Grimmstead Academy: Defiant Rebellion

by Candace Wondrak

  Victor was by my side the next moment, and he paled as he spotted the curled up, half-rotten Felice covered in flies. “No,” he whispered. “I didn’t…I didn’t want this. This wasn’t supposed to happen. She can’t be dead.” The gibberish of a madman. “This house wasn’t supposed to take her. She was supposed to help me out of the cage, not trap herself in my place inside it instead.”

  My hands curled into fists at my sides, and behind Victor’s slender frame, I watched Payne get to his feet, leaving Dagen momentarily as he peered around to see the body for himself. He was better at keeping his emotions in, always detached. Me? When I felt something, I let it show.

  And right now I wanted to beat Victor’s face in.

  “What are you talking about?” I demanded to know, for him to explain his riddles.

  “I was trapped,” Victor replied, frowning to himself. “The house took me. I needed the same thing the house needs to get out.” His eyelids fell as he closed his eyes, a beat of silence before he added, “Blood.”

  At that, I felt my own blood boiling. Payne, on the other hand, merely stared at him with a thoughtful expression.

  Ah, yes. If there was anyone who could understand the need for blood, it was Payne.

  “And so you took Felice’s,” I muttered, wanting to lunge at him. To choke him. To strangle the very life from his body and be rid of him. But I wouldn’t be so lucky. I could kill him, and the house might just bring him back.

  “I did not take it,” Victor said, opening his eyes to glare at me with a stare that mirrored my own. “She gave it freely.”

  “And in return she is dead,” I growled out, stepping toward him with aggression in my stance. Victor, to his credit, did not back down, even though I stood taller and wider than him. Even though I could crush every single bone in his body with my bare hands. I was the strongest one here; Bram only got to me because he’d caught me off-guard.

  Victor frowned. “If I would have known she would give me everything, I would’ve—”

  “You would’ve what? Stopped her? Tried to think of another way to come back and make us all miserable?” I could hold myself back no longer; I lunged at him, grabbing him by the neck and pushing him back to the nearest wall, slamming his spine against it. He dropped the lantern, its glass shattering and oil spilling. My fingers curled around this throat all too easily, and I breathed hard as their tips dug into his flesh.

  “I didn’t know,” Victor breathed out, reaching for my wrist, trying in vain to pry me off him. He could claw at my hand all he wanted; I would not release him. Maybe I’d chain him up where Bram had been.

  I felt a hand on my back, and I almost lashed out, but the coolness of the hand radiated through my clothes, telling me it was Payne. “Now is not the time,” Payne spoke, almost mechanically, “we should get her body away from here.”

  He…was right, of course.

  Though the last thing I wanted to do was release my hold on Victor’s neck, I let him go. My shoes crunched in the broken glass of the lantern, as I glared at Victor and moved towards the broken wall.

  “He is right,” Victor spoke, his voice hoarse. He rubbed his neck tenderly as he glanced at the crack in the floor. “This place will want to devour the rest of her, but we shan’t let it.” He coughed.

  I reached inside and grabbed her. Her body was stiff; it didn’t want to come. There were a few popping sounds, bones refusing to move as I tried to lift her out of the crevice. The flies scurrying along her rotting skin buzzed off the moment I picked her up and heaved her into my arms, cradling her broken, fragile body to my chest like it was the most important thing I’d ever held onto.

  And she was. She really, truly was. As much a man who was not born of a woman could be heartbroken, I was in that moment.

  I also really wanted to hurt someone, but one thing at a time.

  Payne helped Dagen, but I had a one-track mind as I carried Felice’s motionless body through the basement. Beside the anger I felt, I was an awful kind of sorrowful, a sadness lingering deep within my bones; it was a feeling that would not disappear anytime soon, I knew.

  This…this wasn’t like what happened to Payne. I somehow knew there would be no fixing this.

  And that scream—did Felice find herself in the wall? Did she truly not know she’d been dead for a while? Had she stumbled upon her body while with Dagen and freaked out? And if that was the case, if she was somewhere in this house, hiding or trying to run from the truth, I had to find her. I had to.

