by Bella King
I listened for footsteps but heard none. I was safe, if only for the time being. I wouldn’t be able to go back to the dormitory until morning, which meant I had to survive the rest of the night in the school halls. This wasn’t going to be fun at all.
It was far too dark for me to know where I was, which gave me the bright idea to just go to sleep under whatever could shield me from the outside world until the morning. If I managed to get even an hour or two of sleep tonight, it would be better than nothing. I had gotten myself too far into this mess to get myself out until the sun came up. I would have to ride this one out for the night.
I felt around in the room that I was in. I seemed to have come into a classroom unknowingly, which had a lot of desks and chairs in it. That meant there would be a large desk at the front of the room that I could sleep under. It was the perfect spot because even with the light on, nobody would see me until they came right up to the desk.
I weaved through the desks, bumping into one and banging my hip bone on it. I winced, stumbling forward before catching myself on another desk. The desk that I ran into screeched against the floor, the heavy metal on the bottom of it dragging against the rough stone. Everything in this school was built so long again that it weighed a ton and never broke. The desk would do more damage to me than I could ever dream of doing to it.
I cursed at the loud noise under my breathe but continued walking forward with a slight limp until I got to the front of the classroom. I ducked down under the teacher’s desk and curled myself into a ball, using one arm as a pillow as I tried to get comfortable.
It was dusty under the desk, but nothing I couldn’t handle. I had experienced worse when my ex-boyfriend had kidnapped me and stuffed me in a small cupboard in his basement for a week, only letting me out every few days to shower. I had nearly died there, so sleeping under a dusty desk was easy. At least I would be emerging from my cramped confines in the morning instead of a week later.
I thought I was safe under the desk. I really believed that it would save me that night, but I was wrong. I was dead wrong. When I ran into the student’s desk on the way to the front of the classroom, my location had been compromised. The monsters that lurked in Ridgeview knew where I was, and they were coming for me.
A light clicked on in the classroom, blinding me with its brightness until my eyes could adjust. I had almost been able to fall asleep in the minute that I had been curled up under the table, but now I was wide awake again. I couldn’t seem to get away from the horrible people that wandered around the halls at night.
“They’re in here,” a voice said confidently. “See the desk. Someone ran into it.”
“Definitely, but they could have left,” another voice said.
“Better check the place. Spread out.”
I knew these voices from the bathroom. The men who had originally terrified me in the wrong bathroom at the beginning of the night were back for more, and this time, they knew that I was here. There would be no way to avoid them now, unless they decided not to look under the teacher’s desk.
I had no such luck.
“Hey there, little one. You lost your way?” A voice rumbled mockingly from above me.
I looked up and saw a tall, handsome man with eyes as green as glittering emeralds staring down at me with an arrogant smirk. He was quickly joined by two others, equally as attractive, but with more tattoos.
“I’m hiding from someone,” I said.
“From us?” One of the men asked.
“No, there was a guy hanging around the women’s dormitory and I couldn’t get back to bed,” I explained, remaining in the same curled position under the desk as when they had found me. I was hoping that if I stayed like that, they would just leave me alone, but I knew that was pretty farfetched. I was in trouble again.
The leader of the group chuckled and looked at his henchmen and nodding to them before looking back down at me. He stretched out a foot and jabbed me in the ribs with the tip of his shoe. “Get up,” he said, his voice strong and commanding.
His jab had hurt, but I figured I would get much worse if I didn’t listen to him. He didn’t seem to be in the mood to play 21 questions with me. He wanted to get straight to business, and I was in no place to protest.
“Why are you out so late, little one?” The leader asked, stepping close so that I was pinned to the edge of the desk. The other two stood with their arms crossed on either side of him. There was no way to get around them and run. This time, I was trapped.
“I’m not little,” I said, a tinge of irritation slipping into my voice. I was tired and all I wanted to do was go back to bed, not be harassed by a group of guys in an empty classroom at night.
“You didn’t answer my question,” he said, leaning in further.
“I just had to go to the bathroom,” I grumbled.
He looked over his shoulder at one of the other men and frowned. “I told you there was someone in there. You see what happens when you pull pranks like that?”
My heart sunk. I should have made something up. They knew that I had heard what they had been doing. I could attempt to feign innocence, but I wasn’t very good at it. Hell, I didn’t even seem innocent even when I was telling the truth. My botched trial spoke volumes about that.
The leader looked back at me. “My name is Andrew, and this is Troy and Martin,” he said, flicking his head left and right to the guys beside him. “And you, little Rose, are in a whole hell of a lot of trouble right now.”
How did he know my name? I had only been here for a short amount of time, and I had barely talked to anyone. The only way that he would know who I was would have been through Eden or Natasha, more likely the latter of the two.
“I didn’t hear anything,” I said, my eyes wide with fright as Andrew glared down at me with vicious green eyes.
He chuckled, but there was no smile on his face. “Don’t lie to me. I hate liars,” he said.
I shook my head. “I’m not lying.”
Andrew reached out and took my shirt in his fist, balling his hand so tight into the fabric that the only way I would escape it is if I slipped out of the shirt entirely. “I said, don’t fucking lie to me, bitch,” he yelled. “I’m not fucking around!”
