by K. G. Wilkie
“The prisoner loathes the same chains their jailer adores,” she sniffed.
He laughed. “Wise though that sounds, I know enough about you to suspect that was someone’s Tumblr quote,” he smiled. “Besides that, though, I still have uses for you, so I wouldn’t get too comfortable with freedom.”
She looked up at him, shading her eyes to see through the dazzling late afternoon sun. “What on Earth could you mean,” she sneered. “I found a lead and confirmed her identity, and your little spy corps poisoned the girl and gave the ‘ideal’ solution to her problems, which just happened to involve her moving to your perfect little world.”
“It makes sense to buy up one or two institutions, I usually prefer to invest in businesses and governments but prestigious private schools can be useful tools to have, especially right now when my prey thinks she’s a human high-schooler. I didn’t actually buy it for this though, I just happened to have a school on hand ready to go so I decided to make better use of it.” He shrugged. “The poison was incidental, it causes no long term ill effects and it got her where I needed her to be. She’s not even hurt emotionally, it wouldn’t be detectible by mortal investigations so I’m sure she couldn’t tell her so called parents were damaged just enough to not be able to follow their secrecy protocals and continue hiding her from me and reporting all the goings on to her actual mother.” He grimaced. “Frankly it’s terrible that her mother gave her magical amnesia in the first place, let alone sent her to this terrible world with only the company of heartless golems to care for her. It’s best that I arranged her to be under my eye where I could care for her- she definitely needed someone to do the job.” He shrugged again. “There’s truly no real harm done.”
“I bet your girl won’t feel that way when she finds out just how twisted you are,” the girl snorted.
In a lightning fast movement he twisted around and had her gripped by the throat, his fist boiling with angry red fire. “But she won’t find out from this mouth,” he smiled. She shook her head frantically, and he flung her away. “Don’t forget, your people offered your sister to me as a concubine. It’s only out of the goodness of my heart that I decided to let you take her place, and I even ripped up the original contract and allowed you to serve as one of my vassels instead of as the lover they intended for me. I even took the extra step to care for and provide for your sister and pay you the same wages and leave schedule I give all of my normal employees. I even convinced the nymph lord to allow your sister to stay in your little village for the time being. I’ve been fairly generous to your family. In fact,” he grinned with his fangs on full display, “You could say I’m positively charitable,” he said.
She rolled her eyes at him. “I do appreciate that you’ve been a fair boss and thrown in protection for my sister,” she said, “But it’s not exactly counted as benevolence if your so called kindness is one of your marketing tactics. You’re just a good politician,” she rebutted.
He only laughed. “As long as you do your job well, I’ll be willing to let your job end several years early, so be glad I’m who I am. If it were my dear brother, he’d have a contract with you for the rest of your life, and he’d promise you friendship and love until you become unnecessary and he sent someone to kill you off.” She blushed. “Though he may have already done a pretty good job of trapping you with sweet promises,” he added thoughtfully, noticing her reaction.
She sniffed again, flapping her hand at him. He chuckled, and burned up in a black fire with white lights winking out in the empty spot where he once stood.
CHAPTER FOUR
Tybolt Hall
The next day dawned bright and clear. A light breeze rattled the tree outside of her window, making the limb tap gently on the panes. She gasped, sitting straight up in bed, then smiled when she saw the source of the noise. She raised her hands to the ceiling, stretching all out. Feeling alive and cheerful, she jumped out of bed. She grabbed her clothes, things thrown back and forth across the room in her hurry to get ready for her first day. She ran down the stairs, a piece of toast hanging out of her mouth and a flattening iron working at her curls as another hand was frantically shoving books and paper into her empty tote bag. Her brother, Darien, joined her at the door, his clothes messy and hair rakishly ruffled, and he looked ready to go after two minutes. “You want a ride in my car,” he asked her, eyeing her now weighted shoulder. A bead of sweat broke out on her brow. That bag was heavy.