  I had to tell her that it was okay, that this—though it might be the most awful thing ever—was not the end of the world. It meant she was stuck here with us, a soul belonging to Grimmstead itself.

  A selfish part of me was kind of happy about that, but then my eyes dropped to the smelly, rotting flesh in my arms and the happiness died.

  There would be no true happiness here anymore. This…it would shatter everyone. Victor and I might try to hold it together, but inside we were just as broken by her death as the others. Ian was already spiraling; I could only imagine what he’d do if he saw her body. Dagen was lost to his own head. Payne seemed to be okay, but…with him, you never really knew.

  Koda…

  Koda would see the body the moment I headed up the basement steps. He’d see me emerge from the darkness, carrying her lifeless body. There would be no words to say, no explanation for this.

  As I found my way to the steps through the darkness, I focused on my breathing as I headed up, one step at a time, Felice’s motionless body in my arms. Once I came out, into the dim light in the hall, I found that Koda was no longer here. He’d gone, sometime during our stint in the basement.

  Maybe that was a good thing; it gave me more time to think of what to say, how to break it to him and Ian about what happened.

  Hell, I still wasn’t quite sure what the fuck had happened down there.

  Felice’s body had a wound on her wrist, and I chose to assume she’d cut herself, possibly to free Victor. If that was her intent, she sure never spoke of it to me, which meant she’d kept it from me purposefully, and the thought of her hiding anything from me riled me up like no other. She and I would have to have a talk.

  Where to put her body, though?

  I ended up deciding to put it in the same room where we’d stored Payne’s body. As I headed through the halls and up the grand staircase, I kept throwing looks over my shoulders, expecting to see either Ian or Koda, or the children darting by.

  But there was no one. The house sounded almost too quiet. No footsteps echoing in the halls beside my own; no laughter or whispers from voices who hadn’t yet hit puberty. It was eerily silent, but that was fine. It let me head to the third floor, to the furthest room down the west wing, and place Felice’s body on the table in peace.

  As peaceful as me setting down the corpse belonging to the love of my life could be.

  I breathed out deeply when I straightened my back, viewing her motionless, hunched over corpse laying on her side on the table. The white sheet I’d used to cover Payne’s lower half sat at the foot of the table, and I reached for it, pulling it over her. Felice’s eyes were open, little, yellowed and shriveled things. She was hard to look at, quite honestly, and since rigor mortis had set in, her body remained in its hunched over position. There would be no positioning her like I had done with Payne.

  “I never wanted this,” Victor’s voice broke the silence of the room, and I didn’t turn to look at him. I couldn’t. I wanted to beat his face in, to show him what true pain felt like. He thought he was miserable being locked away in the heart of Grimmstead for so long? That was nothing. I could make his life so much worse, because he’d taken the one light I’d found.

  “I shouldn’t even let you in the room,” I muttered, staring at the sheet covering Felice. The smell had lessened, and I hoped the coolness that hovered in this room would help slow her decomposition.

  He stepped inside, his dress shoes soft on the floor. “If you truly think
this was what I wanted, you are the madman here, not me. All I wanted was to come back—”

  “And supposedly help Felice to get out of here,” I glowered, shooting daggers at him with my stare. “Funny how she winds up dead. She’s stuck here like the rest of us.” Shaking my head, I asked, “Tell me, Victor, what did you want?”

  “In the beginning,” he spoke, moving deeper into the room, standing near the windows as he tossed a quick glance to Felice’s body every few moments, “I wanted it all, as most men do. The power, the prestige…things society never wanted me to have. I wanted the power to change lives—and I got it, but it wasn’t quite what I hoped for. This place does not grant boons without a price.”

  I nodded to myself. There was always a price.

  “I was able to help those who the world would’ve tossed aside, taking them in under the guise of whatever the outer walls looked like,” Victor said, moving to hold his hands behind his back. “But the price to help them was…high.”

