by Bella King
I looked down the line at where she was looking and saw Natasha charging down with her two minions, looking just as pissed as could be. I wondered what got her panties in a twist, but then again, I was probably better off not knowing.
She breezed past Eden and me, refusing even to acknowledge our existence, and disappeared down the end of the dorm into the next unit. There was a hell of a lot of units, which made me feel a bit safer. With so many students, she probably wouldn’t make it a point to single me out. At least, that’s what I hoped.
As it turned out, Natasha wasn’t nearly as much of a problem as some of the guys were here. She sucked up to them pretty fast if they were attractive and dominant enough, which made her more of a second hand than the true leader at the school.
I only discovered this after seeing her interact with more people throughout the week and seeing who she yelled at, and who she sucked up to. She wasn’t the one at the top of the food chain at Ridgeview Boarding School, but neither was I. She still had considerably more authority than I did.
Chapter 3
Eden never did find that nail she was looking for, but she did end up getting a few paperclips from another student, which she unbent and sharpened the ends of, making them look more like needles than something you would use to hold papers together. Her weapon looked even more intimidating than if she would have used a nail.
I felt safer around her than many of the other women, but she still struck me as being a tad over-aggressive. She talked a lot about how she would put her weapon through the eye of any guy that dared touch her, but so far, I had seen nothing to suggest that the guys here were dangerous at all. Sure, many of them were over six feet tall and appeared to have little else on their enormous frames but muscle, but they didn’t say a word to me during my first week.
Well, that was until I got up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom. Then, everything changed.
My eyes popped open, quickly adjusting to my surroundings. My face was covered in cold sweat, and my body ached under the covers as though I had been twisting it around all night. I probably had been.
The past was chasing after me in my dreams, injection my brain with lies and riddles that had spawned from the twisted heart of my ex-boyfriend. All the games, all the abuse, and all the trauma came back to me in my dreams, gripping my stomach like icy death, refusing to let me rest in peace.
My heart began to return to a normal speed, but I was too afraid to fall back asleep and return to the dream world again. It was a torturous place, and I hated to sleep because of it. It was why I was often tired and struggled to go to bed at night, but also why I woke up so early in the morning despite having been a night owl my whole life. I was afraid.
I rose in my bed, kicking the tangled covers off my legs. They were twisted so tight around one of my feet that I had to bend over and peel them off to get my foot free. After that, I looked around the room. The people that normally ran around the school shrieking at teachers and throwing fits in the hallways were resting so peacefully that they almost seemed innocent. I knew better than to believe that, though. Waking them up by accident would likely result in bodily harm.
My bladder told me that I had no choice but to risk it though. I wasn’t going to make it until daylight, and there was a bathroom in a room adjacent to the dormitory that I could use. I rotated my body and hung my feet over the side of the bed, scoping out the room one last time before leaving the bed. Nobody was awake but me.
I gently lowered myself onto the floor, landing softly on the stone floor in my pale blue pajamas. There wasn’t an inch of this school that wasn’t made of stone or brick. It occurred to me that if there had been wood in this place, then it would have perished in a ball of flames long ago. Stone was probably for the best.
I crept out from between Eden’s and my beds, glancing once more at her small chest rising and falling beneath the covers of her bed. She was so energetic during the day that she slept like the devil had plugged her ears at night. I was thankful for this because, despite our new friendship, I was still scared of that stick with the sharpened paperclips in it that she kept tucked beside her all the time.
My bladder got more excited as I walked toward the end of the room, approaching the bathroom. Unfortunately, this dorm only had a single bathroom instead of a group one, so if you wanted to use it in the dorm, you would have to wait your turn. I was met with this unpleasant reality when I got there. Someone was already using it, and I had to go badly.
I watched the strip of glowing light under the door for some kind of movement or shadow, but there was none. Whoever was in there wasn’t close to finishing. I waited a few seconds before deciding to make the trip out into the hallway to use the public bathroom. We weren’t allowed out there at night, but I heard that the night security did a piss poor job of monitoring students after dark. It was worth the risk so that I didn’t wet myself waiting.
I stormed down the hallway and out of the dormitory. It connected to the rest of the school via a long staircase with steps that were too tall and thin to be up to building code. One wrong step and you were likely to twist your ankle if you didn’t go tumbling down them altogether. I was careful to take them slowly, especially in this darkness.
As I descended the staircase, I felt like I had left the dormitory much further behind than I actually had. Maybe it was the darkness, or perhaps the height of the steps that caused this effect, but it was strong and unyielding as I finally reached the bottom of the staircase. I was worlds away from my warm bed, and I was starting to get uneasy at being somewhere I wasn’t supposed to be at night.
My bladder overrode the urge to venture back up the stairs, and I pressed on through the cold darkness of the school halls. It was a solid five-minute walk to get to the bathroom. It had felt so much closer during the day when I wasn’t concerned about making too much noise, but now that I was in stealth mode, it seemed to take forever.
