Page 31 of The Honor Society

“I’m not.” I lift my chin.

“Good girl.” He opens the car door.

“Wow how very civilized of you⁠—”

The last word dies on my lips as he slams something cold over my mouth and just like that, I’m limp and thinking about Axel and all the things I wanted to say to him.

I love you.

I’m sorry.

I was afraid.

I didn’t want to lose you.

I thought it was the only way to save you—to save us.

I have no concept of time as my head lulls to the side. I try to move but my hands are tied behind my back. Tight. I’m sitting in a cold metal chair and I have a blindfold on. It smells wet, moldy. I try to shove the gag out of my mouth but it’s just as tight as the rope around my hands.

“Remember, no harming the merchandise.” A voice chuckles.

Merchandise? Are they selling drugs?

“Her? Please.” The familiar voice from before snorts. “We have to keep her alive for everything to click into place, and now that it’s all been fucked up, we can’t afford any more changes. The Convocation is in fifteen days, by then we won’t have control of shit if this doesn’t go our way.”

“Awwwww,” someone says and then a slow clap follows. “Me and my tiny violin will just be over here in the corner, please continue your sob story.”

“What the fuck!” A man yells.

Something hits the ground, or someone. My ears strain to hear.

“So, kidnapping is a crime you know, especially when she doesn’t belong to you.”

“Bullshit, Sterling means⁠—”

His voice is cut off by the sound of slicing.

“I’ll tell you what it means you piece of shit,” the voice is the same as before, low, controlled, modified through a voice scrambler. “Tell Famine that the war I will wage against him will be the most painful thing he’s ever experienced if he dares touch her again. Do you think you can relay that message for me?”

“Y-yes.”

“I am the law. And you do not touch what the law protects. Do you understand?”

“Yes.”

“Yes, what?”

“Yes, sir. Thank you, Proctor.”

I go very still in my chair. Proctor? The Proctor is here? I’m as good as dead. I won’t make it out of here alive. None of us will. I shot Axel to keep The Proctor away at all costs. I shot him to save us from a fate worse than death. And now, I’m going down. I almost laugh, wow, so it all ends like this. A kidnapping, the very Proctor I was protecting him from, and me tied to a chair. At least I had time with him. At least in the end, Axel knows even if I didn’t say it with words—but with my body—that I love him.

A tear slides down my cheek dropping onto my thigh. This sucks. It’s better that it’s me isn’t it? Axel would shit himself. Brave, he is not. Though I never needed him to be the hero. I just wanted him to be my lover, my friend.

“The Convocation is coming.” The Proctor’s voice hisses. “And unlike her, you are easy to replace.”

Something clatters to the ground. I jump a foot when the blindfold and gag are cut from my face. Slowly I look up. It’s the man from before, same plague like mask, same tally marks across the forehead. Same beautiful mouth, same muscular build, same long black coat.

The Proctor. He is The Proctor.