I shrunk under the harshness of his words, and even Troy and Martin looked worried at Andrew’s temper. That concerned me more than anything else.
“Tell me what you heard,” Andrew demanded, yanking me toward him so that his nose was nearly touching mine.
I could feel his knuckles pressed against my chest as he held me in place. I was starting to tremble despite my best efforts to remain confident. It didn’t matter what my brain was saying to me. My body had different plans.
I swallow hard, trying to moisten my throat to speak. “I don’t know. You were taking something out from the stall,” I said in a hoarse whisper.
He relaxed his grip and leaned back an inch. “So, you were listening in. It’s not that hard to tell the truth.”
He was still staring at me, but his eyes were too intense for me to maintain eye contact with him. I had to look away but looking down was a sign of submission. I looked sideways and didn’t reply.
“I hope you understand that we’re going to need a vow of secrecy from you,” he said.
I nodded. “I won’t tell anyone.”
He chuckled. “I mean, something a little more than that.”
There was always more. The creepy man at the bottom of the staircase wanted more, my ex-boyfriend had wanted more, the judge had wanted more, and everyone that I met wanted more from me. All they did was take, and I was starting to grow sick of it. When did I get my chance to take, and stop giving assholes their way with me all the time?
I looked back at Andrew, a drop of confidence returning to my blood. “I don’t know what you want from me, but I’m not involved in your business. If you let me go, I won’t tell anyone.”
That got a round of laughter out of Troy and Martin, but Andrew didn’t react
to my words at all. He kept staring into my eyes as though he was trying to figure out just what he would do to me to make sure I didn’t rat him out.
I didn’t understand why he was so concerned. Whatever had been in that hiding spot must have been important to him for him to take this so seriously. It was either that, or he was criminally insane, which was honestly the more likely of the two. We were at Ridgeview, after all.
“Since you know things that you shouldn’t, we either have to kill you, or you have to join our ranks,” Andrew explained.
My stomach was in knots at the mention of killing me. Was he serious? He certainly looked like he was.
“I think you would prefer to join us, but you would need to prove your loyalty before we can let you do that,” Andrew said, a thin smile spreading across his face.
Troy and Martin were standing behind him, rubbing their hand together as though they were about to enjoy a feast. I hoped that I wasn’t the main course, but the way they were drooling over me, I suspected I was.
I remained silent while I waited for Andrew to explain what he had in store for me. I wasn’t interested in joining the ranks of a couple of handsome crooks. That was a mistake I loathed to make again, but it looked like I had no other choice. I wasn’t interested in dying during my first week at school. I had a bright life ahead of me, and I wasn’t going to let these men spoil it for me.
Andrew let the room fall silent before continuing, building an atmosphere of tension and dread. I waded through it like soup, my brain crawling toward any glimmer of hope that I could find. It was a struggle, but I was used to having to find the light in such darkness. I had been through too much to break now.
“I want you to undress,” Andrew said, his voice as cold as stone.
“Why?” I asked, fearing the worst.
“Listen and obey, and you will be allowed to leave,” he replied.
I looked for an escape but there was none. I knew that the only way I was getting out of this was if I listened to what he said. He either wanted to do something terrible to me or just humiliate me. Either way, this wasn’t my ideal evening.
I didn’t hesitate for long. Angering Andrew wasn’t on my to-do list after seeing his face of fury moments ago. I didn’t want to be subjected to his wrath. I pulled off my shirt and stood with bare breasts in front of the three men. This wasn’t the first time I had exposed myself to a group of guys to get something I wanted, but it felt dirty and degrading all the same.
“Your nipples are hard,” Andrew noted, reached out and grazing one of the small peaks with two fingers.
I shuddered at his touch, and the breast that he touched experienced a rush of pleasurable sensations. Now wasn’t the time to be enjoying myself. I was afraid, not horny, but I couldn’t deny that Andrew was attractive. His power would have been something I lusted after if I was still stuck in my old ways, but not anymore. I was a changed woman, or at least I thought I was.
I jerked myself away from his fingers, but the touch of his skin lingered on mine. I felt sick to my stomach that there was a part of me that enjoyed this, but I would never show it to these men. They were monsters who didn’t deserve a woman as good as me.
“The pants too,” Andrew said, his eyes almost lifeless as he spoke.
“Why are you doing this?” I asked, pulling down my light-blue pajama pants and letting them crumple at my bare feet.
“It’s not for our enjoyment. It’s an act of devotion to prove your alliance with us,” Andrew said, his voice awfully calm for someone who was watching a woman get naked in front of him.
The other two men were eying me like candy, but I ignored them. I glared at Andrew. “I never asked to be aligned with you,” I said.
“And we never asked you to spy on us, yet you did. There’s no going back,” he replied.
“So, now what?” I asked, goosebumps rising on my legs from the cold air that swept past me. The stone that covered the school didn’t allow for much heat to stay in the air at night, and it only seemed to be growing colder.
“Now, you leave,” Andrew said, taking a step back.
