Survival (Sorrowfeld Academy Book 1)

by Bob Dattolo

  I’m so tempted to let my magic take over. It hurts like hell to push myself along, it just doesn’t feel like the right time to heal. Not yet.

  “Oh no, Levi hates me because I exist. I’ll just have to make do until he grows a pair and challenges. Not that I expect that to happen. After all, I got here Thursday, and two people already died.”

  “Please! Colin was a fuck-up. A total accident. You panicked and swatted at him like a fucking child. He’s dead, but you didn’t have much to do with it. As for Coach Walters? That’s even more of a joke. She killed herself from what I understand. Lost control of the balls and killed herself.”

  “Huh, so you’re saying you’re safe since you don’t have any balls?”

  He stood, sending his chair back, “You fucking bitch! I’ll show you balls!”

  “I left my microscope at home. Or did you bring pictures?”

  Roiling skin. I love it.

  Samantha moved over to stand directly in front of me, “You just love to push buttons, don’t you.”

  “Hmm, let’s see. Someone hates me for no reason and says whatever they want? Yup! Why hold back when he doesn’t? You don’t?”

  She put her foot on the chair between my legs, holding me still, “Oh looky here, you can’t move much at all. What say I turn you around and take you outside and spank you a bit?”

  “I’d say I’m not into girls, but I’m sure there are some here that might want to get into being spanked.

  She leaned into my face, “Then how about I clarify that? I turn you around. I take you outside. And then I beat your skull in?”

  She didn’t seem to know what to do when I sat up taller and leaned into her, “Big bad gold dragon. Now you wanna step up and take me on when I can’t even stand? You want to die so soon, go for it. Roll my ass out of here and find whatever spot you want. Then I’ll roll myself back in while your body’s cooling out there somewhere.”

  The chair rolled backwards as she pushed, then walked up and put her foot on it again and leaned in closer, “You talk such a big game. So big. You simply don’t understand. You’re nothing to me. To us. Any one of us could kill you without really trying. You lucked out with Colin. Coach killed herself. In no part of any of that were you responsible. You’ve got a pretty swelled head for someone so close to being dead.”

  “And you have a swelled head for someone that’s never been close to death. You want to take me out and kill me? I’ll do you one better. I’ll let you challenge me. Say the words, and I’ll accept. Then we do it. I’ll even get out of this wheelchair for it.”

  She looked confused as I shoved down on the arms of the chair and planted my good leg on the floor, levering myself out of the chair. She ended up bumping noses with me as I teetered on one leg. “Say the words, Samantha.” My voice carried through the room. “So big. So strong. So powerful. You threaten to kill me because I’m a stricken, so I’m giving you a legal out. I’ll allow you to challenge me. Right here. Right now. Fuck the seven day bullshit. We can go outside and do it.”

  Riley spoke from the side, “Don’t do it, Samantha!”

  “Yes, do it, Samantha.” My calm voice seemed to throw her even more. “Free challenge offers don’t last long. You want to prove how big and strong you are? Let’s dance.” No response.

  “Remember Alison.” Parece threw that out there. I just can’t tell if she really means that or if she thinks I have more up my sleeve than the others do.

  Quick blinks from the gold dragon, and she takes two steps back. “Fuck you, stricken. Take your crazy and wheel your ass out of here. Alison will be here soon enough, and you won’t be a problem for us any longer.”

  It was effort to sit without screaming in agony, but I did it. “Good excuse, Samantha. You take that to bed with you tonight. You can rest on the fact that Alison is coming for me, knowing that you would have latched onto any excuse you could find to get out of it. Remember this fact; I offered you a free challenge, and you backed out of it. The next time you threaten me, I will call a challenge on you. You want to threaten to kick my ass? Go for it. You get into killing me? Threatening me with your dragon side? Instant challenge. Tonight. Tomorrow. Any day. Every day. I’m not here to get into challenges with people. I’m not here to get into fights. I just want to get through this madness and get the fuck out of here, but you assholes keep sucking me into your stupid bullshit. Oh no, I’m a stricken. Who gives a flying fuck? I seriously don’t get why you all have that much of a problem with me, but you do. That being said? I’m willing to stand up for myself even if it means death. Are you?”

