I gestured to my friends standing around me. “You’ve been trapped here for twenty years, and you’ve donewhatexactly to save yourselves? You’ve been so distracted with petty vendettas and bullying people you consider less than yourselves that you haven’t considered how you came to be here or how you might get your lives back. Well, those very people you tormented are standing here before you with the beginning of an answer. We could have run away and left you to your fate, and I’ll admit, it’s fucking tempting. But I don’t believe in running, so here we are with a plan, if you want to hear it.”
I didn’t really have a plan, yet. But that little fact was on a need-to-know basis.
Students exchanged glances. Amber’s eyebrows lifted so high they practically crawled off her face. Theywantedto believe me, but I wasn’t going to give them the option until they asked nicely.
“Cut the dramatics, Waite.” Courtney flipped her hair over her shoulder. “We want to hear your plan.”
Well, as nicely as a monarch was capable of. She didn’t call me ‘gutter whore,’ I guess?
I smiled. “Good. The first thing you need to know is that whatever the faculty want you to believe, Ms. West has her own agenda. On the surface, we’re playing along, but we’re not their pawns. We’re hosting a party in true Miskatonic Prep fashion on Friday night, down at the pleasure garden, no teachers allowed. I’ll reveal the details then. Bring the last of your drugs and your booze and be prepared to burn your inhibitions, because this is your farewell party. At the end of this quarter, you’ll be saying goodbye to this hellhole forever.”
A cheer rose up from the students – the sound resonating through the vaulted corridor, bouncing off the marble floor and the shiny lockers to feed back into itself, growing in power and intensity until it became a bugle calling us to war.
A black cloud swirled through the crowd, knocking aside students. My heart plummeted, thinking it was the shadows. But it couldn’t be – I controlled the god’s shadows now.
Ms. West stormed through the students, her black gown flapping around her and her eyes narrowed to slits. Teachers in their black academic gowns tore after her, struggling to keep up with her determined step. Of course, we all turned tail to follow them.
Voices bounced off the walls as students poured into the atrium, crowding the staircases and blocking the exits in flagrant disregard for fire safety protocol. Ms. West strode through the assembled students, flanked by Dr. Atwood and Dr. Halsey. They reached the Derleth Academy crest hanging above the stairs. Ms. West snapped her fingers.
Dr. Atwood and Dr. Halsey lifted the wooden crest from the wall, revealing another underneath. A crest familiar to me now, even though I’d never worn the uniform.
Miskatonic Prep.
CRASH.
They tossed the Derleth crest over the balustrade. It flipped once before smashing into the marble. Students leaped out of the way as splinters flew in all directions.
“We’re done pretending,” Ms. West roared at the cowering students. I could practically see smoke coming out her ears. “You have learned the truth about your enrollment here. You were chosen because your parents deem you expendable. But there is one here who truly loves you, who wants the best for you. Your god.”
A ripple of disbelief echoed through the crowd. Trey glanced at me, silently asking what we should do. I shrugged. We had to let her talk, or it looked as it the top of her head would explode.
“He has cared for you all these years as if you were his children.” I bit my tongue not to yell the truth, but it wasn’t time for that yet. “Each of you carries him inside you. Over the years I have tried to mold you into something that pleases him, but again and again, you have failed us both. Your god has given you a great gift – immortal blood and endless good health, and powers you haven’t begun to explore, but you feel it is worthless while you are trapped inside these walls. But the god did not trap you here – your parents did. And by your god’s grace, we shall all be free again.”
Another cheer rose from the students, more subdued, unsure. Eyes turned to us, looking for direction. In the front, the Kings and I cheered loudest of all. My eyes met Ms. West, and I tried to convey through the curl of my lip and the tightness of my fist that I had the students in her thrall.
“We will be hosting a graduation ball at the end of the quarter, on the anniversary of your imprisonment here. If you wish for your freedom, you will show up at this ball in your finest clothes. You will do your school proud. If you stand with the faculty against your parents, you will walk out of this school as free spirits, with the god’s gifts still intact.”
Only a smattering of applause greeted her words, and not even Trey’s enthusiastic shout could bring them around. Ms. West stared down at us as though she expected flowers to be thrown at her feet. Instead, all we had were the rotting tomatoes she deserved.
I stepped forward, my voice ringing clear. “We’ll do what you ask, but the students want something in return, a show of good faith. If we’re all to graduate this year with real diplomas, we want the points table set back to 0. Foreveryone. It’s about time weallknew what it’s like to start life without advantages. We’re going to be even, and at the end of term, the valedictorian will be chosen based on merit alone.”
Trey stared at me gape-mouthed, like I’d suddenly sprouted a second head. But I knew what I was doing… I thought so, at least. I needed the students to see me command Ms. West and have her obey. They needed to see who was in control here.
“Great idea,” Tillie called from the back of the room. Courtney shot her a dirty look, but a number of other students echoed her agreement.
“You ungrateful brats,” Ms. West hissed, wrapping her shawl around her shoulders like a vampire making a dramatic exit. Above her head, the merit points boards flickered once, then every single total was reset to 0. “This isn’t a holiday. Get to class.”
Chapter Fifteen
“A key?” Greg squinted at me like he was seeing me for the first time.
We’d gathered our crew – Greg, Andre, Loretta, Sadie, and Trey and Quinn – in Trey’s room to report on how the first day had gone. Quinn tried to find Ayaz to join us, but he wasn’t in his room or the art studio – I wondered if seeing how afraid everyone was had made him rethink the things he’d said in the infirmary. My stomach twisted up in knots about it, but I tried to ignore it and focus on Greg.
“I don’t get it either, and we’re not supposed to be talking about it now. We’re supposed to be figuring out how to sneak out to see Deborah, Mr. 20 merit points.” Greg already jumped ahead on the points table for answering a difficult question in physics.
“Yeah, brainiac.” Quinn thumped Greg on the back. “I need you to tutor me.”
“I don’t think tutoring is going to help you,” Greg grinned. “Mostly you just need to shut your face.” Quinn was at -13 for talking back to Dr. Atwood.
