anything stupid, but it’s almost impossible for me to think about that right now.

  Any thought of my parents makes me want to cry.

  I storm back down the stairs and bang on the door leading to the boys’ dorms. Since I don’t have a keycard that will let me onto it, I have to hope that someone will hear me knocking and let me in. It takes a moment, but finally the door opens a crack.

  “Do you need something?”

  I recognize the guy from my chemistry class. Mark? Matt? Who cares. Without answering him, I push past him and stalk down the hall.

  “Hey, hold on, you can’t be here!” Mark or Matt cries after me, but I ignore him. What’s Meyer’s Grove going to do? Kick me out? Please. I almost welcome it at this point. There’s no way that I’m going to leave the school on my own, but if they want to make me leave…then I’ll take all of the devils with me.

  The doors down here look the same as on our floor, and I have no way of knowing where the devils live, so I start banging on them as I go. “Get out here, you cowards!” I scream as I walk, banging on each door before continuing on. The carpet on this floor is thinner and not as lush as on ours. My heels slip and I slide a little as I stomp down the hall, screaming for them. I sound hysterical, but I don’t care.

  Behind me, doors open up and students look out at me, but I haven’t seen a devil yet. I have no idea where they live, but I’m going to find them. There aren’t that many more doors left.

  “Kiera.” The voice behind me stops me, my fist just a few inches from the next door that I was going to hit, and I wheel around. Caspian. I know his voice, even though he’s the quietest devil out of the four of them.

  “Why?” I scream, walking back towards him. I want the other devils, sure, but right now I have one in my sights and he’s not getting away. “Why the hell would you pour blood on my door? What the fuck is wrong with you?”

  Caspian pales a little but doesn’t answer. I’m not sure of what I’m going to do, but before I can stop myself, I’ve walked up to him and I jam my finger into his chest.

  “What the fuck is wrong with you?” I repeat, a little louder this time. He doesn’t answer, but instead grabs me by my wrist and pulls me towards his door.

  Like hell am I going in there.

  “Not a chance, Caspian!” I cry out, trying to dig in my heels, but my stupid shoes don’t have any grip on the carpet and he easily pulls me along with him. “Let me go!”

  “No, you need to get in here and shut the hell up!” He pulls me one more time and I step far enough inside his room that he can shut the door behind me. He does and I hear the lock click into place while I look around.

  I don’t know why I expected that the devils would all live in dark caves, but his room looks a lot like mine. It’s lighter and airier than I would have thought, and he has the window cracked so that there’s a nice breeze blowing through.

  “Now,” he says, getting in front of me and taking me by the shoulders. “You need to shut up and listen, Kiera. I’m sorry that you feel like you’re getting the short end of the stick here, but you need to chill.”

  I open my mouth to argue but he presses his finger against my lips, sending a flush of pleasure and desire coursing through me.

  What the hell? I’ll have to figure that out later, because he’s talking again and I know that I need to focus on what he’s saying if we’re going to work this out.

  “The blood was low, and I told Asher that, but he wants to make a point. You need to leave Meyer’s Grove, Kiera, and you can do it of your own accord or with a little help, it’s up to you. But you can’t stay. How have you not seen that yet?”

  I’m breathing hard and intently aware that he still has his finger on my lips even though I haven’t tried to say anything for a while. He must notice it too, because he drops his hand to his side and waits for me to respond.

  “I can’t leave. You devils don’t understand that this is, quite literally, the last place on earth for me. My aunt and uncle are refusing to take me in and if I don’t go to school here then I don’t know what they’re going to do to me. Why can’t you see that this is bigger than Asher’s cousin?” I hope that he’ll understand, but he starts shaking his head before I’m even finished.

  “It is bigger than his cousin, but not in the way that you think. Listen, Kiera, there are a few things that you should know. Asher’s parents…” He pauses, and I feel a surge of hope rise in me. If Caspian will actually tell me what’s going on then maybe – just maybe – I can figure out how to survive here.

  A loud knock on the door interrupts him and I jump. Even though the door is locked behind me, the person banging on it is so loud that it sounds like they’re going to knock the door down. They rattle the doorknob, obviously pissed that it’s locked, and I feel my whole body freeze with fear.

  “Asher.” Caspian’s face is dark. “Now you’ve done it, Kiera. Let’s see what he has to say.”

  I barely have time to step back from the door after he unlocks it. Asher throws it
open and strides through, followed closely by Luca and Parker. Their faces are dark and Luca shuts and locks the door before turning around to face us.

  “What’s going on in here?” Parker looks suspiciously from Caspian to me. We both shrug, and it’s the first time that I actually feel like maybe things are going to work out today. It’s not that I trust Caspian, not by a long shot, but he’s definitely the devil that I want to do business with.

  Or kiss.

  The thought runs through my mind unbidden and I’m grateful that none of the devils have shown any abilities of mind-reading.

  “Kiera was making a scene and I stopped her. I figured that the three of you would have heard what was going on and join us eventually.” Caspian leans back against his desk and braces his hands on the top before looking at me. “I was just explaining to her that she’s really fucked up now by coming here and losing her shit.”

  “Or maybe,” I argue, finally finding my voice, “you guys fucked up by putting blood on my door. You think about that? That’s sick.” My voice is getting higher and tighter but I can’t seem to do anything about it.

  Coming here was stupid. Getting caught in a room with the four devils? Arguably one of the dumbest moments of my life, especially since they’re all looking at me with a mixture of rage and hate.

  What are they going to do to me?

  “You need to clear out.” It’s Asher, and he sounds like a broken record.

  “Again? Is that all that you have to say to me. You need to leave. I got it, Asher, you’re the king of the school and nobody gets to stand up to you, but what you don’t understand is that this is my last resort. I’m not like you other rich kids who have ridiculous amounts of money at their disposal, just waiting there until it’s needed. Meyer’s Grove sucks and I hate it, but it’s a hell of a lot better than foster care.”

  My chest hurts and my vision feels fuzzy when I finish talking and, for just a moment, none of the devils respond. I turn to Caspian, hoping that he will say or do something to make me feel better, but it’s Luca who speaks up first.