Like a ghost.
Something Quinn had said came back to me.You think death is the worst they can do to us?I thought of the hatred that had poured out of the god’s void. The three Kings acted as though they were above it all – Quinn wallowing in hedonism, Ayaz striving for knowledge, Trey’s regal remoteness and desire for ultimate control. I thought they were untouchable, but now I knew better.
They might be dead, but their hearts still beat. They still felt, stillloved– a love twisted by the desire for what they had once had and could never have again. And I could see now how someone evil could take that love and twist it into something rotten, something that could be used to keep those boys in line.
Love kept them bound to Miskatonic Prep. Love forced them to torture the outsiders until they didn’t know any other way.
Love makes you vulnerable.I knew that all too well. It painted a target on your back and ripped all the humanity out of you until there was nothing but a broken shell.
I sucked in a breath. My finger pressed into the scar on my wrist. I hadn’t allowed myself to feel anything since the fire. I’d come to Derleth Academy a broken shell. Now, my three tormentors were threatening to open me up again. They were burning me inside and out.
Somehow, I was burning them right back. And in that fire were all the feelings we thought we’d destroyed. All the hope and love and longing that made us weak.
The question was, would the resulting inferno destroy us all?
Chapter Fifteen
Courtney and her friends never showed up at the Halloween afterparty. I heard they spent most of the night trying to detach their various appendages from their bodies. Old Waldron’s infirmary appeared to be stocked from the 1800s and didn’t have anything that could dissolve the mess. Superglue was a bitch to get out, especially when you stuck it in your hair.
Or on your nipples.Poor Courtney.
Greg and I got 20 points each deducted by Dr. Halsey for ruining the costumes we borrowed. The night had been more than worth it – we got into the Eldritch Club, Courtney superglued her nipples, I met Ayaz’s sister, and every time I thought about the grotto a deep, hot ache flared inside me.
Over the weekend, my burn blistered. I cleaned it out and changed the dressings, relishing the god’s anguish as I rubbed it with antiseptic. It still emitted a dull ache when I walked on it, but nothing I couldn’t handle.
In class on Monday, both Courtney and Tillie showed up wearing hats pulled low, covering their hair. When Mr. Dexter scolded them for breaking the uniform code, Courtney refused to remove hers and accepted a 5-point demerit. Tillie, however, couldn’t face losing the points. She scrunched up her nose and flung her hat at the teacher.
“There.Are you happy?” She slouched in her seat.
I had to cover my mouth to stop a laugh escaping. The other students weren’t so polite. Titters erupted around the room as everyone took in Tillie’s nightmarish ’do. The hair on the top of her head stuck up in clumps from where she’d had to cut the ears out. Her entire scalp was red and peeling from whatever chemicals they’d used to try and remove the glue. Even Mr. Dexter’s eyes widened, but he composed himself quickly.
“Thank you, Ms. Fairchild.” He glared around the room. “I expect you all to maintain decorum until the bell, or I’ll deduct points from the whole class.”
While Mr. Dexter read out the day’s announcements, I watched Tillie and Courtney from the back of the room. Tillie’s shoulders sagged as she stared at her desk. She kept raking her nails through her hair, scratching at her irritated scalp. Courtney lifted the edge of her beanie and scratched at her scalp. She kept shifting in her chair, rubbing her palms over the front of her shirt.I bet those nipples are sore,I thought smugly.
A draft caught the back of my neck, reminding me that last quarter they’d snuck into my room and smeared black tar all over my hair. I’d had to cut off the dreadlocks I’d been sporting since freshman year, yet another link to my old life destroyed by this school. Courtney and the other Queens deserved everything they got.
The bell rang. I leapt to my feet, eager to beat Courtney out the door. “Nice hat,” I said sweetly as I walked past her desk. “It suits you.”
“You’re dead, bitch,” she hissed, but there was no bite to her threat.
“Not as dead as you are,” I smiled back at her. Courtney’s lip curled back, but she didn’t get out of her chair. Quinn threw an arm around me, guiding me toward the door.
I cast a final look back at Courtney as we headed down the hall. She remained rooted in place, staring straight ahead with a deer-in-headlights expression, like she couldn’t believe what had happened to her.
You may be undead, but you’re still vulnerable.I’d found the chink in Courtney’s armor. She believed that she had power at this school. But I’d just shown her how fickle her power was, and how little it really mattered. She could be toppled just as easily as the kids she tortured, and once I took away her power, she would have nothing left.
I wasn’t even nearly done with her yet.
* * *
Greg wasn’t as enthusiastic as I expected when I revealed my revenge plan during our private rehearsal that evening. “I just don’t think it’s worth going after them like that.”
“After they tormented Loretta? She wanted to kill herself.”
“Yes, but she didn’t. And they’re her friends now,” Greg pointed out. “What if this made things worse for her again? The superglue was funny, but you know Courtney won’t allow it to stand without retaliation.”
“I don’t think they really are her friends.” I slumped over the piano, my chin in my hands. “And as for Courtney retaliating, I plan on making it so that’s the last thing she wants to do.”
