Archer and Beau literally threw me out of their temple. I landed in the dirt with a thud and immediately turned on my back to curse out my assailants. Fortunately for them, they’d already shut the door and were hidden from my view.
I stood up and brushed myself off. I’d had enough of this new school for today and was ready to retire to sleep. I marched back over to the student center. One of the guards gave me my ID and pointed to the dorm I was supposed to be in. I thanked him and got a wary nod before he buried himself back in his work.
Weird.
This whole place was fucking weird.
I walked all the way across campus to my dorm. Apparently my luggage had been brought there by some of the other guides. There was a pit in my stomach slowly sinking down into my toes. Something about it didn’t feel right.
Esther Hall was one of the smaller dorms on campus. Nevertheless, it was still just as beautiful as the rest of the buildings. I held my ID in my hand and pushed into the building. There was a small turnstile waiting for me. I pressed my ID into it and held my breath.
DENIED.
Right. Of course.
I tried again, almost out of disbelief. This could not be happening. How was this happening?
DENIED.
I tried again and again and each time, a bright red word appeared and a sour buzzing noise that made me want to sink my fist into the key card reader.
DENIED.
DENIED.
DENIED.
“It’s not going to change,” a voice says.
I snap my head towards the sound of it. A guard is sitting behind a desk to the right of me that I missed when I walked in. His legs are up on desk and crossed at the ankle. He’s slightly overweight and completely disheveled.
“What?” I say.
He taps his finger on the desk out of my line of sight. “Chloe Kissimet, right?” he says. “Just got your name on the newest Untouchables list.”
“Oh for fuck’s sake—” I mumble under my breath. I suck in a lungful of air. “Look, my shit is upstairs in the dorm that was assigned to me. If you’re not going to let me up can you please go get it?”
There was a clattering outside the dorm. I look out the window and see a bunch of fabric swaying in the wind. It increases in capacity until a suitcase comes barreling out of the sky and thuds on the ground. My eyes widen in horror when I notice the bright green luggage tag with my initials on it. I look back at the guard, absolutely aghast. He smirks at me and lazily points out the window.
“That yours?”
I bust out of the dorm and into the madness. My things are everywhere. They’re all stained with some blotchy grey ink. Even the new Chanel suit that Isaac got for me. All grey. I crumble to the floor and begin sifting through the wreckage, hopeful to find something that’s not grey. I find no such thing.
For the first time since arriving on this campus, I’m unsure of what to do next. Utter despair creeps up into my brain like a parasite. I hold the shreds of my favorite tee and feel tears pricking in my eyes. Suddenly, I feel a tap on my shoulder. I whirl around and immediately take an offensive stance.
To my surprise, the girl in front of me is small and poses no threat. Her eyes are big behind large framed glasses. Her ears are slightly too big for her head, making her look a bit like a frightened mouse.
“Excuse me?” she squeaks.
“Yes?” I say back, still unsure of everyone.
“I’m supposed to take you to your new room,” she says. Her voice shakes slightly.
“Oh,” I drop my stance and look at the mess of a suitcase surrounding me. “Let me just—” I start to collect all my belongings and throw them in the suitcase. One of the wheels is busted so it’s going to be a pain to tote it wherever this girl is taking me. I pack up all my tattered things and look back at the girl. She nods once before scurrying off into the campus.
She winds me through the school to the other side of the property. I feel a shred of hope when we reach a larger building than Ester Hall. The hope is destroyed when she brings me around the side of the building to a cellar door. She pulls the door open and walks down dimly lit steps.
I feel like I’m entering a prisoner-of-war camp as I walk into the room. It’s a dirt shell with a few cots scattered throughout it. Everyone in the room is wearing grey and looks absolutely miserable. It’s a sickening sight to see.
“Well,” the small girls says and shoves her glasses up her nose. “Welcome to the Cave.”
I look around again in awe. “Are you all—”
“Untouchable, yes,” the girl says. She motions me towards an empty cot and we both sit down on it. I drop my suitcase on the floor. It feels so out of place in a setting like this.
“The Hayes brothers all marked us as Untouchable in some way or another,” the girl continues. “They all tend to do the same thing to our belongings after we’ve wronged them in one way or another.” She gives me a sad smile. “Unfortunately the sight of your clothes flying through the air is one I’ve seen a lot.” She sighs. “For all intensive purposes, we’re still students here. We still attend all of our classes and get to graduate at the end of it all. But no one talks to us. The only people who can even address us are the Untouchables themselves. Even professors tend to ignore us in class.”
“Gods damned,” I breath. “That’s inhumane.”
The girl shrugs. “It’s kind of nice to be ignored. Better than being picked on. Oh, I’m FA by the way.”
“FA?” I question. “Is that short for something?”
She immediately turns pink in the face and gives me an awkward laugh. She adjusts her glasses again. “Yes, unfortunately. Fat Ass.”
“Fat Ass?!” I gasp. “That’s your name?!”
She tips her head. “Not, governmentally, per say but, yes. Here it is.”
“It’s those fucking brothers, isn’t it?” I snap. “They’re such assholes.”
“They’re in charge,” FA sighs. “What’d they call you?”
“Savage Woman,” I hiss. “I tried to put that Archer guy in his place and he over powered me. How is no one doing anything about this?”
“It’s not too bad,” Another girl says. She’s broader than FA and has rippling shoulder muscles. Her long hair is braided down her back. She has a slight accent. “We get food. We get our education. Sure the cave sucks but no one really bothers us down here.”
“That’s Peacey,” FA says. “Short for Pretentious Cunt.”
I immediately grimace and look at Peacey. She smiles back at me.
“I told Neil his recreation of Starry Night was shite the second day of classes. He told me I was a pretentious cunt and now I’m here.”
“So you’ve all had issues with the Hayes brothers?” I say as I look around. Everyone nods at me. “Why don’t you fight back?”
“The Hayes brothers run the school,” A dark skinned girl says as she shakes her head. “Even the staff is eating out of their palms in order to get in the good graces of Alpha Hayes, their dad. Anyone who even attempts to fight them is beaten down.”
“So you’re just complacent?!” I say, frantically.
“We have each other,” Peacey says. “We take care of one another and we make sure anyone who does face the Hayes wrath feels like their part of our family. You included.”
I sigh. I don’t know what else to say at this point. The day was exhausting enough as it was but adding in the political nonsense was even more draining. I let my suitcase fall to the floor and slump into the bed next to FA. She rubs my shoulders.
“It’ll be okay!” she said. “You’ll still get your education and become a functioning lady of society.”
But I don’t want to be a lady. I want to be a warrior. I’m half tempted to tell FA that but I just smile at her sadly. She smiles back.
“Lights out in twenty. Do you need anything?”
I shake my head. FA pats me on the back once more before stepping away. Twenty minutes later, the lights are out but I’m still wide awake. My mind is churning with the events of the day. I can’t even process them at that moment. It takes me a good three hours to finally start to fall asleep.
Just when my eyelids are fluttering shut, I feel something warm and soft between my arms. I try and brush it off but then I hear a giggly coo. My eyes fly open and I look down into the bright blue eyes of a baby.