  She stared for long seconds before spitting on the floor, “Roll your skank ass out of here. I’m sick of smelling you.”

  “I’ve never been into girls before, but you lose the crazy you got going on, and maybe I’ll say yes to experimenting. Not that I haven’t been with a girl before, but being with one I choose? That’d be different. Lose the crazy, we’ll go on a date and see if I like being with a girl.”

  Her mouth fell open at my offer, “You’re fucking insane.” She stepped back farther, then walked around me and headed out of the caf. Riley, Paige, and Parece left to follow her a moment later.

  Hmm, that was fun.

  The others watched me nearly silently as I got a milkshake and then rolled back towards the tables. Levi stared at me as I stopped at his table, “So, what do you want to do tonight? There any good shows to binge?”

  He left without a word, pulling Shane, Wes, and Ryan with him. Instead of heading for Angelica’s table, I sat in place and smiled and drank my milkshake. It was delicious, even if it did hurt like crazy to breathe.

  I made it back to the infirmary just in time to meet up with Headmaster Anderson again. “I just spoke with the lawyers in charge of Miss Walters’ estate.”

  That was quick. “Already?”

  “Yes. They reviewed all of the reports. The statements. The pictures. The x-rays. They came back with an offer for you.” He took one of the pages in his hands and put it on the table and turned it towards me.

  It’s much higher than I had anticipated.

  “What’s to stop me from pursuing this with a lawyer and fighting for more?”

  “You can? You honestly can. I talked to the academy’s lawyers, and they feel this is a generous offer. If you pursued this with lawyers, they would take a third, so you would need to win much more than this to make up for it. It would take time. If it took enough time and you healed, they could use that as ammunition that you weren’t as injured as current pictures and x-rays make it sound. We did look at some other cases that were at least close to this, and the offer is on par with those, to slightly higher by about 15 percent.”

  “So, you think I should accept?” He smells honest to me, so that’s a good sign.

  “I won’t give you advice either way. What I see is horrific. What you endured just because you’re you…it’s…” he sighed, “I think it comes down to you. You seemed confident that you could heal. If you can, then you may pursue this and get way less and then still have to pay your lawyers. Or you could get more. Her estate is worth more than this, but this is just about 50% of the value based on their estimates. If you pursued and won the entire thing, you would pay a third to your lawyers, meaning you would come out 40 percent higher than this offer. That’s a big if. If you didn’t get that much, let’s say you got 75 percent, then you would actually only make a tiny bit more than this offer after paying them. Given prior histories on cases like this, getting the full estate doesn’t seem likely. The numbers I saw make me think you’d net less than accepting this offer. Plus, as I said? If you can really heal the damage? I can see the lawyers eating that up and pushing for you to get less.”

  All valid points, that’s for sure. Given that? Let’s go for it and get that out of the way. “Do I need to sign something saying I won’t sue?”

  A smile formed, “I have the paperwork here. It’s written in plain English, so please read it over. I have a lawye
r you can speak with. He’ll want $1,000 to review everything for you. I won’t make a recommendation either way.” More paperwork went onto the table, so I took them and read through them.

  They’re very, very short and sweet. One is a statement of estimated estate value, sworn as being accurate by the lawyers. One is their offer to me, subject to my signing the agreement. The agreement is pretty clear. By accepting the offer, I will not pursue them for the damages and injuries that occurred today in the altercation that led to her death. Even if such injuries or damages result in future injuries or death.

  You know what? I’m okay with this. The paperwork even says that I’ll have the money today. I read everything three times, then signed. Headmaster Anderson signed as well. Then he sent them the information along with my banking information.

  It took them a half hour to transfer money into my account, which is freaking insane. He rubbed his face when it was done. “I’m sorry this happened to you.” He looked down my bandages, “What are the chance you can really heal everything?”

  “I’m honestly not sure? If things work the way I think they will, then I believe I’ll be walking by tomorrow. I guess we’ll see.”

  “Good luck.”

  “Thanks. Maybe I can heal and enjoy myself for the next few days until Alison comes hunting for me.”

