“I didn’t read it, if that’s what you’re thinking. I just tore it right up.”
“I was kinda hoping you did read it, actually,” I said.
“Why?” she asked, tilting her head to one side.
I lowered my eyes. “I know it’s stupid, but I can’t stop wondering what it said.”
“Probably just the same bullshit he’s been texting to you,” she replied.
I snapped my gaze up to meet hers. “He’s been texting me?”
“Yeah, from Asher’s phone, I think. It’s all been forwarded to me.”
“What did he say?”
“I don’t think I should tell you.”
“Please, Trina.”
She sighed and held up a hand. “Okay, fine. I’ll tell you. But if you regret hearing this later, you can’t blame me.”
“I won’t.”
“All right. I deleted the messages, because fuck him, but I still remember the gist of them. They said something like: there’s something I need to tell you, and it’s really important, but I have to do it in person.”
“Hm. I wonder what it is.”
She rolled her eyes again. “Please don’t fall for it. It’s obviously just another attempt to manipulate you into seeing him.”
“I don’t know,” I said slowly, rubbing the back of my neck. “What if Adam actually had a point the other day?”
“About what?”
“When he said it might not be Hunter behind the video at the assembly. What if he was right?”
Trina groaned. “For fuck’s sake. I knew I shouldn’t have told you about the messages,” she said. “It’s working for him already! You’re starting to doubt yourself.”
“Well, it’s just not making much sense anymore. Why would he do something so horrible and then spend so much time and effort claiming that it wasn’t him?”
“Um, duh? To reel you right back in so he can fuck you over again.”
“But the necklace,” I said, nodding toward the desk drawer. “It looked expensive as hell. If he was really guilty and actually hated me, why would he spend so much money just to trick me?”
“Laney, you can’t start falling for this again. You have to think about it from his point of view.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean the jewelry is just more rich-boy bullshit, like that check he tried to give you at the elephant gala,” she said, nostrils flaring. “Money is literally nothing to him. His weekly allowance is probably equal to the GDP of a small country. So you might think the necklace is a big grand gesture, but to him it’s just another easy way to trick you.”
My shoulders slumped. “You’re right. I’m being a dumbass.”
“No, it’s not your fault,” she said, face softening. “You didn’t grow up in his world. You aren’t used to all the rich-boy fuckery yet.”
“I should be used to it,” I said with a grimace. “I’ve dealt with my fair share already.”
She patted my arm and gave me a sympathetic smile. “Don’t worry. It’ll get easier.”
We finished the pizza and returned to our studies. By half past nine, I was exhausted, and I couldn’t contain my yawns.
“I think we’ve done enough,” Trina said, noticing my tiredness. “I feel pretty ready for the test. Do you?”
I smothered another yawn and nodded. “I think so.”
“Good, because if I have to read one more note about the use of color in The Handmaid’s Tale, I might spontaneously combust.” She grinned and started packing up her stuff. “Hey, I forgot to ask. When are you officially joining the Medusas?”
“Tomorrow.”
“Oh, wow. Did they tell you what’s happening in the initiation yet?”
“Nope,” I said, shaking my head. “I just have to wait and see.”
She stood up and gave me a hug. “Well, good luck with it! Hope it’s fun,” she said. “And I hope you don’t get any more weird vibes from them.”
“I’m sure it’ll be fine,” I said, hugging her back.
After she was gone, I took a quick shower, put on my pajamas and climbed into bed. I was so tired that my eyes were already shut before my head hit the pillow.
Despite my exhaustion, something jolted me awake a while later. With bleary eyes, I looked at the clock on my nightstand to see that it was just before midnight. I yawned and stretched my limbs, wondering what shook me out of my heavy slumber.
Then I heard it again. A thud. The noise sent me bolting upright as my heart leapt into my mouth.
My eyes quickly adjusted to the dark, and I whipped my head around, searching every inch of my room for the source of the sound.
There was nothing there. No one.
For a moment, I thought I might’ve imagined the thudding sound, but then I heard a cough from my bathroom.
“For fuck’s sake, keep it down,” someone whispered. It was a distinctly masculine voice. “You’ll wake her up before we even get in there.”
My scrambled brain begged my legs to move, but I was paralyzed with fear.
No, no, no…
It was happening all over again. Hunter and his cronies had broken in to terrorize me. They’d probably put a ladder against the wall outside, pried my bathroom window open and climbed inside one by one.
I heard slow footsteps now, getting closer and closer to the bathroom door. My vision blurred and my chest tightened, sucking the air out of my lungs, and my mind was overwhelmed with a sense of impending doom. I recognized the feeling instantly. I was having a panic attack.
I forced myself to inhale and exhale deeply through my nose. Sweat beaded on my forehead as I struggled to control my breathing, and when the attack passed, I slipped out from under my sheets and quietly padded toward the main door, hoping I could sneak out of the dorm before Hunter and his friends left my bathroom.
No such luck.
The bathroom door creaked open, and three masked figures emerged. “Shit! She fucking heard us,” one of them muttered. “Get her. Quick!”
I let out a piercing scream and dashed toward the door. Before I reached it, two of the black-clad figures grabbed me, one by the arms and one by the legs. They carried me over to my bed and put me down, tightening their grip on me as I struggled and thrashed. “Help!” I shrieked, hoping someone else in Blair Hall would hear my pleas. “Help me! Please!”
My assailants put something in my mouth and tied it in place, silencing my screams. All I could do was moan plaintively through my nose. I kept struggling, trying my best to break free and kick out at the guy pinning my feet to the bed.
The blood in my veins turned to icy sludge as the tallest one came at me with a large dark sack. Hunter, presumably.
He slid the sack over my head, and everything went black.
5
Laney
My captors carried me for what felt like fifteen minutes, though it could’ve been more or less. It was hard to measure time accurately when I had a black sack over my head, a gag in my mouth, and a heart racing so fast that it threatened to explode right out of my ribcage.