Survival (Sorrowfeld Academy Book 1)

by Bob Dattolo

  The water mage came around the other side of me, but I kept my eyes on goldie. I was so not prepared for the flying arm that hit me across the chest and blew me over my chair as it tumbled away. The hit sent me sprawling across the floor to ram up against the wall. I tasted blood as I growled and shoved my way up to their laughter. Goldie leaned over farther and shoved my tray to the floor. “Get your trash out of here. You’ll be gone soon enough. Fucking stricken. Why you think you can come here and make it out alive is beyond me. I’m gonna find you in the trial. And I’m gonna suck you dry.”

  I only thought my emotions fled before. I’m not even sure they’re on the same continent any longer as I walk back to the table. The water mage is still standing where he hit me, and he has a belly-rolling laugh going that the others are also taking part in. Well, except goldie. Mostly.

  Water boy’s laugh slowed as I stopped not even six inches away from him and stared up at him, “I challenge you.”

  More laughter.

  He finally slowed to a stop, “You’re too fucking stupid, you know that?” His huge fist came up.

  “Hit me with that. I dare you.”

  A semi-familiar voice called out from the door, “What seems to be the issue?”

  Headmaster Anderson approached through the tables. He doesn’t look too pleased. Something tells me that he already knows what happened.

  Goldie stared at the approaching administrator, “Nothing. Stupid twat doesn’t know her place.”

  The headmaster looked at me, “Maddie?”

  “I was sitting here. Goldie came over and ordered me to leave. I said no. We had words. Water boy here hit me.” I turned my head to let him see the blood on the side of my face. “I called a challenge against him. He hasn’t responded yet.”

  The headmaster’s face fell. “You called…you…why did you do that?”

  “Because I won’t stand for someone coming after me. Never again. I stand by my rights. I call challenge, and I have every right to do it.”

  Water boy laughed again, “I’m gonna drain you fucking dry!”

  That made me smile, “Oh, would you look at that? He accepted. And it’s to the death. Perfect!”

  Goldie barked a laugh, “You are so fucking stupid.”

  Was it wrong of me to look at him again, “Maybe your parents weren’t murdered? Maybe they killed themselves to get away from their pretentious douche of a kid. You’re here, so they couldn’t smother you in your sleep like the useless facial you should have been instead of what you became.”

  Power ramped out of Headmaster Anderson, quieting the various voices around the room. “Enough! I can’t believe… Levi? Calm down. Wes? Shane? Ryan? Stay with Levi. Calm him down. To be clear? He doesn’t have grounds to challenge over what has been said. Colin? You’re really…”

  “Accepting? She’s a dead whore and doesn’t even know it.”

  The headmaster shook his head, “I can’t believe this. You haven’t even been here a day!”

  “I wasn’t the one to hit someone. He hit me. I’d rather be dead than let someone get away with that again.”

  Colin, apparently, leaned down towards me, “I’ll be making your dream come true in just a bit.”

  “You’re cute, buttercup. I doubt you can manage one orgasm with your tiny pecker, so back-to-back until I pass out? I’m not seeing it.” You can feel that people around us want to laugh. They just don’t dare because I’m saying it to this group of assholes.

  “Gonna drain. You. Dry.”

  “Dry? That’s about all you can do with a girl. I doubt anyone’s ever gotten wet looking at you. And you’re a water mage. That’s fucking sad.”

  His hand swung, but magic rocketed out of the headmaster, stopping it from landing. “Enough! Maddie? Leave. Now. Colin? I don’t know, eat or something. The challenge will be later today. I have to have this reviewed, and it’ll take that long to have them here. Maybe…maybe before dinner.”

  “That sounds good to me.” I took a step back. “I’ll get to see how classes are today.” My smile grew, “That’ll give me a better idea of what to expect for classes on Monday.”

  Colin hit the table, “You have no fucking clue!”

  “Useless stricken…so fucking stupid!” Levi laughed.

