Chapter 25 – The Ungrateful Survivor – Erica Henson

What does it mean to look the devil in the eye? For each person the answer to this phrase meant something different. For me, it meant to look upon my own creation and despair. A sweet young girl was turned into a hateful monster because my two friends and I were having a laugh. They wanted to see how far they could push her. They never expected they’d go down with her when they pushed her too far.

In the end our shitty sense of humor and blind arrogance would caught up with us. Valentina Ivanovich would have her bloody vengeance. Only, she chose to leave me out of said vengeance. I had been asking myself a single question ever since then. Why me?

Before I became a student at Meredith’s School for Troubled Girls I was a well-respected young woman. I had great grades, charming looks, and a large following. However, there was a star that shined even more brightly than me. That had been the story of my life for as long as I could remember. Only this star was more like a black hole. This black hole’s name was Iris.

Iris was my best friend since childhood. I had the misfortune of growing up in her shadow. My happiest moment in middle school was when I had barely managed to snag second place in local marathon. Iris stole first. During my first year in high school I was the runner up in a painting contest. Iris was the victor.

After a long and arduous weekend of sleepless studying I managed to score within the top ten on a national exam. It was the proudest I had ever been. Then I learned Iris scored within the top five. Naturally I was jealous of all the praise and attention she was getting. I was especially jealous when she drew the attention of a cute new student at our school, Valentina Ivanovich.

Iris wasn’t like most girls. She had a cruel, sadistic side that she kept hidden beneath a mask that she wore. On the surface she was a beautiful and intelligent girl with a bright future ahead of her. Beneath that, she was a monster.She was a complete demon that took joy in tearing the wings off flies. To my shame, to my disgust, against my better nature, this was another thing we shared in common.

So when Valentina came to me for advice on how to confess her feelings to Iris I was jealous once again. The right thing would have been to warn this naïve new girl about Iris. Instead I went to Iris about it directly. Together we decided to play a game. That game would be the end of my life as normal student and the beginning of my life as a criminal.

It was morning, just before sunrise now. I was trying to enjoy a candlelit bath before staring my day. I was failing at enjoying it. My mind wandered off to Valentina, as usual. Yesterday was the first time this school year I had managed to confront her. She nearly exploded. There was no way I was going to get answers out of her if she couldn’t even face me without losing her composure.

How much time would be needed before I could speak with her normally? Would we ever return to that level of communication? There was someone I believed that could help me. There was someone that had an effect on Val that I hadn’t since Iris. Her name was Holly Hayfield.

Holly and her friend’s got into serious trouble with the vice principal for some reason that I still didn’t understand. It was an aggravating mystery to me on a personal level. What Holly didn’t know, what no one knew, was how close my relationship was to the vice principal. To outsiders we looked like pristine teacher and her favorite student. My connection with the vice principal, Jackie Sampson, was more than met the eyes.

It wasn’t my bathroom that I was bathing in. It was Jackie’s. After running away she took me in and I had been living with her ever since. My parents and I weren’t on good terms after I got expelled from school. When I met Jackie I decided to leave that family to to become part of hers. This made the situation with Holly and her friends frustrating.

Jackie and I shared everything. We were having an illicit affair together, after all. She was only ten or eleven years older than me, but I was still only seventeen. That didn’t bother me. I was glad that it didn’t bother her. What bothered me was the fact that there was just one thing she wouldn’t share with me.

I had never seen her so stressed out like she was after talking to those four girls on Friday. No matter how much I pried Jackie wouldn’t talk about it. Just what did they do? Also, why were these girls running for student council president? This was also a question that I had for Val. There were so many secrets that I wanted to unravel.

After drying myself off I put on my school uniform and went into Jackie’s bedroom. Jackie was still lying there in bed just as I had left her. She was half-naked with only her underwear on. I sat down beside her and brushed her hair with my hand. What was she hiding from me?

Why did she have to hide anything from me at all? She had the tendency to treat me like a kid every now and then just because I was still in school. I wanted to move past that. We were in an adult relationship. I wanted her to acknowledge me as an adult.

