Depraved Desires (Academy Of Rejects #2)
Prologue
PROLOGUE
Aspen
I always expected death to be painful. It’s said that drowning is one of the worst ways to go, and as the water filled my lungs and nasal cavity, I could attest to that. It was brutal, terrifying, and horrific. Imagine being unable to breathe. You open your mouth to scream, but that only brings you closer to death. Never in my life have I wished for death to consume me so quickly. My airway was screaming, yearning for the oxygen it so desperately craved.
As if my body had a mind of its own, it started moving of its own accord. My arms and legs thrashed wildly as the pressure of the water and reality of the situation started getting to me. My eyes bulged while unknown creatures started brushing against my nude skin; fear snaked through my chest as the oxygen within me depleted. I put everything I had into hoping to reach the surface with one last burst. I gasped for air, only to suck in more water. My throat burned in protest and my stomach coiled with fluid.
Defeat slowly started to settle in, making it evident that this was it for me. As much as I wanted to reminisce on my so- called life, my head was spinning from lack of oxygen, and it was impossible to form coherent thoughts.
The realization that I was going to die had fear snaking around my chest cavity, squeezing it so tightly that it was scarier than the water filling my lungs. Comical really. Everyone warned me to stay away from the assholes who thought they ran Redwood Academy, but my dumbass didn’t listen. They’d shown me time and time again what they were capable of, but stubbornness clouded any sense of rationality.
Maybe this was well-deserved.
My head swam in tune with my departing body as dizziness burrowed deeper inside of my aching limbs. There were things I still wanted out of life that I’d never get the chance to accomplish now. Like finding my sister for example or getting an actual job that didn’t make me hate myself. I still wanted to graduate, maybe fall in love with someone, and be financially secure. Now I’d never know what that felt like.
I had regrets. So fucking many of them, it made my chest hurt for different reasons. I could have been so much more than what I was. Now, I’d just be known as the trailer-trash slut who couldn’t keep her mouth shut. Avery would never know me or what I’d endured, and I’d never know her either.
Bubbles escaped my blistering lips as my body began to convulse. My mouth parted on another silent scream against my will as I placed my hands around my raw throat like it was supposed to help me in some way. The tragic matter of the fact was that no one was going to save me. Not even Collin this time.
My eyes started to flutter, burning from keeping them open for so long in this icy hell. My body was running out of oxygen, I was freezing, and I was about to die the exact way I’d always feared. Alone.
If my energy wasn’t practically non-existent, I might have cried—I even could, being submerged beneath the water and all.
Images flashed within my mind. Memories of my time in the orphanage with my sister by my side, how it felt when she surprised me with my charm-bracelet for my birthday, how inseparable we were back then. Right before my life was turned upside down and she was ripped away.
Those images quickly morphed into new ones. I remembered how good it had felt being wrapped in Collin’s arms. Loving the way his body felt pressed against mine. But that changed too. When morning came, he’d morphed into a completely different person. These guys were all fucked in the head. Master manipulators and well-trained psychopaths.
They might have beat me in the end, but if I had any say in the matter, I’d come back as a ghost or angel of hell and make them pay for it all. They couldn’t get away with this.
Not this time.