  “Aww, parental suicide to get away from the stain of you in the family.” Then I winked at Colin, “And you? Desert pussy. That’s your life. Dry, aged, zombie-like pussy. Such a pathetic water mage.”

  Headmaster Anderson clamped a hand on my arm and began dragging me away from the table. I stayed on my feet but moved to walk backwards and watch the guys. “Get your will ready, Colin. You’re gonna need it. Don’t worry about including your powers. I’m gonna finger myself to a screaming orgasm at feeling them in me tonight. They gotta be bigger than your rice grain dick.”

  The door closed as we exited the building, cutting my laughter off from them. That’s a shame. I had a good laugh going.

  What the fuck am I doing?

  Chapter 12

  How long was I dragged along without really being dragged? All the way to an unfamiliar door that he opened, pulled me inside, and then closed. Then he released me. All to rub his face again and again, before running his hands through his hair as he turned away, “Ahhhh!” I wasn’t expecting the yell, so I rather jumped. Quite a bit.

  He did not seem to notice as he turned back around, “Miss Stricken…Maddie…what…” another rub across his head, “what in the name of all that is holy do you think you’re doing?” His skin bulged a little as his dragon fought to come out.

  I’m so tempted to give him a flippant answer. I really am. Something about eating breakfast and being dragged here. Instead, let’s go a little easy on him. “Honestly?”

  “Yes! You have to know that I want your honest answer! What are you thinking?!? We talked about this! You may have magic, but you don’t know any! Colin has you by twice your weight. If not more. He’s powerful! He’s a water mage! He’s been using his powers his entire life since his inducement ceremony! Have you ever dealt with a mage before?”

  “Yes. I spent from age five to nine at mage summer camps learning everything about them.” His mouth fell open. “Yes, I’ve dealt with magic. I was held by a dragon for four years! If you don’t think he used his magic, you’ve got another thing coming. I also don’t know that it matters.”

  “It doesn’t matter?!? Of course it matters! How could you…how could you challenge him?!? You got here after dinner yesterday, so a bit after 6pm. It’s not even 7am, and you’re already in a challenge?!? I’m not sure…do you have a death wish? Is that it?”

  It takes a bit to calm myself enough to answer. I was sooo close to letting the growl be heard. “I don’t have a death wish. What I have is memories of being hurt and vulnerable in my life. I’ve been a victim for most of the last half of my life so far. Even my time with Jean, I was living as a victim of what my parents did to me. So will he kill me? I don’t know, probably? I also know it doesn’t matter. I’m gonna walk into that challenge and do my best to kill him and drain him dry if I can figure out how to do that. I won’t allow someone to hit me and walk away from it. If I knew enough about my magic, I’d have killed him right there. I spent the last four years as a perennial victim. Beaten. Tied up. Chained. Whipped. Raped. Thank fucking God Reggie accepted me as his, because he was actually pretty good to me, all things considered. But I was still forced into everything and had no choice. Zero choice. I broke free at the end there knowing that I had a good chance of dying. But I wanted to die on my own terms. As my own decision. That’s what this is. They think they can throw me from a table? No chance in hell. I was there first. He thinks he can hit me? I’m not letting him get away with that. Even if it kills me. I don’t have a death wish. What I have is a burning drive to stand up for myself since no one else will. Even if it means he kills me. Even if I never even hit him. Never even touch him. I’d rather go out on my feet and at my own decision than be at someone els
e’s mercy again.”

  His shoulders fell and he stared at me for long minutes as I fought to calm down more. “Maddie, I…you…” he rubbed his face yet again. “you can go. I don’t even know what to say. I’ve seen Colin in classes. I’m not even sure what it would take for you to live through this.”

  “Like I said. Maybe I won’t. If not? Then it was nice meeting you. This world is messed up that we accept this garbage.”

  He didn’t respond, yet I can tell from his eyes he at least somewhat agrees with me.

  That’s the last thing I saw as I closed the door and headed for the dorms.