Gently, I pushed her awake by taking hold of her arm and nudging her. She was typically a heavy sleeper. That was a byproduct of the headache medicine she took regularly. It took a full minute of shaking her. Eventually she came around with a big yawn. She was like a cute bear coming out of hibernation.

When she caught me smiling at her she smiled back and pulled me into her. She ignored the fact that I was already fully dressed. She held her arms around me. This time she was the one to run a hand through my hair. I didn’t resist. I laid my head against her chest and indulged in her embrace.

“You’re up early.” She said sleepily.

“Actually, I’m up on time. You’re up late.” I said.

She gave me a look like I was joking, but then her eyes wandered over to the clock. She put one hand over her eyes and sighed.

“Oh Christ, you’re right. We’ve really got to stop sleeping together on school nights.”

I laughed a little.

“You’re the one that insisted.” I reminded her.

“Yeah, well… Christ, you’re right about that too.”

“It was fun but if I fall asleep in class I’ll need a get-out-of-detention-free card.”

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“Better yet I could just call you to my office. You’ll be able to sleep in there.”

“Something tells me if I’m there with you all day then you won’t be getting any work done.”

“Haha! You’re right again.” She said, but then her expression turned serious, “Speaking of work, there’s something I’ve wanted to talk to you. I’m not sure how to word it.”

I locked eyes with her and caressed her cheek.

“Just tell me flat out. I won’t get mad or anything.”

“You might. You’re not going to like what I have to say.”

“Try me.”

She stopped stroking my hair and silently stared at me. She looked away, like she couldn’t face me as she opened her mouth to speak.

“I need you to spy on someone for me.” She said.

“You want to know about Val’s student council group, don’t you?”

“How the hell did you know th-…?”

“It’s because I’ve been wondering the same thing. Like I told you before, Valentina Ivanovich and I have a complicated history. The fact that Holly and Lilith are joining forces with Val is incredibly suspicious. Especially after everything that happened on Friday. I have reason to believe that Sam and Jay are joining them too. I saw them all come out of the library together.”

She grinned and began to stroking my hair again.

“I should’ve known that you’d already have a clue what I wanted. You’re smart as a whip.”

I brushed her hand away and sat up.

“I’m not smart enough, apparently. I still don’t know what it is they did or why you’re even interested in them.”

She sat up in bed and wrapped her arms around me again. She pulled me into her like I was a doll and went back to stroking my hair. This was sweet, but she was procrastinating. Like she said, I was smart. I could see when she was stalling for time.

She was trying to figure out how she would word things to me. She was quite crafty. She wasn’t crafty enough. I had been around Iris all my life. There was no one craftier than Iris. Eventually I learned to be crafty too. I turned to Jackie and put both my hands on her cheeks.

“You want me to spy on them? Fine, I’ll do it. It’ll help me answer a few questions of my own. In exchange you have to tell me something about what you want to know. I don’t need the details, but I need to know what you’re so afraid of.” I said.

She froze up. She looked away again. I had anticipated that she’d do that. I pulled her face back to mine and leaned my forehead against hers.

“No matter what it is I’ll always be on your side, Jackie. You’ve been on my side this entire time since I left home. Let me have a chance to pay you back.”

“You’ve already paid me back more than enough. You don’t owe me anything. I love you.”

I planted a sweet and simple kiss on her lips before backing away.

“I love you too, which is why you have to trust me.”

This time when she went silent she closed her eyes and nodded. I brought my hands down to her shoulders and rubbed them. She felt tense. She only managed to relax her body as my casual rubbing turned into a focused massage. She sighed deep and opened her eyes again, looking at me sternly.

“The truth is that those girls may have seen something down in the school basement.”

“There’s a school basement?”

“There is. There was, at least. With the help of the principal I had it sealed it off a few years ago. There are secrets buried down there that I didn’t want to risk being discovered. When we sealed off the elevator room I thought that was the end of it, but I was wrong.”

“The four girls you called into your office found out about the elevator?”

“It’s actually worse than that,” She said and bit her lip, “I’ve got reason to believe that there was another way down into the basement all this time and I have no idea where it is.”

“How bad is the stuff in the basement? Is it career ending bad?”

