“Why you got to be such a tease?” he calls after me as I slam the door shut.
The backyard is pitch black, but I know from looking at it in the day that it’s full of long grass, weeds, and a large rotting tree. There’s junk strewn about and I know I have to be careful where I’m walking.
Before I can take a step, I see a bright glowing cherry in the dark and I freeze.
“Hello?” I call out tentatively.
This is a really bad neighborhood so seeing someone hiding in a dark backyard could literally be a killer. I see the glowing point flame brightly again and then fall to the ground as the person drops the cigarette and stomps it out. Everything is black once more.
I don’t move. I’m too scared that at any second this person is going to race out of the dark and grab me. I don’t know if I’d make it back inside in time because I’m already a couple feet away from the backdoor. The rotting back porch is sinking beneath my feet.
The sounds of footsteps moving through the grass reaches my ears and shocks me into movement. I race back to the door and throw it open, but the person behind me is quicker and they slam the door shut before I can run inside.
I spin around and look up into Daire’s devilish face. There’s a bit of light coming through the window next to the door and I can clearly see all his striking features. My relief when I realize it’s him instead of some strange man coming to kill me is only temporary when I remember that Daire is dangerous and could do anything to me.
I’m pinned to the door by his large body. His arm is above my head from when he slammed the door shut, boxing me in.
I somehow find my voice and ask him what he wants.
He doesn’t answer, just gives me a hard, unreadable glare. He looks like he’s trying to see straight into me. Like he’s trying to look down into my soul and learn all my secrets, all my weaknesses, so that he can use them against me.
Finally, he talks, and it chills me to the bone.
“I want you to suffer,” he says in a soft voice that is at odds with his words.
“Why?” I ask weakly.
“Because I hate you.”
He gives me a long, assessing look before releasing me at last. I’m too shocked to do much as he pushes past me and heads into the house. I’m left alone in the darkness on the back porch, wondering what the hell I did to make him hate me and realizing that I’m in way more trouble than I thought.
5
I can’t breathe. I think I’m about to die.
My legs are thrashing in the freezing cold water. I’m desperately grabbing at the hand on my head but his fingers are like steel and I can’t move them. All I can see is murky green and patches of light where the sun has managed to penetrate the stagnant water of the pond behind Marter High.
I’ve been fighting with all my might and in a last ditch effort to escape the hand that’s holding me under, I kick my feet against the cement wall that makes up one side of the pond, but it’s no use. Daire is way stronger than I am and I’m at a disadvantage in the water. He’s going to drown me and there’s nothing I can do to stop it.
The ugly greens are turning into blacks as I lose consciousness. I can’t fight anymore and I start to go limp. The pond is deep and I can’t feel the bottom. I wonder if I’ll sink down to the dark depths before I float up to the surface. I wonder how long it’ll take for someone to call the police and get my body. I wonder what’ll happen with my sister.
Just on the brink of passing out, when all the green has been replaced by black, strong, rough hands slip under my arms and I feel my limp body being roughly dragged out of the water. They dump me on the hard cement walkway next to the pond. I start coughing out mouthfuls of water while trying to gasp for breaths of delicious air.
It feels amazing to be able to breathe again. My head is cloudy from nearly passing out but my adrenaline is keeping me conscious. I just escaped a close death, but I’m still in danger and I need to get out of here.
I spit out the last of the pond water in my lungs and look upwards towards my aggressors. All four of them are surrounding me. Alec, the fourth member of the Vicious Crew, is off to the side with his muscled arms crossed in front of him. Theo and Brax are closest to me and I figure that they were the ones who pulled me from the water. Daire is standing front and center, looking at me like I’m garbage.
I still can’t believe it. He almost just fucking drowned me. I knew I needed to watch out for them—even he warned me—but I never in a million years would have thought it could go this far. I never thought he would really hurt me.
This place has rules that I hadn’t understood until now. The rules here are that there are no rules.
At Marter High, there are gangs of violent guys who are covered in tattoos and looked like full-grown men. This is nothing like anything I have ever experienced before and my ignorance, my underestimating the danger, almost cost me my life—it actually still might. I’m still on the floor in front of them and still at their mercy. It’s not over yet.
I know I have to get away. I try to drag my weak body up to a standing position, but before I can, Brax and Theo are at my sides again, gripping me under my arms.
“Strip her,” Daire says coldly.
“What?!” I cry in a water-soaked voice.
I try to grab onto my clothes to stop them from being removed, but my fingers are useless and frozen from the cold. They make quick work of stripping me to my bra and panties. They even remove my shoes.
I’m left standing there almost naked and shivering in the cold air. The rest of the school is gathered on the gentle hill next to the pond, watching gleefully like a pack of hyenas. They look like they can’t wait to see what happens next. Like they are out for blood.
I try to cover myself by crossing one arm over my chest and putting my other hand in front of my panties, but it’s pointless. Daire is looming before me like a larger-than-life villain. All chiseled jaw, tall hair, and heartless eyes.
He just tried to drown me. I still can’t believe it.
When Theo grabbed my backpack and ran away with it, I shouldn’t have chased him. When he ran outside and behind the school, I should have turned around and gone back inside. When I caught him at the top of the hill that led down to the small gross pond, I shouldn’t have tried to furiously push his giant, unmovable body.
When he threw my bag down the hill, I shouldn’t have chased after it—especially when I saw all the students gathered there. I should have seen Daire and turned around. But I didn’t. Before I knew what was happening, Daire had pushed me in the pond and held me under.
Daire motions with his chin towards the crowd.
“Aren’t so high and mighty now without your fancy clothes are you, Highness?” He sneers when he says the nickname and it’s the first time that I notice one of his canine teeth is capped in silver. “Get out of here,” he finishes darkly.
I look around helplessly, but there’s no sympathy on anyone’s face. My clothes are lying in a wet pile on the cement and I go to reach for them but Theo takes a step to block me. I look up into his eyes, but they are as unreadable as Daire’s.
I take a tentative step backwards, starting to go around the pond, but the other members of the gang move to block me. They clearly want me to go up the hill through the crowd.