  His face went serious, “She’ll do exactly what she said she will.”

  “I figured. She’s kinda mental.”

  “She is. I understand that she’s even more up in arms? Something about mail that she received today?”

  “Well, she can’t kill me more than once, so I guess I’ll just have to deal with it.” I left as he nodded slowly without responding to my comment. Let’s head back to the dorm and see if I can heal from this like I think I can.

  Wheelchairs suck. Don’t get me wrong, if you need one, they’re a godsend, I just don’t know how people use these in the day-to-day. Granted, they probably don’t do it with so many broken bones, that’s just my special slice of hell.

  Thank God I don’t seem to feel pain quite as sharply as others seem to. Compliments of being me or of what I’ve gone through? No idea. I’m still thankful, though, regardless of how it came about. Then again, pure agony still sucks no matter how dulled it may be.

  Parece was pacing back and forth as I managed to get our door open. It never closed behind me, as Kynal, Gage, and Angelica came in.

  “Oh, please, come on in without being asked.” Gage recoiled from my teasing smile, probably because of the busted-out teeth. I’m hoping it’s not just because of my face. Well, my normal face, because this version is pretty banged up and brutal looking.

  “What’re you three doing here?” Parece sat, trying to look calm and smelling slightly nervous to me.

  Angelica sniffed. She can smell the nerves, so I’m happy that she bypasses it without telling Kynal and Gage about it. Parece picks up on it and her cheeks flare a little darker, which is hard to see through her normal tone. “We’re concerned for our ally. She has a knack for pissing people off and decided to piss off…not quite everyone, but so freaking many that are powerful as hell. Including one of your allies.”

  “How is Samantha doing?”

  Parece slumped a little, “How the fuck…what would you have done if she called your bluff?”

  Pained laughter from me that petered out as the shifting bones got to be too much. “That’s funny. In no way was I bluffing. I told her she had a window to challenge me. She didn’t.”

  “What if she accepted and did it?” Gage looks so confused.

  “Then we would have gone outside and one of us would be dead. If not by now, then soon.”

  “I seriously don’t get it. Why the fuck would you do that?” Kynal, bless his gorgeous face, looks confused.

  “Two reasons. One, because she’s leaning towards challenging me anyway and getting through it quicker sounds better to me. Two, because now she’s questioning everything.”

  Angelica collapsed on my couch, “I can’t believe you did that. Is she really questioning things?”

  Parece’s eyes are wider as she nods, “She’s out flying right now. She is questioning things. She,” she gestures at me, “got into her head with that. Big time. She doesn’t get what’s up or down right now. She’s a dragon. A gold dragon. Big. Powerful. Tons of magic. And she’s questioning whether or not a stricken can take her in a challenge.”

  “Everyone knows she’d lose, though!” Gage sits as well.

  “That’s just it. Will she?” Parece stares at me. “Look at her. She’s not the smallest here, but she’s close. She’s a stricken. She barely has any magic, and no one has seen her casting any spells. Yet she did beat Colin. She went into it blustering and calling him out, then collapsed in the fight and somehow beat him by sheerest luck. Then with Coach? Angelica and I missed it, but everything we heard is the same. She begged and cried as she was being hurt…but an adult is now dead. Killed by her own spell.”

  She slowly shook her head and looked at me from feet up to my head. “She’s starting to question herself. Maddie lucked into deaths, but two people are dead. She called her out in the caf. You smelled her, Angelica. Other than the pain she’s in, there was no fear there that she was gonna die.”

  Angelica shifted on the couch, “I caught that.”

  “That’s playing into it. She’s starting to wonder how much of this is an act.”

  Hmmm, that could be good and bad.

  “I don’t get it. How much is an act? You’ve seen her in magics classes. She can’t get even the most basic things to work. She doesn’t even know her affinity.” Gage shifts back to looking at me, as if I’m going to put on a show.

  “I have seen her. Samantha hasn’t, since she’s not in our classes, but she’s heard it all. People making fun of her for not being able to do things. Yet she keeps going back to her confidence. Now, maybe it’s really like she said; she doesn’t care if she lives or dies. That could be it. Yet there are still two people dead. She’s not panicked that Alison is hunting for her. Hell, she’s actively sending things to her through the mail just to piss her off even more!”

