“Hazel, that’s enough.” Ms. West stood. Her black skirts swirled around her feet as she held open her office door. “Thank you for bringing this to my attention, Ms. Haynes. Please, return to class. Derleth Academy has a zero tolerance policy for bullying. You and your parents can rest assured we will be dealing with this issue.”
Courtney flashed me a pitying smirk and flounced out of the room, leaving me alone with Ms. West.
I expected the headmistress to yell at me. Instead, she knelt down beside me. Her eyes swam with this weird look that someone who hadn’t seen her try to throw a student into the void might mistake for kindness. “Hazel, I’m concerned about you. All your teachers are. You’ve been lashing out ever since you arrived at this school. I’ve had many scholarship students arrive at Derleth with a chip on their shoulder, and none of them had your history of trauma. Derleth could be a turning point in your life, a chance to cast off the cards you’ve been dealt and make a fresh start. We want to help you, but we can’t do that if you fight us at every turn.”
“What is this shit?” I narrowed my eyes at her. “Drop this concerned teacher act. This school isn’t a ‘fresh start,’ it’s a death trap.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about, dear.” She placed her icy fingers over my hand. “You’re clearly still dealing with unresolved trauma from your mother’s death. I think you may need to speak to a professional. We can arrange that—”
I flung myself out of bed. My feet tangled in the sheets, trapping me under the blankets as I fought to wrap my hands around Ms. West’s neck and choke the life out of her. It took me a few moments to realize that I was no longer in her office, but in my own bed in my cold dorm room, and that the whole altercation with Courtney had been another strange dream.
Scritch-scritch-scritch.The rats in the walls circled overhead. I smiled. That sound had become a comfort. It centered me, brought me back to where I belonged.
The dream haunted me as I swung out of bed and gathered my things for the shower. I closed my hand around the bottle of shampoo I’d stolen from Courtney’s room when I’d replaced hers.That was weird. It was like I’d entered another reality – one where I was the bully instead of Courtney. Except that it was all kind of true.Hearing my own actions thrown back at me like that gave me a sick feeling in my stomach.
Or maybe that was just the residual impact of beingpoisoned.
I can’t believe I’m thinking this, but if you’re listening to my thoughts, Great Old God, I’d like to go back to the hate-filled nightmares, thanks.
Or maybe the dream was telling me something else. I bent down and checked the gap between the desk and the wall, where I’d hidden the things I’d collected so far for my final punishment plan. I was building a decent stash. All I had left to do was set a date.
I needed an event involving the whole school. But the second quarter was drawing to a close, which meant exams were starting next week. There were no school dances or parent days until next quarter. Could I wait that long?
Would I survive that long?
Chapter Twenty-Seven
When Trey and I reached the library during our free period, we discovered his ‘usual’ table had been usurped. Tillie flashed us a satisfied smirk as she opened out her books, and Derek cracked his knuckles, daring us to make a scene.
Trey’s back stiffened. He stepped toward them, but I yanked him down into a nearby chair. “What are youdoing?Derek is eighty percent neck. He’ll smash your pretty face into a pulp.”
“This is a direct hit on my power,” he hissed. “I can’t show weakness.”
“It’s atable,” I said, the words burning my damaged throat. “Get over it.”
Trey glanced over his shoulder. Tillie laughed at something Derek said. She went in for a hair-flip but seemed to forget she was wearing a beanie to cover her ruined hair, so all she succeeded in doing was looking like she had a neck cramp. I started to laugh, but that hurt my throat even worse.
“You’ve got to stop thinking like a monarch,” I said to Trey. “You’re not one of them anymore. Ninety-nine percent of people don’t have a special table in the library, and you don’t see them crying about it. We’ve got more important things to worry about, like what’s up with Ayaz and where he went the other day when he should have been at the vote.”
“I talked to Ayaz. He isn’t a problem.” Trey slid his math book across the table and lowered his voice. “Did you find Andre?”
I let out a sigh of relief. “Yeah, he came back to Greg’s room that night. He said he’d been hanging out with someone and hadn’t even heard about the meeting. So that’s a relief. I hope they don’t—”
A huge book slammed on my desk, startling me out of thought.
“Fuck!” I threw my pen at Ayaz. “Don’t just throw books at people without warning.”
“I found something.” Ayaz slid into the seat beside Trey and started flipping through a dusty book. “I went back to the cave where you saw Zehra, but I couldn’t find—”
“Whoa.” I held up my hands. “Back up the Ayaz-wagon. Are we talking again?”
“We were always talking,” he snapped.
“No, we weren’t. You flounced out of the library the other week and haven’t spoken a word to me since. We lost a week of study because you’ve got your head stuck up your ass. So what gives?”
Ayaz and Trey exchanged one of their meaningful glances. “I had some shit to work out.” Ayaz softened his voice, his words like velvet. He tapped the book in his hand. “Do you want to hear what I found?”
“Yes. But first… you said you went to the cave. Was this during the Eldritch Club meeting?”
