"Erin?"

The voice cut through the silence like a knife, jarring me from sleep. My head spun as I lurched backward in fright at the sound, tipping over the edge of the bed that most certainly did not belong to me. I landed on the hardwood with a thud and quickly pushed myself up. The bedroom was unfamiliar with its light grey walls and large, dark furniture. Paintings were nailed to the walls, landscapes and portraits that were far more aesthetically pleasing than the laminated abstinence and motivational posters hung around the girl's dorm. It felt like I was in another world, far from Bullworth and its gaudy décor.

The sheets rustled. I had almost forgotten there was someone else in the room. The top of their head peeked over the plush mattress, a matted mess of dark hair jutting out in every direction. An arm covered in light blue flannel adorned with the Aquaberry logo reached forward and tugged the body toward the lip of the mattress. A huff escaped them, as if it took great effort to move the few inches to the opposite side of the bed. One last heave, and finally I saw their face.

"I thought you left last night." Parker's eyebrows knit together as he stared down at me, his gaze traveling away from my face and down to my legs. His face reddened and I quickly realized I wasn't wearing pants.

I wasn't even wearing my own clothes. Gone were my khakis and sweater, in their place a pajama shirt much like the one Parker was wearing. The buttons were hastily done, a few of them out of place, most of them not buttoned at all. I hugged my knees close to my chest and searched around the room, finding my pants and jacket hung over the back of a desk chair.

"So did I. I know I left…do you remember anything?" I asked.

I remembered too much and I hoped that most of what I did recall was nothing more than a vivid nightmare. The stinging pain that coursed through my back did little to confirm that last night's events were nothing more than a figment of my drunken imagination. I felt along my skin for anything out of the ordinary, finding nothing except for a small mole. If there was no wound, there was no way I could have been attacked. A sigh passed through my lips.

It was entirely possible that being drunk, tired, and cold I wandered back here. Harrington House was closer than the dorms and I knew I wouldn't be turned away.

"Not really. I walked you out and then came back inside. Maybe an hour or so later I went to bed. Everyone else was still downstairs." Parker said. "I do remember feeling someone climb into bed at one point, but I thought it was Gord. He likes to cuddle when he's drunk."

"And you never thought to push him out of the bed?"

"I've tried in the past, but he whines so much that it's not worth the effort. It's better to just let him stay." He said. "This was a welcomed change though…even if I didn't know it was you until a few minutes ago."

"Yeah, well…I guess it is nice not to sleep alone." I said. "Hey, this is an odd request, but would you mind taking a look at my back for me?"

"Sure, what happened?"

I shrugged. "I'm not sure. It's hurting like a mother though."

I turned my back to Parker and pulled the shirt over my head, bending forward slightly so the light from the window hit my skin. The bed creaked and I watched as his shadow swallowed my own.

I should have just let it alone, forgotten about what may or may not have happened and enjoy a quiet morning. But I never could let things go.

"There are scratches. Here...and here." his fingers traced lines down my back in the same spots I remembered being cut. Parker held his hand there. "Who did this to you?"

"No one." I lied. "I could have fallen last night. The ground was icy and I drank a little too much to be able to walk safely."

It was a good excuse for the wounds, as I'm sure we both had seen more than enough people fall flat on their backs on the patches of ice across campus. The maintenance crews did a poor job of keeping up with the storms so it wasn't hard to believe that's what happened. It also sounded better than saying I tracked a scent to the path outside the observatory and got myself stabbed.

He frowned. "You should have let me walk you back last night."

I glanced at the clock. It was almost noon, and if I didn't leave soon to retrieve my mandatory, and unneeded, medication, I'd have the prefects on my ass.

"You could walk me back now if you want." I suggested. I pushed myself up and grabbed my clothes off the desk, tugging my pants on and slipping my feet into my sneakers. They were completely soaked and hot from having been placed over the vent. I checked the floor and shook out my jacket several times—there was no shirt to be found. "Unless you don't want to, which is fine."

I tossed the pajama shirt at him and he caught it just before it hit the floor. "No, no; just give me a minute to get myself together. Then I'll take you back. Hopefully everyone's still asleep, we can avoid the ogling that way."

"Afraid of being seen with me, are we?" I joked.

He grinned. "Quite the contrary."

. . .

The dorms were on either side of us, the boy's looking abandoned and lifeless as usual, and to our left, people milled in and out of the girl's dorm. Two girls sat on the bottom step outside the doors. I could see the shock of red hair peeking out from underneath a blue beanie.

"Looks like we might not escape the rumor mill my friend." I nodded in the direction of the girls. "That looks to be...Christy and Angie. Huh, I usually never see them outside of the lounge."

"Today's just full of oddities isn't it?" Parker asked and nudged my side. We kept on walking and as we came into their line of sight, their heads snapped up in our direction. "And the predators have found their prey."

"So it seems." I said and came to a stop. "Granted we were both wasted, I won't lie, it was nice to be around someone who was...normal, for once."

"Yeah, I kind of liked having something other than Aquaberry to talk about." he said. "Hopefully the gates will open soon. Maybe we could hang out again some time; the carnival's always fun, and it's the only thing to do in town really."

I was itching to get back into the dorms and out of these clothes, and to the nurse's office before she sent her attack dogs after me.

"Sounds like a plan then, rich boy." I said. "See you around?"

"Absolutely." Parker said.

He stalked off then, disappearing behind the high wall, most likely back to Harrington House to ride out the rest of his hang over in bed. I longed to do the same, and I would be a fool to think that I would get to do so. Nothing was that easy.