  Crap. Crap, crap, crap. I just challenged someone. A water mage. He’s right, Colin outweighs me by at least double. He’s a solid foot taller than I am and at least one and a half of me wide. He’s had magic since he was a kid. Probably 11 or so.

  Not great prospects for me to make it out of this alive, that’s for sure. He can probably fall on me and break me in ways I can never recover from.

  And yet, as I walk towards the dorms, I feel a little lighter than I did before. As if I see a way out of things.

  Damn, does that mean I actually do have a death wish? Given the feeling I’m experiencing, that’s a possibility. I wouldn’t have thought so. I just don’t get why I’d feel lighter otherwise.

  On the surface, I definitely don’t want to die. I really, really don’t. I have vague memories of being happy as a kid. I have flashes of various things, obviously where it doesn’t potentially give me any hints to anything in my life that might help me figure out who I was. Am. But being happy was a pretty common feeling through all of those feelings.

  Hell, I remember being scared and happy that last day. God, the cramps hurt like hell, and I was scared from that. I was scared about the ceremony, not knowing what would happen. I remember…I remember staring at a wall of pictures. Then pulling out a book of dragons and looking at the pictures.

  And I was happy.

  Scared. In pain. Yet happy.

  I don’t feel that way any longer, but I want to. I feel like my emotions have been sandblasted away, leaving me with no highs or lows. Or minimal of either. Everything’s held in reserve. Locked away.

  So do I really want to die?

  If I do, it’s pretty well hidden, because I really want to beat his ass. For my fears. My terror at what’s happening around me and where I’ve been thrown. For what they said to me. For him hitting me.

  Definitely for him hitting me.

  That brings on a growl that I don’t bother to stop. I’m outside and away from everyone, so I can do it without worrying about people hearing me.

  Maybe that’s it? Maybe it’s more that part of me driving that? The part that doesn’t want to bow down to anyone any longer? The part that is willing to risk everything to stand up for myself? I have vague recollections of the attack at my house being so fast that I couldn’t even think of stopping it. Then everything with Reggie. I’m willing to go down swinging now. Stand at the helm of the ship, hand on the wheel, other hand ringing the bell, and go down with the ship as the waves tear everything apart. Fighting to survive. Fighting to get to shore.

  That…I think that’s it. That, more than anything. With pooossibly a bit of a death wish behind it all.

  If I die, then it’s done, and I don’t have to worry about anything ever again. I still went down fighting. I went out making a decision on my own and going for it.

  If I win? If I win, that will make people wonder about me. That should push back some of the aggression, at least a little. If I read those guys right, if they’re not the strongest group in the class, they’re close to it. That should mean that if I kill Colin, a number of kids will back off, assuming I’m way stronger than they thought.

  Huh…or maybe not. I have to think about that.

  Possibilities. Endless possibilities.

  And yet there are only two paths tonight. Death for me on one side. Death for him on the other. I know which way I want it to go, that’s for sure.

  No one stopped me in the hallways, although there are more of us out and about. I keep going back and forth thinking of us as kids even though we’re not. We’re in school, so it sort of fits. I definitely don’t view us as adults, even though we legally are.

  Oh well, either way, no one stopped me in the halls. That meant I got to my room pretty quickly and slid inside. As soon as I passed the plane of the door, sound kicked in, and the voices stopped.

  Parece, Paige, and Riley stared at me with wide eyes from the couch on her side of the room. Lovely. It’s like I have an audience. They’re all still in PJs. I didn’t see them in the caf, so I don’t think they’ve eaten yet.

  “Good morning.” No sense not being polite.

  They exchanged looks before Parece watched me kick off my flip-flops, “Where were you?”

  “There was a white panel van giving away free candy and shiny quarters down by the gates. I wanted to make sure I got some, so I was there first.” Stunned silence. Maybe I should have smiled while saying it to make it obvious it’s a joke? “I tend to wake up early, so I went for breakfast.”

  Riley squinted at me, “It’s like 6:30 and you’re already gone and back. When the hell did you wake up?”