“No need,” she smiled. She walked out the door, ignoring his concerned glances. “I want to establish my place in the social structure,” she continued, stepping to the end of the driveway.
“You are a little scary, sometimes,” he said. She just smiled and shooed him back to his car, walking happily off to the other end of the street.
She was standing at her new bus stop, the fumes from Darien`s car as he drove away now nothing but a distant memory. A breeze was idly playing its fingers through her hair. It was a brisk October, a month or more into her new school year. A spurt of resentment and anger flamed into being, dimmed as she watched a cluster of chattering sparrows go about their daily rounds. She tossed them some crumbs from the remains of her toast, chuckling as they clustered together and argued about the divvying up of the treat. Her movements were slow and measured as she buttoned her neat leather gloves. She paused, pulling a crocheted cloche out of her bag. Seeing some spot of neon color, she looked a little loser at the hat. A note was pinned on it that read, ‘To my dear little sister. Go get `em, tiger!’? She ripped off the sticky note and crammed it on her head, smiling a little more broadly than before.
She was standing at the new bus stop, a breeze idly playing its fingers through her hair. It was a brisk October, a month or more into her new school year. A spurt of resentment and anger flamed into being, dimmed as she watched a cluster of chattering sparrows go about their daily rounds. Her movements were slow and measured as she buttoned her neat leather gloves. She paused, pulling a crocheted cloche out of her backpack. A note was pinned on it that read, ‘To my dear little sister. Go get `em, tiger!’ She smiled, cramming it on her head.
Leaves rattled as they skittered across the asphalt, a bus creeping up behind it. It rolled to a smooth stop. A grizzled man stuck his head out. “Hey girlie,” he smiled, “Sure you going to Tybolt Hall? I haven’t seen you here so far this year,” She stepped lightly up the stairs.
“Yes, positive. I was simply held up a bit so I couldn`t begin on time. I hope you`ll take care of me,” she threw a dazzling smile at him. He blushed the faintest of pinks, then waved at the back.
She stepped forward, scanning her peers. There were few seats left, though plenty of curious looks. One girl stood out, waving desperately at her from the only seat left. “Hi, I`m Jacqueline!” They smiled at each other. They settled themselves in the seat, shuffling bags and gloves across their knees. A rowdy group of boys in the seat at the back suddenly fell in silence. The other passengers looked around at their neighbors and the group, and a hush fell over the whole bus. The tall boy with dark hair and a sturdy build looked at his compatriots. He jerked his thumb at the two next to him, and they abruptly stood up. He shooed them away, and they moved forward to squeeze into seats ahead that already had two rather squished occupants, as the rest of the bus was already full to the brim.
“I want her to sit back here.”
One calm statement, and the other passengers were abuzz. Jackie grimaced, but she still pushed her new friend out of the seat. “Wha-?”
“You have to go. Shoo, shoo!”
Alyss sighed, blowing her bangs off her face. “Eck.” Eyes closed, she breathed in deeply, then she walked to the back, much of her earlier elegance now eclipsed by her stomping. All eyes followed her procession, then snapped forward at his slightest of growls.
She sat on the new bench seat, sitting on the far side of him. “Hey there. I`m Aeron.” She faced forward in stony silence. Her scooted a little to the left, and she moved further away. He sq
uished up against her, and she moved herself as far left as she could, staring at the scenery flashing by outside. A finger curled the ends of a strand of her chestnut locks.
She snapped to face him with a sneer. She grabbed the questing hand, squeezing until his skin became an interesting mixture of red and blue spots. “Do. Not. Touch. Me.” She flung his hand away. “Understand?”
He simply looked at her, soft lashes occasionally shielding his eyes. He turned then, digging through his bag. “Ah hah!” He pulled out a brown bag with a green oak leaf label, handing her the bag. She peeked inside, handing it back in disgust. “What? It`s the best apple donut I`ve ever eaten. You`ll like it,” he cajoled.
