Page 32 of Heartless Heathens

“What they do here, it’s not teaching and it’s certainly not learning,” he scoffed and I reached into the bag and pulled out the jade-green uniform.

“Put that on,” he instructed and I lifted off the t-shirt Felix had given to me to sleep in the night before.

I stood there, bare, while I picked up the skirt and stepped inside it, pulling it up to my waist before grabbing the white polo shirt that went with it. I slipped it over my head, fidgeting at the feel of the new fabric against my skin. Sonny stepped behind me, clasping each button closed on the back of my skirt. He was wearing black suit pants with a black button up shirt and a black vest. I only ever saw the students wearing green and white, but he lived outside the same rules as everyone else.

“You don’t have underwear on,” he pointed out.

“You said it wasn’t underwear,” I reminded him and he cut me a sharp look.

“You can’t go out there without underwear.” He stepped towards me, invading my space so that his chest touched my face with the rise and fall of his breath.

“W-why not?” I asked, his shadow looming over me, reminding me of the danger these heathens truly posed.

“Have you seen the deprived and depraved Catholic little shits running around here? There might as well be monsters out there. If they catch a piece of you, you better believe they’ll think it means you want to give yourself to them, and they won’t ask nicely.” He slid his hand up my leg, pulling it back for just a moment before the sting of his palm against my inner thigh burned on my flesh and spread into a rising heat inside me.

“Do monsters ever ask nicely?” I asked him.

His fingers trailed the inside of my leg, a featherlight touch above the newly welting area.

“I don’t know Pet, I’m not a monster. I’m a son of the Devil. I don’t ask for anything, it’s offered to me freely.” He slipped his hand out from my skirt.

“Who are the monsters then?” I asked him.

“You can make that kind of decision on your own.”

The clothes fit well, and surprisingly her shoes did too. After I finished dressing, Sonny brushed the knots out of my hair, and handed me a granola bar before we walked out of the chapel together towards campus.

“What has Frollo promised you in exchange for, whatever it is he’s asked of you that involves us?”

“He’s promised me nothing. He’s asked nothing of me. He doesn’t care if I live or die,” I said, not hiding my discontent for Father Frollo.

Sonny ushered me into the monstrosity that was the golden cathedral and shepherded me to a door. Once he opened it a large room spilled out in front of me, reminiscent of a Roman-style theater from an old gladiator movie that once played on the public station channel Father Frollo deemed appropriate enough to let me watch a few hours a day. A cascade of rows filled upwards with seats as it rose high up towards an even taller ceiling.

He was there.

The closest thing I’d ever had to a parent.

Staring me down like I had been nothing but an abomination, a stain on his life and his plans. Like somehow this was my fault and not his.

“I told you to get rid of that stray, Santorini. She is not a student, she cannot attend my lectures,” he said with a sneer and Sonny scoffed in response as I grew smaller at his words.

“Keep your eyes off my property, holy man. I’ll only say it once.” He didn’t add the promise of a threat, he didn’t need to.

“Y-YOUR PROPERTY?” he asked in astonishment, not bothering to lower his voice as the room filled with students.

“Found her in my house.” He challenged him with raised eyebrows, “Think I’ll keep her.” The corner of his lip turned up in a smile and he shifted his eyes back at me and tilted his chin towards the steps.

I averted the heat of Father Frollo’s gaze and kept my eyes down, my legs shaking as I stepped up slowly.

“All the way back,” his husky voice whispered in my ear.

He nudged me towards the back of the room, which just so happened to be the highest point as well. He walked past me and sat in a chair, though both seats next to him were occupied. I could feel the heated stares of the other students on me even though I didn’t dare to lift my eyes off the ground.

“Sit, Romina,” Sonny commanded, but there was nowhere I could sit. Every chair had been taken by someone.

“I don’t know where to—”

“On the ground then, kneel, next to me.” His cold tone wrapped around each word like a frosty grip, chilling me down to the bone.