I turned back toward the girls dorm and glanced toward the gate, the only thing separating us from freedom. For the past few weeks it had been left unguarded, but not now. Two burly men dressed in a similar fashion to Bullworth's own prefects stood in front of the gate. Their stare was as cold and dead as the plants buried beneath the snow and if their muscles were as big as their necks, they'd be more of a threat than the prefects. Or any clique member set on taking out their frustrations on someone else.

One of them had spotted me and began walking in my direction. Not knowing how much power they had been given—since the prefects were keen on using the students like punching bags—I jogged the rest of the way to the dorm, hoping to avoid conflict.

That might have been wishful thinking.

Christy and Angie were quick to begin making comments as I came within earshot. The giggling only grew louder and when I was within arm's length of the steps, the pair rose and blocked my path.

"Did you two hook up?" Angie asked.

Christy glanced at her. "I know a walk of shame when I see one."

"Well, duh, you're like the queen of them."

They both proceeded to burst into a fit of laughter, as if Christy's position of Head Whore was the most hilarious thing in the entire world. I found no humor in it, and if I wasn't trying to keep my nose clean, I would have pushed these two out of the way. Instead, I attempted treading the more polite route.

"Can you two please move out of the way?" I asked. "I have somewhere to be."

"Another date with Parker?" Angie said. "Or are you going to hook up again?"

"Look, we didn't hook up. I fell asleep at Harrington House and he offered to walk me back. That's it." I pushed past them and headed inside.

"Oh, this is so great." I could hear Christy say as they followed me inside. "He hasn't had a girlfriend since he was, like, fourteen. And we all know how long that lasted."

"About as long as he lasted in bed." Angie cackled. "I always thought he was gay."

I stopped short and turned toward them. "Can you two shut the fuck up? Please?"

I may have veered off the polite route just a bit, but at least I said please. It was the thought that counted.

Wide-eyed and stunned at the obscenity, the girls quickly silenced themselves. The reprieve from their gossiping hadn't lasted long, for as soon as we reached the top of the stair case outside my room, Christy resumed talking.

"Jeez, someone's touchy, huh? You must have feelings for Mr. Ogilvie then."

"No, I don't. He's just a nice kid." I said and opened the door to my room. "I am way too hungover to have this conversation."

"Well, I'm not, so spill it. We need something new to talk about—"

"Son of a bitch." I said quietly.

Perched on a chair in the corner of my bedroom sat the current bane of my existence, staring angrily at the three of us. Gary Smith waved the other girls away as though they were the ones intruding and dug his nails into the fabric when they wouldn't leave.

"Do you need me to get Mrs. Peabody?" Christy asked.

"No, I'll find a way to get rid of this pest myself. You can go." I said and shut the door on them before anyone else saw. Not that it mattered, word would spread of my visitor and my supposed walk of shame before the end of the hour.

"Finally. Do you know how long I've been waiting for you to come back?" Gary asked.

"What the fuck are you doing in here, Gary?"

"That's not the warm welcome I was expecting." he said, feigning sadness. "I have to say, that hurt quite a bit. I thought we were friends."

My temper flared. "Friends? We aren't shit. You're just a psychopath that won't leave me the hell alone for whatever reason."

"Whatever reason?" Gary asked and rolled his eyes. "You're still pretending like you don't know what's going on? This is getting old fast, Kastner."

Before I could speak, Gary reached behind him and pulled out a ragged piece of fabric. He stood up and walked over to the bed and set the cloth down carefully, smoothing it out as much as he possibly could. The Bullworth emblem was the only thing intact. Frayed threads jut from the uniform shirt where it had been torn, rust colored splotches staining what was once a vibrant white polo.

It was the shirt that I had been wearing last night.

"Jesus Christ, Gary. You really..." I couldn't finish the thought. I didn't want to, but the memory was as fresh as the scars he placed on my skin. I could feel the color drain from my skin as I looked at Gary, wondering what kind of person I had gotten myself involved with. If he hadn't before, he was starting to live up to his reputation of being crazy. And here I was locked in a room with him.

"I know you remember what happened last night." Gary said. "And I meant it when I said that I didn't want to hurt you, but it was necessary."

"How was that necessary? You could have killed me." I said, sinking onto the bed.

"There was no way you would have died from that." he said, waving his hand to dismiss my words. "What you are was the only thing that kept you from being drained dry."

"You have to know what you are. Or at least realized there was something different about you." Gary said when I hadn't answered.

"I don't know what I am, no, but I know I'm something." I said. "My mother always treated me differently than she did my step-siblings. Almost like—"

"You were a monster?"

I nodded in response to his question, watching the way his lips curled in anger and the flash of something behind his eyes—hurt, maybe? It was gone too fast for me to tell, but it was there all the same, and it didn't take much to realize we had been treated the same way.

Gary sat down on the chair, his elbows resting on his knees, the tattered shirt wrenched in his hands. "You're not." Gary said. "This makes you better than them. More powerful, and fast."

"How many times have you told yourself that?" I asked. "Whatever this is, can it really be that good? If it was, we wouldn't be treated like that. My own mother wouldn't...wouldn't fear me."

"People fear what they don't understand, Erin. But you and I? We're going to make them." Gary was beginning to fidget by the time he had finished speaking.

Whatever he had planned must have been big. I hadn't seen him this worked up, not since the day we left Bullworth. If he was capable of an act of violence like the one he committed last night, I could only imagine the kinds of horrors he saved for everyone else. This was a boy hell bent on revenge and I wasn't sure if I could join him on his war path.

Not until the door was kicked in and a horde of men rushed into the room, shouting for Gary and I to get on the floor.