I was surprised. Surely, he was going to do something horrible to me. This was a trap or some kind of joke. I reached down for my pants, but Andrew stuck a leg out and held them in place with his foot.
“You may leave, but you’re not taking your clothes with you,” he said.
“I can’t wander around the school naked,” I said, crossing my arms over my bare breasts.
“You can, and you will,” Andrew said. “You’ll do whatever I tell you to so that you may prove your alliance with us. We take loyalty very seriously here.”
Chapter 5
Troy and Martin were gobbling me up with their piercing blue eyes. I expected one of them to reach out a hand and start touching me, feeling across my porcelain skin with their large rough hands like I was a toy for their amusement, but maybe that was just a fantasy of mine. They didn’t look terribly interested in taking things further than they already had.
“I won’t be able to get back to my room. There’s some creep at the stairs,” I said, destress leaking into my voice.
Andrew frowned. “Who?”
“I don’t know. Some guy,” I said.
Andrew’s jaw danced beneath his stubbled skin. He looked irritated, but I didn’t understand why. I didn’t think it had been anything I had done, but I could always be wrong.
“We’ll take care of it,” Troy said.
“Really?” I asked, surprised that they would want to help me.
“Yeah, we’re all on the same side now,” Martin said.
Andrew shook his head. “I told that asshole to stay away from the dorms. That’s our territory. He shouldn’t be there.”
I knew how gangs worked from my exposure to them, and Andrew, Troy, and Martin operated just like the ones back at home. They had their own territory that they would fight over and patrol at night. Whoever had been sitting at the bottom of the stairs wasn’t welcome there, which was a relief. I might actually make it back to bed alive at this rate.
“Let’s go,” Andrew said, waving a hand and spinning around.
Martin and Troy followed him as he walked toward the exit, his steps long and purposeful as he went to confront the guy at the end of the staircase. I considered staying back and grabbing my clothes, but Andrew was looking for obedience, and that would be far from it. I wouldn’t be safe at this school if I didn’t follow his command, not that I was anyway. I just didn’t want to be found dead on my first week.
I scrambled to follow Andrew, Troy, and Martin, feeling oddly free as I stepped out into the darkness behind them unclothed. It was embarrassing to be naked, but none of the men were focused on me anymore. They seemed more concerned with confronting their new enemy than exploring my nudity with their greedy eyes.
I almost felt disappointed that I wasn’t in the center of attention anymore, but I had to remind myself once again that those types of thoughts were destructive. It was that same urge to dive into the arms of my abuser that sunk me this low in the first place. My ex-boyfriend had pulled similar stunts on me, and being the foolish woman that I was at the time, I fell in love with him harder for it. I didn’t know what my problem was, but it was a pervasive one that had been hard for me to stomp out.
I trailed behind the large men as they took confident steps through the halls. I would have taken hours to find my way back to the dormitory without them, but they got me there in under a minute. We weaved through the stone corridors as I made myself small behind them. Even though the school was largely empty at this hour, I was afraid of being seen naked.
“Hey fucker!”
I looked up to see Troy charging with his first clenched toward a man at the bottom of the staircase leading to the women’s dormitory. The man stood up quickly when he saw Troy.
The other two men ran after him, all charging toward the man, who had no way to escape them. I held back, watching in morbid fascination as the scene un
folded in front of me.
Troy slammed into the man, knocking him backward onto the staircase. That had to have hurt. I could only imagine the pain of concrete steps digging into the cartilage that connected the bone segments of his spinal cord. Troy could have easily paralyzed him by doing that.
I folded my arms over my chest and leaned my bare shoulder against the cold wall as he began throwing fists at the man. Martin and Andrew arrived on the scene quickly, matching the fury of Troy in the most violent gang beatdown I had witnessed in a long time.
I wasn’t a stranger to violence, but this group didn’t have an ounce of mercy in their muscular bodies. They must have had a lot of bottled rage and frustration to explode like that on someone just for sitting at the wrong staircase, not that the man didn’t deserve it. He got what was coming to him after trying to hold me hostage on my way back to the dormitory.
I couldn’t see what was going on, but I heard pitiful yelps and three men punching and kicking in a tight huddle. They were giving the man a righteous beating, but he hadn’t gone limp yet. In fact, I soon discovered that it was quite the opposite. Somehow, he managed to break free of the tight huddle and escape down the hall, flying past in a blur of skin and blood.
Andrew and his gang didn’t attempt to chase him as he flew into the darkness away from them.
Andrew held out a hand, motioning to the staircase and looking at me. “Up you go, little Rose.”
I sulked down the hall with my head down, the thrill of the fight quickly wearing off and leaving my self-conscious about my nudity again. I felt more exposed now that the sun had begun to rise, spilling pale light through the windows that were positioned too high up on the walls to see out of.
I moved around Troy and Martin, slipping past Andrew to walk up the staircase. I looked back at them nervously as I walked up, afraid that they might follow me, but they didn’t. They just watched as I walked up the staircase, their eyes fixed on my pale ass.
“Don’t think this is over,” Andrew called from the bottom as I reached the large wooden door to the dormitory.
