Page 16 of Merciless Prince

“Oh, that’s right. I forgot because I pushed all mine till next semester,” he said with a grin. “Anyway, why are you having trouble picking a subject for the paper? Maybe we can help you out.”

Leah nodded. “My sister actually majored in history at Bellingham, so I know a lot about it,” she added, handing me another chunk of cookie.

I sighed. “Well, I picked a local history class because I thought it would be easy. I was wrong. There’s aninsaneamount of reading to do for it.”

Leah grinned. “Yeah, I remember my sister telling me about that class. Professor Fitz loves handing out all those two-hundred-page readings.”

“What’s your paper supposed to be about?” Faye asked, putting her elbows on the table.

I let out a groan. “That’s the problem. I don’t really know,” I replied. “We’re meant to pick something that’s relevant to the Bellingham area. It could be an event, a person, some old folklore, or a building. It’s just so broad that I have no idea where to start. Like, it has to be interesting enough to write three thousand words on it, but it also has to be relevant to the history of this area.”

“And those two things don’t always intertwine,” Leah said with a sage nod.

“Yup.”

“Um, hello?” Cori chimed in, leaning forward on her elbows. “What about the Bellingham Triangle? That’s related to local history because of all the missing people, and it’s super interesting as well.”

Leah shook her head. “Trust me, you shouldn’t pick that. My sister said Professor Fitz can’t stand it.”

“Why?”

“Apparently half the students pick the Bellingham Triangle every year, and she hates having to read a hundred papers on the same subject.”

Cori’s shoulders slumped. “Damn. Sorry, Shay. I can’t think of anything else.”

I smiled. “It’s okay. I’ll think of something.”

Apart from the issue with the history class paper, my first two weeks at Bellingham had gone well. My professors were friendly and amazing at their jobs, and the other drama department students were great as well. I’d already been invited by a few of them to participate in a student film project next semester—a found footage horror movie called Cruel Summer. I would be playing the stereotypical virginal ‘final girl’.

Cori was having a good time, too. The number of sleazy assholes on campus had begun to dwindle by the end of the first week—my guess was that a lot of them dropped out after realizing that Bellingham actually required hard work and study—and she’d been offered a role in a campus-run theater production of Avenue Q.

On top of all that, we’d both made three great new friends—Cooper, Leah, and Faye.

“Ooh, I might have an idea for you, Shay!” Faye said, eyes lighting up. We all turned to look at her.

“What is it?” I asked.

Faye leaned forward and lowered her voice. “The Hellfire Club.”

“I totally forgot about them,” Leah said, raising her brows. “That’s a really good idea.”

My eyes widened. “What’s the Hellfire Club?”

Faye pushed her glasses up her nose and leaned back. “It’s a secret society at Bellingham. I’ve been hearing rumors about it since junior school because I grew up two towns over,” she said. “Apparently they get up to all kinds of sketchy shit.”

“Like what?”

She shrugged. “Depends who you ask. Some of the rumors say they’re serial killers. Others say they’re a wild sex club, and others say they’re devil worshippers who hold crazy rituals in the woods to summon spirits. I’ve also heard that they’re just an exclusive eating club, like the Ivy Club at Princeton. Truth is, no one really knows.”

“Also, no one really knows if they actually exist,” Leah added. “I’ve heard a few people say that they’ve seen people in red cloaks wandering around campus in the middle of the night. But who knows? They could be full of shit.”

“How long has the club been around for?” Cori asked. “If it actually exists, I mean.”

“According to the rumors, it’s been around for at least fifty years.”

I chewed on my bottom lip. “That would be cool to write about. But I need proper sources for the paper. Like newspaper articles and journal articles. If this Hellfire Club thing is just a rumor, there probably won’t be much of that around.”

Faye’s face fell. “Right. I didn’t think of that.”