  This was before my time, so I had no clues as to what he meant. “How high?”

  “The mouth of this place is hungry, and it demands sacrifice.”

  “What kind of sacrifice?” It sounded as though we were all simply pieces on a gameboard set up by Victor in hopes to get whatever it was he wanted. Power, prestige, wealth, whatever. Nothing was worth the price Grimmstead demanded.

  Victor was silent for a very long time, the pause heavy and lingering. Eventually he tore his gaze away from the window, away from the dreary, awful weather outside to stare at me over Felice’s corpse. “The bloody kind. The kind that requires both body and soul.”

  His words sank in, but still, even then I did not truly understand what he meant. Not until he continued.

  “I fed this place for so long, but those I fed to it did not stay dead. They came back. They were older. They became what they should’ve become—but I didn’t help them. Not really. They were still haunted by the same demons that had followed them through their lives, only now they were stuck here with me.”

  All of the others were sacrifices. Made as much sense as anything else in this place.

  “So then I started to research it, tried to find a way to access and harness the innate power this land has. That’s when I began to fade, I think, when I started doing things it did not approve of. You were one of the last things I created before it took me, and I’m glad to see the fact that I used my own blood has kept you safe from its vile intentions.”

  I watched as Victor began to pace, my mouth nothing more than a frown. I had nothing to say to him, but I would not stop him from continuing.

  “Payne took on my role. I could do nothing but watch as he fed it animal blood—as if that would be enough to sate its appetite. No, this beast needs more than that.” He stopped, his eyes widening. “Perhaps that’s why I was able to break free of it. It had grown weak over the years, having no new souls.”

  New souls. What kind of thing could feed on souls?

  I looked at the sheet, at the crumpled body under it. “What about Felice?” I knew I should go and find her, save her from the horrid thoughts she was certain to be thinking, but I could not move myself from this spot.

  “A part of her will always belong to this place, but…it doesn’t have her body. One of us should be with it at all times to watch over it, make sure nothing touches it. If it gets ahold of her, there truly is no hope for her,” Victor muttered, his brows furrowing as a sigh escaped his lips.

  “Are you saying there is hope yet?” I dared not hope myself, but I could not stop the glimmer from starting in my mind.

  Victor was silent for a few moments, and he ran a hand over the smooth planes of his face before saying, “I’m not sure. There might be. Our first goal should be to find her, wherever she is on the property, and make sure she is calm. Then we can decide where to go from here.”

  As much as I hated to agree with him, he was right. First thing was first: find Felice. Now was not the time to lose myself in my anger, as much as I wanted to flip. Now was the time to keep a calm, cool, and level head, to take charge and do what must be done.

  This would not be the end for Felice.

  Chapter Ten – Koda

  Bram’s voice in my head got to me. As much as I didn’t want to listen to anything he said, he was probably right. If something happened in that basement, she wouldn’t still be down there. Our Felice likes to run, he told me. We should give chase.

  I ignored him for a few minutes after Lucien, Victor and Payne disappeared into the basement, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized he was right. Bram knew prey. He knew the hunt, took pleasure in the chase; it’s what gave him life. If anyone could predict Felice’s movements, it was Bram.

  “Okay,” I muttered under my breath. “If she’s not down there, where would she be?” Talking out loud to Bram wasn’t necessary; all I had to do was think what I wanted to say and he’d hear me, but sometimes talking out loud helped me. Made me feel less crazy. Having a whole conversation in your head tended to make you think you were nuts.

  And, okay, maybe I was. A bit. Mostly thanks to Bram and his penchant for violence.

  Why don’t you let me take control and I’ll lead us right to her? Bram suggested, and I imagined if he had a body right now he would’ve been smirking. I promise I won’t hurt her…much. Of course he had to add on that last part, otherwise it wouldn’t have been a Bram statement. It wasn’t truly a Bram statement unless there were some threatening undertones and a promise of some degree of violence.

  “I don’t think so,” I told him.