  I snickered at that thought. “Headmaster Anderson said she’s pissed already. I can’t wait for her parents to call her.”

  Angelica leaned forward, “I see it. She’s not scared in the slightest.” She sniffed pain, “I smell pain. A lot of it.” She tilted her head and squinted at me, “Huh, that’s funny as hell.”

  “What is?” Kynal looked me over, as if missing something.

  Angelica got up and came over, leaning in and sniffing me again and again, actually putting her nose up to my armpit at one point.

  “What the fuck are you doing?” Gage seriously doesn’t know how to handle something like that.

  My sniffer went and sat down, moving to look at Parece. She was silent nearly 30 seconds, long enough for Gage to inhale to say something, before she spoke again, “You caught it too.”

  Silent communication between the two of them before Parece gives her a short nod.

  “Yeah, I’m missing that. I know Gage is. You two seem to know what’s happen…” he tilts his head at me, “umm…you two seem to know what’s happening, but you also know what’s happening. What she just smelled. What the fuck?”

  Gage looked between each of us, then shook his head, “I’m missing something. What the fuck am I missing? Just spill it, Maddie. What did she just sniff you for? What does she smell? Or not smell?”

  More recoil from my smile to them, “You won’t hold it back, right?” Matching nods from the dragons. “Fine, what she doesn’t smell is sweat. At least not enough for what she heard happened.”

  Gage frowned, “Umm, no way. You were sweating up a storm. You practically left a trail of it as you tried to run.”

  “I’m not sure I’ve ever seen someone sweat that much. That was freaking crazy.” Kynal sniffs, his human senses being useless for this, “I got nothing when I do that. Maybe her d
eodorant is really good?”

  Looks between the dragons before Angelica slowly starts talking, “I feel like I’m talking when I shouldn’t be, but Parece already seems to know this. That’s the only reason I’m saying something with someone here that’s not an ally.”

  She paused, and Parece stepped in, “Yeah. I picked up on it. I picked up on it on Friday, too. With everything that supposedly happened in gym, she didn’t smell like sweat.”

  Angelica took over again, “I’ve tried to explain it to you guys before. You simply can’t smell like we can. You guys think that the smells bother us, like smelling BO is a horrible thing. It’s just a thing to us, neither good nor bad. We both smell sweat from the two of you right now, even through your deodorant.”

  Kynal lifted an arm and smelled his pit. “I don’t smell anything?”

  “You wouldn’t. Don’t think it’s a gross smell, it’s just you. Deodorant stops the really strong odors, but we can smell it. Sweat that doesn’t smell like BO still has a scent to us. Ball sweat? Vag sweat? Underboob sweat? Ass crack sweat? We smell it all. She smells absolutely normal.”

  “Umm, yeah, I’m not super comfortable thinking you guys can smell my balls.” Gage’s hands flutter, like he’s trying to figure out what part of his body to cover first.

  Parece snorted, “Gage? I can smell your balls from here. I can smell her vag from here.” She nodded to Angelica, “Just like she can smell mine. You can’t hide it from us. It means nothing. What she’s saying is that even though you saw her sweating up a storm, Maddie doesn’t smell like sweat to us. Not beyond the normal amounts we’d smell on a warm day.”

  “I don’t get it? What does that mean, though? She was leaving a sweat trail as she ran?” Kynal leans forward, looking curious, so I grunt through rolling to him and holding my arm up to his nose. He so doesn’t want to smell it.

  “Just smell my arm already.”

  He does, much to my shock. “I don’t smell anything?”

  Angelica stood, “That’s just it! We should be able to smell something. Maybe not you two, but the two of us? She should smell like sweat. Like fear. Like terror. There’s a tiny bit of fear. Almost no terror. And, in comparison to leaving a trail of sweat? I’d say there’s like five percent of what we should smell in that case. If even that high.” She sniffed again. “All I’m really getting right now is pain. Agony. Yet even with that? You broke your skull, right?”