“More like, its school ending bad. I need to find the way into the basement without anyone else finding out. There’s someone I think that can help me. The girls say the basement was being taken care of. This person might be the one doing it. If she is, then I’ll need to seriously punish her.” Jackie said angrily.

She was talking in a tone I had never heard out of her. Normally she was stoic enough to not let her raw emotion show like this.

“While I’m dealing with her I need you to watch over those girls. If you’re nice to them they may slip up and let out the secret that I made them keep quiet on. If they do then I’ll know for a fact that they’re up to something.”

This sounded right up my alley. The main reason I was expelled from the public school system was because I befriended Val and brought her into my group. Val thought that she was one of us. In reality my two best friends Iris and Kate were more interested in toying with her. Unfortunately for Iris and Kate, Val turned out to be more than the three of us bargained for.

Iris and Kate paid dearly for the mistake. They were lucky enough to survive Val’s vengeance with their lives. Would I risk this game a second time? Could I play my way into their group without being stopped by Val? It would take some finesse.

“It’ll be hard to do this with Val in the way, but I have an idea. The one I want to get close to is Holly Hayfield.”

“Holly? Why choose her instead of Sam or Lilith?”

“I tried being friendly with Lilith during the last school year. She’d never give me anything more than a one-word response and shoo me off. Sam is too new to this school to be valuable. Holly, however, she has potential. She seems the most reasonable of the bunch. She’s also got a hold over Val. If I can get to her then I can get to their entire group.”

“That’s a good plan. I just want you to be careful.”

“I’m always careful.”

“That’s not what I mean. Holly may not seem it but she’s a weird one, same as the others. The police report on her was… unbelievable, having met the girl. She’s a nice girl. My old friend, Angel, only has nice things to say about her. However, if she’s pushed into a corner she has a snapping point just like anyone else. Get close to her, but not too close.”

“I’ll keep that in mind.”

She pulled me in for a kiss. I accepted it. That was, until I got a look at the alarm clock on her nightstand. I pushed away from her.

“You’d better take a shower and get dressed.” I said and stood up, “I’ll have breakfast ready by the time you get out.”

“You’re such a sweet girl.” She said playfully, “How did your parents ever let you go?”

“I don’t know. Maybe you could ask them at the next parent-teacher conference?” I said jokingly as I walked out of the room.

There was no time to waste playing house after breakfast. Living together secretly meant taking the necessary steps to keep our secret a secret. On school days that meant sticking to a routine in which we would distance ourselves from each other. I broke that rule this year when I chose office assistant as one of my electives.

Jackie pretended to be mad about me becoming an office assistant. Secretly, I knew she was happy that I did. On school days she’d drop me off just outside the school property. It was smart but also a pain in the ass since. The school property was absolutely gargantuan. It was a necessary step to keeping our secret safe but it didn’t make me hate walking to school any less.

“I’ll see you inside.” Jackie said as I got out.

She rolled down the driver-seat window as I walked around the car to step onto the sidewalk. She waved me closer.

“How about we kiss for good luck?” She asked.

“Good morning Ms. Sampson! You look quite lovely this morning!” I said obliviously.

No one was around us but I enjoyed teasing her. She looked ready to drive off, thinking I wouldn’t grant her wish. I did. I leaned in closely just before she could turn her head away. Lightning fast, I placed a kiss on her cheek. She put her hand on her cheek and laughed at the surprise. I laughed too and backed away from the car.

“I’ll text you when I’m inside.” I said.

She happily turned her head back to the road and drove away. I smiled and waved as she left. I didn’t move from that spot. Now that she was far down the road it was perfectly fine to continue on to the school, but I still was waiting. Walking to school had one advantage that I had never considered beneficial for a long time. It meant I could spend a little time with the other girls that were walking to school.

Normally this meant nothing useful. Sometimes I could get information from people I knew I could talk up. Rarely was there anyone worth talking to. Today it meant something special because it was going to be part of my plan. There was a girl that I knew walked to school on a daily basis that I wanted to talk to. I had arrived just in time. The moment I caught sight of her I waved excitedly and called out to her.

“Good morning Lilith!”