“How pathetic. First you enter some he-man contest to bully all the people on the bus, and now you are indulging in animal abuse. You think those eggs were happy with their death before they even had a chance to live? And what about that oil? That is not vegetable oil, it smells all wrong for that.”
He pursued his lips in deep thought. “Of course she`s a vegan, I should have remembered,” he mumbled.
“Excuse me?” She replied. “I could have sworn you said you remember me from somewhere? If you are planning to use that pick up line, I must tell you that I would definitely remember someone like you without prompting.” His eyes were shining in excitement at that. “Don`t get me wrong, I would remember you so that I would be able to avoid you in the future, I would not remember you with any feelings approaching warm nor fuzzy.”
He pouted a little at the harsh rejoinder. “How do you know you would dislike me in the past, if you don`t remember when we knew each other anyways? For all you know, we could have been in love in a past life.”
She stared at him. “Really? A past life? I`m sorry, I`m not superstitious.”
He snorted. At her dire stare, he hastily added, “Well, I`m sorry for insensitively offering such an offending breakfast food. I`ll be sure not to be nice in the future, just for your comfort.”
“Rather than donuts, I think replacing the serial killer glare with a simple smile would more than suffice.”
“Eh? I am smiling right now. See?” His straight face expression broke with a crazy smile that almost reached the same level as the bottom of his ears, each of his remarkably white teeth shining out.
“I think that`s even worse. I am sure I would be in danger if my hoodie were red right now.”
“Eh?” He leaned in even closer to stare at her jacket, then looked at her completely bewildered.
“You know, Little Red Riding Hood? The color that enrages beasts and all? Well, nevermind, genius. I can see you`ve focused your efforts on brawn.”
“That`s not true! Our team got a gold in the lacrosse finals last year.”
“It`s okay that you obviously don`t get it. Normally it wouldn’t be an issue to not understand all my references, but to be a jerk on top of it is really too much for me to feel like hanging out with you.” The bus jerked to a stop, lined up with all the others in the school courtyard like a flock of golden chicks. She strode away without missing a beat, linking arms with the violet haired human guised Jackie a few feet ahead. He stared after her, lost in his thoughts.
Jackie looked back at him as they left but continued forward when he gave her a nod of permission Alyss completely missed while she looked at all the buildings of her new school. whipped her head around, scanning the area. “Are you feeling okay right now?” Jackie asked, resting her hand on the other girl`s shoulder, “You look a bit peaky after dealing with that nonsense. I promise we don’t normally get tough on newbies, they must have just felt like being a little weird because they were thrown off by a transfer in October.” Alyss tried to ask more questions about Aeron and the bizarre kowtowing of all the other students but Jackie just acted oblivious and wished her a good time at the new school. Alyss finally relented and allowed herself to be pulled in to the girl’s chattering which caused her to smile even more brightly. “Well, since we seem to be free for a bit, want me to give you a tour? Here we have most of the Science classes, and over there are the English buildings. Ah, and that`s the football stadium, and the soccer field. They have the flexible use fields in there, and next to them are our courts! We have volleyball and badminton teams, and I think there might be at least a tennis team. Those are the locker rooms, too.”
They continued to another building. “So this Friday is our big pep rally, and you are definitely going to want to be there. And this morning we are having conferences, so no one else will be here for at least another hour, which gives us plenty of time to settle you in.” She grinned conspiratorially. “And then Saturday is a great party! And of course I’ve been super busy because the student government is hanging up the posters and such now, after all we only have a week to bring up school spirit, and…”
Alyss smiled softly as she let her mind drift to other things. She looked about the expansive hall littered with wood doors and black lettering on their windows, and was struck by the oddity of the one metal door that was recessed into the hall and was missing the room number plate in English and braille posted outside all of the other doors.
“And I really don`t know where he thinks he can do that, it was such-“
“Jackie wait. What`s up with that door?”
Her smile briefly dimmed, but visibly rallying herself she answered, “That? That`s where Aeron and his gang hang out.”
