“Hi.” I gave a dumb wave to this girl. She glared at me through narrowed eyes. She had been beautiful once, with brown skin and dark hair in tight curls. Now, the skin around her eyes and mouth had shrunk and pocked, there were patches of dry skin flaking off her neck and hands, and her eyes betrayed too many unspoken horrors. My throat closed up as the taste of those chemicals still burned on my tongue. “My name is Hazel. I’m a scholarship student here.”
Andre tried his pen again. This time it worked. He handed me his paper.
“This is Sadie. She came here as a scholarship student nineteen years ago. They imprisoned her here.”
My stomach turned. Sadie was a scholarship student. So why was she down here in this hellhole, instead of part of the student body…
And then Isaw.
I glanced around the room at the rest of the maintenance staff. The tough conditions had aged some of them prematurely, but they were all clearly young people. Many looked to be African American, but I saw other ethnicities, too – Hispanic, Indian, Middle Eastern…
They’re all scholarship students.
And then I remembered where I’d seen Sadie before. She had a file in Parris’ book, a picture with a slash through it – shehadlooked so different then – bright and full of hope.
This is what the faculty and alumni do with the sacrifices who don’t fit with their worldview. This is why they deliberately choose orphans from poor neighborhoods and ethnic communities, so they can reinforce this idea that in life there are masters and servants.
Bile rose in my throat. Just last night I’d thought that I’d come to terms with what Trey, Quinn, and Ayaz had been a part of, but that was before Andre opened my eyes to the darkest secret of Miskatonic Prep. All these people down here had been bullied by them over the years, and now they wereslaves.
This wassick.
Sadie moved her hands in a series of quick signs and Andre scribbled down another note. “She says that the Kings took her to a dark cave under the school and lowered her into a dark hole where something attacked her. She hasn’t aged since. She can’t leave the school grounds. She can’t escape, and every day she has to cook and clean for the students who did this to her. Hazel, what’s going on?”
“What’s going on is—” but I couldn’t say any more. The words dried on my tongue. I couldn’t break the agreement I’d made.
Instead, I turned to Sadie, anger surging inside me for what had been done to them. Howcouldthey? How could Trey and Quinn and Ayaz and all the others swan around upstairs while this injustice went on? Why did it take them twenty years to finally try to stop this?
There were so many people down here. They could outnumber the students, overwhelm the faculty. They could have done something about this years ago, so why hadn’t they? What did Ms. West and the Eldritch Club have over them? “Why do you meekly follow what the faculty wants?” I demanded, struggling to contain my rage. ”Why don’t you try to warn others so they could spare themselves the same fate?”
Staring at me with grave defiance, Sadie opened her mouth. I gasped as she revealed the ugly scar and frightful stub where her tongue should have been.
Chapter Thirty-Two
I gulped back my revulsion at the barbaric wound. “Who did that to you?”
But I didn’t need to ask. Iknew.
Sadie signed frantically at Andre. His hand whirled as he signed his reply. They signed so fast that even if I had known the language, I couldn’t have followed them. Finally, Sadie stepped back, folding her arms. She swept her accusing gaze over my body.
“You’re right,” I told her. “There’s something at this school that isn’t of this world. I’ve seen it. But I’m beginning to understand that it’s not the true evil here.”
She nodded.
“We’re going to destroy the people that did this,” I said, pointing to Andre and I. “Once and for all. We’re going to find a way to give each and every one of you your life back.Reallife, not this wretched servitude.”
Sadie’s eyes widened. She shoved me hard in the chest. I stumbled back against the conveyor belt. “What was that for?” I demanded, but then I heard it. An old-fashioned bell tinkling. A Hispanic girl rushed through the room with the bell in her hands, sprinting towards the washroom with it.
A signal of some sort? Or a warning?
Beckoning us to follow her, Sadie disappeared behind the steamer. In the corner of the room was a low, narrow door. Sadie yanked it open, revealing a tiny platform and a rope pulley and a wooden stake to jam the brake. An old-fashioned dumbwaiter. She leaned inside, grabbed Andre’s collar, and pressed her lips to his in a brief, searing kiss before pulling away and slamming the door.
Dayum, Andre.He had been busy this quarter.
Inside, it was pitch black and barely small enough for us both to fit on the platform. “I should have guessed you had a girl,” I whispered to Andre, squeezing his hand. “Now I know how you managed to get that key for me.”
He didn’t reply, of course, but he did squeeze my fingers back.
A cramp shot up my leg – an old sting from my burn scar. But I didn’t dare shift. Neither of us made a move for the winch. I didn’t want the sound of the dumbwaiter to give us away. And also, I wanted to hear what was happening outside.
