Page 74 of The Truths We Burn

Hollow Heights University.

They invite success.

The college of all colleges.

If you attend and graduate from here, there isn’t a job out there you won’t get. It doesn’t matter if your competitors are valedictorian Harvard graduates, you’ll get the position before they do every single time.

Because here, it’s about legacy. It’s about money.

Just getting in means you are worth more than most.

It’s an infamous university that people dream of attending their entire lives and the one place I never wanted to end up.

I’d forgotten just how well it blurred the lines of distinguished and macabre.

The huge campus is a jumble of towers and buildings, all secluded and swarmed with dark green pines. The fog seems to be a member of the school, always hovering close by, lingering above.

It is odd wearing my regular clothes, ones that fit a little looser because of the weight I’d lost. However, almost naked wrapped in clothes that fit the image of a girl who used to be a queen bee and is now just a ghost story.They scratch my skin in weird places, feeling much different than the scrubs I had been required to wear before. My shoes click beneath me, hurting my ears as I wind down the halls searching for my first class.

My head spins at the high ceilings and gothic architecture, overlaid with swirly patterns framing dark stained-glass windows that shatter what little light crawled inside.

I hate being here.

But I’m not nervous.

I have a job to do. I have a plan, a role to act out.

It’s not about the homework or getting an education; it’s about fucking over idiots who let me out of my psych ward prison. I’m driven by the image of my father’s death, watching all the life go out of his eyes while I stare him down into the grave.

It’s the last thing I can do for Rose. The only good thing I can do for her, and it’s the least she deserves.

After everything I’d put her through while she was alive, I can at least make sure her killer is brought to some form of justice. No matter how bloody.

Her death, that mental hospital, it changed me.

I used to look in the mirror and see a girl waiting to spread her wings. Waiting to live her truth.

Now I see nothing.

Just a shell of a person.

I have no idea who I am. What I enjoy, what makes me happy. I’m just breathing, moving through the phases of life like a small ripple in a pond. Insignificant.

My dreams had vanished so quickly that I had begun to wonder if they were even there in the first place.

I am lost, and I’d become content with that feeling.

“This is your first class for the day. If you need any help with scheduling or have an issue finding something, just stop by my office, okay?”

My school counselor, Conner Godfrey, is nice. I’d spent most of our time together ignoring him, but he’s nice, nonetheless.

“Thank you.”I give a small smile before he disappears down the hallways.

I look at the plaques next to each door, reading the room number and professor’s name beneath them.Glancing down at my schedule, I take a breath and stop in front of lecture hall twenty-four.

Latin One is my first class of the day. Thankfully, I don’t need to start in the first semester due to the college credits I’d acquired in high school. I could return to the spring semester of my freshman year along with all the other returning students.

The collared white blouse seems to tighten around my throat, and I’m regretting the decision to wear this black skirt already. The air feels too close to my naked thighs, and I feel too cold, even with the red blazer covering my shoulders.