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Holding the washcloth on my lip, I close my eyes and try to shake the image from my mind. “That smell. It’s from the laundry room.”
“What? Did something crawl into the vent and die?” She looks back at the door and back at me. “Wait …”
I shake my head. “Something did die. In the dyer. With my clothes. It also managed to gut itself, leaving its insides everywhere. Also, that something’s a dead fucking fish.” My stomach rolls at the thought. “Everything is ruined. All my uniforms were in there.”
“Fuck.” Liz’s eyes are wide with worry. She bites her lip and stands up. “Who the fuck would have done that?”
“Who do you think?” I stand slowly, trying to make sure I don’t need to retch again. “Anyone and everyone at this school!”
“Okay, well, let me call maintenance and get the floor RA on it. Just go relax. I have plenty of uniforms you can probably fit into.” She pushes me towards my door.
Entering my room, I suddenly feel like something is off. Something isn’t right. I look around my room and see a box sitting on my bed. The air around me goes cold, and my heartrate picks up.
I take careful steps towards the box, my eyes never wavering from it. It’s a black box with a white bow on top. My hands shake as I slowly lift the top off. On top of some black tissue paper sits a red origami phoenix, like the one in my bag.
The tears start to pour out of my eyes as I remove the bird. Grabbing the edges of the paper, I carefully peel it back, only to find pictures and a note.
One by one, I grab the pictures, and my stomach turns. The first couple are of me, lying on the floor in the locker room, a hand caressing my cheek as they took it. The last two are of the guys walking me back to my dorm just this morning. I let out a sob as I pick up the note.
Your boyfriends won’t keep you safe forever, Little Birdie.
I back away from the box and curl myself into the corner of my room. My entire body is shaking, and tears spilling down.
Why? What sick, twisted game is someone playing? What do they want?
Maybe I should have taken Daxon up on that offer to leave this place. Because being here hasn’t kept me safe.
I feel like I’m falling apart at the seams. I let out a scream and curl into myself.
I don’t know how much longer I can fight to survive.
I’m fighting a losing battle.
twenty-nine
MASON
We gota call from Phoenix’s roommate, Liz, Saturday. Phoenix went into some sort of shock and wasn’t responding to her. She was just curled up in the corner of her room shaking. The three of us ran over there, but first noticing the horrid smell that was coming from the laundry room. Apparently, someone decided to throw dead fish into the dryer with all of her clothes.
They are all completely ruined. The entire dryer had to be pulled and removed from the building. She went and saw the headmaster early this morning, and he of course gave her a detention for the “stunt”. Red hasn’t told us what happened or what he said, but we found out through the grapevine and Ms. Hodgens, the secretary, that was what happened.
She has a new uniform, but I’m guessing it’s her roommate’s, because it’s tighter than hers and her tits look like they are about to burst through it. And while my dick and I are not complaining about that, it’s just all sorts of wrong.
I’m staring at a shell of her. And I know it wasn’t the dryer stunt that did it. When we ran into her room, we saw the box on her bed with the pictures and the bird that was the same as the one that she found in her bag. She was holding a note that once we got out of her grasp, worried the fuck out of all of us.
I can see why she went into shock.
What’s worse, we have no idea who’s doing this. This wasn’t one of the things we set into motion. This is definitely someone on the outside or someone that went rogue.
As I sit next to her in history, my stomach twists while I watch her just stare out towards the front. I know she’s not listening to a word the teacher’s saying. She’s lost somewhere in her own head.
It’s a stark difference from the spunky redhead that was sitting next to me on the first day of class.
“Hey, Red. You okay?” I rub her back, and she turns her head to me. That’s when I see it.
The emptiness in her eyes.
They stare at me, but they are not processing anything. She’s gone from her own self. She turns back to the front and goes back into her own head. I pick up my phone and shoot off a quick text to the guys.