“Huh. It looks mysterious. Maybe I`ll look in before classes start.”
Ashley looked around, crossing her arms for warmth in the August heat of the school. “You don`t want to do that. I can`t say more, but you don`t want to do that.”
Alyss looked at her doubtfully. “Look, I`m not trying to hide anything from you, but I just can`t. No one can,” she looked down, making it hard for Alyss to hear her next words at all, “It isn`t safe to.”
“Ah, is that so?” Alyss responded, smile tight and head spinning with so much new information she hardly noticed the girl’s words or fear and decided to just go visit the place on her own later. “Oh, wait,” she snapped into focus, “Why are there so many different fields and buildings? Does the whole county come to this school?”
“Eh, the whole county?” Jackie smiled and laughed, patting Alyss on the back with a strength rivaling the most developed body builders. Alyss stumbled, then rallied her strength to stand tall again. “No, no, most of them couldn`t afford to come here. We have students from most of the surrounding states, because those from around here are all farmer`s sons. This is the Tybolt Hall. We even have some international students. It`s kind of well known,” she giggled. “Didn`t you look up anything about your new school or read any of the brochures?”
“I didn’t realize I was going to get a pop quiz on the background of the school itself, so I didn’t study on it. I was a little busy catching up on all the schoolwork so I’d be on pace with the curriculum even though I’m here a little late to start the school year,” she admitted.
The other girl smiled. “I wasn’t sure if it was good to ask you that, but is there a reason you are here so late? September is the standard starting month across the US. Are you an international student or did something come up?”
She blushed. “Well, my parent’s job delayed our move a few weeks, and then issues with the contract on the house and new job delayed things a few more weeks. Honestly my parents wanted me to put off starting even more days but I wanted to get started as soon as possible,” Alyss admitted.
“So are you off to the office to get started on the paperwork and details?” Alyss nodded and headed off to the building marked head office with a bronze plaque just off the entry hall with Jackie skipping along behind her.
Unnoticed by either of them, two boys stood off in the courtyard next to the front door. One was tall with golden bronze hair, and the other was hunched and wringing his hands. “Did you, or did you not, talk to her?,” The blond growled.
“Well yes, but it couldn`t be helped,” the boy stammered. He yelped when
he was caught up by the collar and pulled up. “Really! She was just asking the librarian for a book yesterday, and he said they didn`t have it, so I offered to let her borrow my copy, so it really wasn`t that big a deal,” he stammered. The tall one`s face was perfectly blank and unchanged, but his other hand came to twist his victim`s arm up behind his back.
“Are you sure that`s all you did, hmm? How did you manage that when she’s only started at the school today? Awfully interesting that you’ve managed to have a connection of any sort already.” He smiled, seeming to be very cheerful. The other boy became completely white. “Really, she said she didn`t want it that much so I didn’t end up lending it to her anyways, I didn`t kiss her or touch her or anything!” he answered desperately.
“Strike three,” his tormentor smiled more broadly. “I saw you steal a kiss, though I did warn you so strongly against such behavior before she got here. I even gave you three chances to tell the truth.”
The other boy looked around desperately, pulling at the hands that were holding him. The tall boy smiled, letting go of his victims captured arm. The dark haired one slumped in relief, then let out a short scream when he saw his tormentor`s fist flying towards his face. But it was stopped, abruptly, by Aeron stepping forward to intervene.
The boys shook off the altercation and continued talking as if nothing had happened. “This boy has already explained that the kiss was the direct result of falling down, correct?” Aeron icily asked. The boy in question was passed out on the ground, having fainting when the blonde`s punch was coming for him.
“It doesn`t matter. He shouldn`t have spoken to her in the first place, especially after being warned against it so strongly. He has ignored my authority in this.”
“Your authority?” Aeron scoffed. He gave his opponent the once over. “I see. You are one of their lackeys, aren`t you?” The blond just stared at him sullenly. “You realize that I am above your superiors, yes?”