  You are no fun whatsoever, Koda, Bram hissed into my head. So boring. Where’s the fun in simply finding her? The chase is the best part. He grew quiet for a few moments. Remember how amazing she looked covered in my blood? Let’s paint her naked body this time.

  Even though I didn’t want to recall that day, my mind flashed back. Me, locked away in the recesses of my own mind, forced to watch as Bram did what he wanted. Nicking his finger on a knife and painting Felice’s face with the blood. She was…beautiful no matter what she wore, truly.

  And that was not a thought I should’ve allowed myself. I couldn’t let Bram affect me. I was not him. We weren’t the same; it had to stay that way.

  “No,” I said, meaning it. “Where do you think I should look for her?” I wanted to get his mind off how good Felice looked with blood on her; thinking such thoughts would only lead to complications if she indeed wasn’t still in the basement, where Lucien and the others would find her.

  Hmm. I suppose the little lamb could’ve run outside. Maybe the forest. No one goes there but Payne, so it would be a quiet place to gather herself if that was her scream before.

  Bram, strangely pragmatic sometimes. The man could surprise me on occasion.

  The side door was close by; it would’ve been easy for her to come up the steps, turn left, and head down the hall to exit the building entirely. A part of me thought to check her room first, but in the end, I listened to Bram’s suggestion and headed to the side door.

  Outside, the sky was full of grey clouds, though it didn’t feel quite like rain. Just ominous, foreboding. A threatening sky to match this strange day. First we were all supposed to meet with Victor, and now this thing with Felice; would things ever calm down? I did suppose seeing a blue sky and a bright, yellow sun would only confuse us. Here, the weather had to match the mood of the house, apparently.

  I headed around the side of the stone building, its tall walls looming over me. As I grew closer to my destination, the woods behind the house, I couldn’t help but feel uneasy.

  If you let me take control, I promise I’ll give it back, Bram cooed, lying through his teeth.

  “I wouldn’t be in control right now if I hadn’t taken it from you,” I bit out, hating to bring it up. The only time I could overpower Bram when he was at the helm was when he was too enraptured in something else to pay attention to me. In Felice.

  True. Bu
t I’m in a good mood today, what can I say? Things have gotten a lot more interesting since Victor showed up, though I do wonder where the fuck he’s been. Feels like a lifetime since we’ve last seen him.

  That much I could agree with him on.

  I hiked into the woods, calling out, “Felice?” The trees made the atmosphere even darker; in the forest, it was almost like nighttime, nothing but the smell of pine needles and rotting leaves. “Felice, are you out here?”

  Bram was oddly silent as I took us to where Payne spent a lot of his time. The trees were cleared in a circular area, piles of stones haphazardly placed on top of dirt—some of the mounds looking fresher than others. Payne had to get his blood somewhere.

  Such a shame I sawed off his head, Bram said, breaking his silence. He and I have a lot in common now. Our fascination with blood, and Felice—

  “Don’t compare yourself to him,” I muttered. “You aren’t the same.” Payne might do some weird things on occasion, he might not know what was right and what was wrong, but he and Bram weren’t even on the same spectrum. Bram was wild where Payne was calculated. Bram lost himself in his temper and his lust for pain, while Payne was unattached—except when it came to Felice. “And neither am I,” I whispered, though that last bit was mostly to myself.

  Felice was the great equalizer among us all, but I was nothing like Bram.

  You, Koda, are so fucking boring, I wish I could kill myself sometimes, listening to you talk. Seriously, if I didn’t share a body with you, you’d be the first person on my list.

  I sighed. It wasn’t the first time Bram had told me he either wanted to hurt me or himself, and it wouldn’t be the last.

  I called out for Felice again, but she didn’t answer, and after I surveyed the area, I shrugged. Maybe Bram was wrong. Maybe Felice was in the basement still, and Lucien and the others had found her, comforted her—

  Look, Bram’s voice broke into my thoughts, and I stopped. I looked, as he instructed me to, and in the dirt I saw something I hadn’t noticed before. Something my eyes had glazed right over as I surveyed the space around me.