  Hmm, hostility in such a basic question, although it’s oddly tempered by a dose of fear that I can smell pretty easily. “I wake up by 5.”

  “Why would you do that?” Paige doesn’t sound nearly as angry or fearful.

  “I belonged to a mass murdering earth dragon that demanded I be up by 5 every morning. He eased up on that after a while, but you tell me if you’re gonna break that habit when you know he likes it?”

  She blinked slowly, “God damn, that’s…you really…you were…”

  “I was. He killed the woman that saved me after my parents threw me out. He was doing a favor for a friend. She wouldn’t move when he wanted to sell. So he killed her. Took me. I was his. Four plus years of that until I managed to get free. So yeah, maybe I get up early, but the alternative of breaking his rules? I saw some of the bodies they took out of the place when the cops got there. They were barely people any longer. You could see the insanity on some of their faces. What was left of them.”

  She swallowed hard.

  Parece shook her head, “How do we know you’re telling the truth?” More hostility, just veiled a tiny bit.

  “Well, for one, you can tell that I’m telling the truth. You can smell it. Beyond that? Does it even matter if I lied? Who cares when I wake up in the morning? I’m not sure why you three are so hostile about it.”

  She pushed herself up, power brimming around her, “This is my room!”

  She didn’t move as I stopped maybe six inches in front of her and stared up at her, “This is our room. Not yours. Not mine. Ours.” No response. Instead of waiting, I stepped back and peeled my clothes off. “I’m taking a shower. First day of school and all.”

  None of them responded to my statement or me getting naked, so I grabbed my things and headed into the bathroom. The spell stopped the sound from reaching me again. I’m so tempted to try and beak it, except I don’t know how I broke the first one, sooo…yeah, I’m kinda out of luck there.

  Speaking of? I need to look into how to drain power. I seriously don’t get it. I know it can be done during the trials and during challenges, but is it part of what’s taking place? Or can you do it other times? I can’t even guess, and I doubt any students will tell me.

  My teeth brushing and work at the sink went quickly. No one came in, so I plowed through everything at the empty sink, formerly empty, I guess. My shower was pretty good. I’ve never been able to be a high maintenance kinda girl, so my routine is very simple. That means it’s quick. Reggie didn’t like waste, so you can see what might have been at least partially driving things that way. I’m so tempted to hang out in the shower and not deal with the girls, except I know I’m going to have to at some point.

  Might as well be now.

  No on
e in the bathroom when I come out and finish drying. No make-up means I just need some deodorant before hanging my towel and heading back into my room. Their voices cut off as soon as the door opens. Talking about me or just really private? I can’t even guess, although I do have my suspicions.

  All three of them watch me get dressed. Paige is the first to speak, “You just don’t give a shit that you were naked, do you?”

  Her question doesn’t stop me from fixing my skirt. “I probably should, but I don’t. Parece, do you care if they see you naked?”

  She scowled, as if upset at being brought into things, “I’m a dragon. I don’t care.”

  “Right.”

  “But you’re not a dragon. Are you?” Riley, this time.

  “Not as far as I know or as far as the cops can tell. I don’t smell like one. Fully. I don’t have the eyes.” Hmm, I cast the light spell, so does that mean that they should be able to tell from that? I think it does, although I’m not about to call them and see if they’ll send someone here to do it. That seems like a waste. Hell, I could be dead by dinner tonight, so it may not matter for long anyway.

  Man, it would suck to die not knowing.

  They watched me get everything ready, then continued to stare as I sat in my office chair. “You three going to get breakfast before classes? It’s 6:50.”

  Paige and Parece jerked and stared at the time for a second. Riley stood, “C’mon, let’s go get food.”

  “Hope you have a good breakfast.” My response and polite smile seemed to throw the three of them. Riley and Paige left, heading through the bathroom to their room without saying anything. Parece headed for the door, pausing with her hand on it as she looked back at me, “There’s something about you.”