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PHOENIX
My first day went without a hitch.
I survived. Giving an epic one finger salute to the universe because against all odds, I somehow pulled through unscathed.
Baby steps, but I’m calling it a win.
Flick has been a Godsend. An angel sent from above to guide and protect me on this new journey. Quickly becoming the friend I never knew I needed. That girl didn’t leave my side. Not once.
My classes were okay. They weren’t anything to shout home about, but I was granted enough freedom to sit wherever I wanted—right at the back of each class with Flick, hidden from view. I’m grateful to my teachers because for some reason they decided against making a big deal out of my arrival. The lastthing any new student wants or needs is to be called up to the front of class for ridiculous icebreakers.
I didn’t succeed in escaping the heated glares and hushed whispers though, but I guess I can’t have it all.
“Why are we so far down?” I ask as Flick leads the way to our quarters. I’m kinda excited to get to my room and settle in, but there’s a niggling feeling at the back of my mind which I can’t shift. Something which is forewarning me that this isn’t going to be plane sailing.
It doesn’t escape my attention that Flick has been walking for a while and in the total opposite direction to Dane’s previous route. I don’t point this out, choosing to play dumb seeing how I only arrived this morning. It grows colder with each turn she takes, the corridors growing darker and more constricted. Like we’re heading down into the tunnels below the large gothic castle.
The deeper we move, the more stagnant the air around us becomes, and I struggle to breathe. A foul, bitter taste invades my senses, mixed with a smell I’d recognize anywhere. Damp, mold and rotting decay and it instantly catapults my mind back, deep into my hidden memories. Memories I forced myself to forget. Memories I refuse to acknowledge.
“This is where the first years reside.” Flick replies. “Like the sewer rats we’re made out to be.”
I feel my brows crease in confusion. “Sewer rats?” I can’t see Flicks face so I can’t decide if she’s trying to be funny or if she’s being deadly serious. To be fair she wouldn’t have to try all too hard to pull the wool over my eyes. She wouldn’t even have to try because the pitch-black blindfold Dane placed over my eyesis still there, tattooed firmly in place, reminding me that nothing seems to be off limits in this place.
“You’re messing with me, right?” I question, realizing the deeper we go he less fir for purpose these tunnels seem to be.
“I wish I was,” she slows her step, giving me a chance to catch up with her. “But no, unfortunately for us, first years are confined to the dungeons. Didn’t they tell you this when you enrolled here?”
Enrolled? Like I had a fucking say in the decision. “I can’t say I remember that conversation.” I admit while thinking back to my last conversation with Melanie. She was more focused on getting me out of Braxton, telling me little about Stonebrooke. To be fair, I never thought about asking questions. The second Stonebrooke was mentioned I was sold. Just like she knew I would be. Everything was already picture perfect in my mind. A deluded fairytale I’d dreamed up years ago. Back when I still had my innocence and my judgement on the world hadn’t been altered or tarnished.
Imagination is a beautiful thing—reality not so much. “But Stonebrooke is famous for being one of the most prestigious colleges around.”
“Sure it is, or at least that’s how it used to be.” A soft laugh fills the space between us as we slow, approaching a narrow-spiraled stone staircase leading deeper underground. “Now it’s all about if your face fits.”
Shit. Her words hit me hard. Like a sucker punch to the gut. How could I have been so stupid. So fucking careless in my judgement. It makes sense for Melanie to send me somewhere like this. Where I’ll be chewed up and spat out, that way I won’t be her problem anymore. Fuck, what if I’ve made more problemsfor myself by agreeing to come here? I guess it’s too late to change my mind now. Looks like the damage has already been done.
“Looks like I’ll be keeping my head down and avoiding trouble at all costs then.”
“You better.” She warns me. “Being a first year makes you a target. That’s without starting here mid-term. I don’t want to scare you on your first day, but I’d be a shit friend if I didn’t give you the heads up. Keep your head down because if you get on the wrong side of them, trust me you’ll soon know about it, and these dungeons will be the least of your worries.”
“The dungeons?” I was fucking right. I am being led to my untimely death. Paying for the sins of everyone else around me and it looks like there’s nothing I can do about it. No matter which path I choose, there’s always someone hiding out in the shadows, waiting to strike. To take me down.
“Yeah, first years get the joyful privilege of living if that’s what you want to call it, but I prefer the term merely existing down here until you’ve earned the right to leave.”
“I’m not following.” My head feels like mush. No doubt from lack of sleep and too much stimulation but I can’t tell Flick that.
“You’re supposed to transition and move up into the land of the living; to the normal level of society up in the castle with everyone else. Sure, I know what you’re thinking, keep your head down, smash your studies and up you go. That’s how it’s supposed to be. How it used to be, but they don’t make the transition easy. They make you work for it and then some.”
“Who are they?” I ask again, eager to know more. “The Dean? The teachers?” Her wide-eyed expression tells me I’m cold before she even opens her mouth to reply.
“Ha… yeah, that’s the other thing you should know about. You’ll soon learn here that the Dean’s word doesn’t mean shit.” I find that hard to believe after meeting her last night. She looked and sounded like a woman who didn’t take kindly to bullshit. But then I remember looks can be deceiving. People only allow you to see what they want you to see. “The Dean is someone who portrays authority down to a T, but the harsh truth of her reality istheyown everyone and everything in these walls. Teachers. The Dean. Me and you…”
“Who?” I press some more but my mind does the work for me and an unwanted image of Dane takes over my vision.
“You’ll see.” She promises, her eyes sparkling with mischief before she comes to a sudden stop at the bottom of the stairs. “Well, this is us. Welcome to your never-ending nightmare.”
My head spins from what she’s just told me as she reaches out and opens the door and hits the light before she steps inside and an icy-chill shudders down my spine.
I can do this.I tell myself. I’ve survived way worse than this, so living in a small, confined room should be a piece of cake for me. I refuse to allow something so small to be the thing that breaks me.