The men’s dormitory connected on the other side of the hall as a mirror image of the women’s dorm. The bathroom was located in the center between the two. I looked up at the signs and noticed that the men’s bathroom was closer to the women’s dorm, and the women’s was closer to the men’s. That was odd, but not the only thing strange about this place.
I shrugged and went into the women’s bathroom, unable to hold my bladder for much longer. I need to go, and quickly! As I entered the bathroom, the automatic lights flickered on in an obnoxious white light, illuminating the old bathroom. I ran down the line of stalls and jumped into the first one that looked halfway clean, slamming the door shut a little too loudly and jerking down my pants to hover over the seat and relieve myself.
It was only when I had finished and was reaching for the toilet paper that I realized something was wrong. I could have sworn that I ran past urinals on the way to the stall. I frowned, swearing to myself up and down that I had gone into the correct bathroom.
Maybe someone had switched the signs. I wouldn’t have put it past a couple of pranksters at the school to do that. Some of the guys probably thought it was funny to have women walking into the men’s room by accident.
I shook my head and stood up, unlatching the bolt and pushing the door open. I looked out of the stall to see a row of urinals close to the sinks. Yep, I was in the wrong bathroom. I was lucky it was so late at night and nobody was here, because otherwise, I would have been quite the spectacle for the guys.
Laughed echoed through the entrance to the bathroom, causing a jolt of attention to shoot through me. My heart sped up, my eyes widened, and I quickly came to the realization that I was indeed in trouble. I was in big trouble.
I closed the door and hid in the stall, leaving it unlocked as I jumped up on top of the toilet bowl and squatted there, my ears picking up every sound that echoed through the room. I could hear multiple guys coming in, laughing and talking amongst themselves like it was the middle of the day. This wasn’t good.
The hairs on my arms and legs stoo
d up painfully tall on my skin, every cell in my body on high alert as the guys walked through the bathroom. I prayed that they were only in here to use the urinals and leave, but their movement told me otherwise. They didn’t seem to be using the bathroom at all.
The dark green stall door slowly crept open, silently moving on its hinges to reveal the interior of my stall. My heart sunk as it moved, and I had to stop my instinct to grab it and pull it back shut. They would see and hear me if I did that. The only thing I could do was hope they didn’t see the slow movement of the stall door coming open.
I heard footsteps coming closer to me. It sounded like there were three of them, all with voices so deep and baritone that I couldn’t make out the words they were saying. They sounded amused, cocky, and casual, as though they were taking a stroll through a school that they owned. I didn’t like anything about them already, but there was little I could do but hide.
I watched the door. It was nearly halfway open but had stopped moving. If they walked past the stall, they would surely see me, but I was safe if they didn’t. I wished I had picked a stall further down, but it was too late for that now.
Or was it? I looked toward the bottom of the stall at the gap between the floor and the wall. It was large enough for someone my size to crawl under, but I would have to risk making noise to do it. The guys were still talking so they might not hear me, and they were moving closer to my stall. I didn’t have much choice.
I stepped down from the toilet bowl with my bare feet, wincing as my foot hit the cold tile below. I should have worn shoes out because this floor was filthy. I needed to clean my feet before I got back in bed, but at least I didn’t have to pee anymore.
I crouched down, placing my hands against the nasty floor and looking under the stall at three pairs of glossy black leather shoes walking toward me. I had to be quick if I didn’t want to be caught. I pressed myself against the floor and slid between stalls, moving down the line as quickly as I could while staying quiet.
My pajama pants dragged against the tiles, gripping the floor too much for me to keep them in place. They threatened to slide off once or twice, slowing me down because I had to keep pulling them up. The last thing I wanted was to be caught without pants in the men’s bathroom in the middle of the night by a bunch of rowdy guys. There was no telling what they would do to me.
I reached the last stall and sprung up, pulling my pants up again and jumping onto the toilet bowl. The last stall was a handicap stall, which made it significantly bigger than the rest of them. If I had to, I would be able to flatten myself against the wall and avoid being seen through the open door.
The men in the bathroom had stopped walking, but they were still together by the sound of it. I heard a single stall opening and them all walking into it. I perked up at this. What were they doing in there together? It was an odd sort of place for a group meeting.
“Can you move?” An irritated voice asked.
“Hey, I’m the one with the fucking screwdriver, so shut the fuck up,” another voice responded.
I leaned in from my position on the toilet to focus on their conversation, push strands of silvery-blonde hair from my face. I liked to keep it long, but damn if it didn’t get in the way sometimes.
“Guys, we’re not going to get this open any faster by fighting. Let’s just get what we came for and get the hell out of here.”
“And switch the sign back. It was funny the first time, but Daniel said he had trouble dropping the stuff here with all the women coming in and out.”
“Yeah, yeah, I’ll get it on the way out,” said a disappointed voice.
I listened to what they were doing. It seemed that they were unscrewing something in the stall, perhaps picking up something that another guy, Daniel, had dropped off. I was curious about what it was, but more than anything, I wanted to get out of here safely. There was no way these guys were upstanding citizens. This school attracted brought in the worst, and by the sounds of their voices, these guys were especially bad characters.
I heard a clatter of a metal object falling, and the hurried whispers of the men in the stall. It sounded like that had gotten what they came for. Good, because I was starting to get chilly out here in just my pajamas. I hadn’t been expecting this long of an adventure.
“Okay, take your cut and let’s go. I’m not interested in getting thrown in detention again,” I voice said. He sounded like the leader of the group. His voice was steadier and more authoritative. It almost sounded sexy, but it was men like that who had gotten me sent to this god awful school in the first place. I wasn’t about to get mixed up in all that again.
Keep your head down, Rose, and your chin up. Take no shit and make no apologies. You’re only here to serve your time and nothing else. We don’t make friends at Ridgeview.
I had to remind myself of this often, repeating it like a mantra in my head until it clung to every twist and turn of my troubled mind. One can often get lost in one’s own head, so I made it a point to pack the forgotten nooks and crannies with reminders not to fuck up again.
“I said 50, asshole, and you can keep the cigs,” a voice growled from inside the neighboring stall.
They were still splitting up whatever they had pulled out of that kidding place. I wanted to check it out after they left, but I didn’t want to risk getting caught. I was a curious woman, but not entirely stupid. After they left, I would be going straight to bed.
“Alright, take the shit and let’s go.” I heard the stall door open and the three men walking out. They hurried toward the exit of the bathroom, quieter now as they left.
My legs were starting to cramp up from crouching on the toilet for so long, but I didn’t want to move until I was certain that they were out. I waited until I heard the footsteps disappear down the hallway and the voices fade into the darkness.
I waited for so long that the automatic light in the bathroom flickered off, leaving me in total darkness. I felt safer in the dark after an encounter with those men. I could hide better when I wasn’t exposed by the glaring fluorescent bulbs overhead.
I climbed down from the toilet once the light was off and stretched out my legs. The motion detector for the light didn’t acknowledge me until I opened the stall door and stepped out, then the lights flickered back on. I walked quickly toward the bathroom exit, knowing that the light might attract visitors.
I peeked my head out of the bathroom, looking left and right down the hallway. There was nobody there. I let out a sigh of relief and walked back toward the women’s dormitory. I was eager to get back to the safety of my bed and forget about all this.
I counted my steps as I walked down the hall. It felt quicker to get back to the staircase on the way back, but that was how it always was. I moved through the darkness skillfully, having learned my way in it on the path to the bathroom. Even though there were no directions to remember, my body moved faster because it felt more comfortable after having completed the journey once before.
I was almost to the staircase when I realized that I wasn’t alone.
Chapter 4
A figure was seated at the foot of the stairs, blocking my way up to my bed. Luck, as it turned out, was not on my side that particular night. The figure rose as I came up to it, and I froze.
“So, you’re doing a bit of late-night walking as well?” A deep voice rumbled from the dark figure. “Perhaps we should walk together?”
My heart thundered in my chest as the man in the dark stepped closer, revealing his face to me. I knew by his voice that he wasn’t one of the men that had been in the bathroom earlier, but he looked like he could have been one. He was tall, muscular, and had tattoos creeping up his neck toward his face. This wasn’t the type of guy you wanted to run into late at night.
“I’m going back to bed,” I said, my voice barely audible, even to myself. My throat was already bone dry, and I couldn’t even swallow to lubricate it.
“You’ll have to get past me to do that. There’s a toll to pay
,” he said, a wicked grin stretching across his chiseled jaw.
“A toll?” I asked. I didn’t have any money with me. That wasn’t something you needed here at school.
“Yes, so pay up,” he said, extending a large hand.
I shook my head. “I don’t have any,” I said, my voice finding a little more strength.
“No?” He said, raising an eyebrow and looking amused. “Well, I guess you’ll have to pay with something else.”
I didn’t like the tone of his voice. I knew what men like him wanted from women this late. That had to be the only reason he was hanging out around the bottom of the staircase in the middle of the night. I was terrified that I wouldn’t be able to get away from him, and that he would take the toll he was referring to from me.
The man licked his lips and looking me up and down. “I bet you have a nice tight body underneath those silly pajamas. How about you give me a peek?”
I was ready to run, unsure of if I could actually escape from him. My feet were glued to the floor in fright, but my body was gearing up to bolt in the opposite direction of him. If he made a move toward me, then I was getting the hell out of there.
“I’m not interested in that,” I replied to the man.
He frowned. “That’s too bad. It’s been a while since I had a nice fat set of lips wrapped around my cock.”
That was all I needed to hear to start running. My body jerked me away from him so fast that I felt like my head might snap off in the process. I ran with everything I had in me deeper into the darkness of the school, taking turns in every direction, praying that he would get lost behind me if he chose to follow.
My pulsed thumped too loudly in my ears for me to hear anything else. I had no idea if the man was behind me or not, but I didn’t want to stop to find out. I continued to run away from the women’s dormitory, weaving through unfamiliar hallways and ducking through doors to places I had never been before. Only once I was truly lost di I stop to catch my breath.
