9. Elyssa
ELYSSA
B uxley’s death was all everyone was talking about. It took abysmal proportions when Charles’s parents heard of it; they were livid and planned on flying here, which was normally totally prohibited.
Like all kids in the Academy, Charles’s parents were rich as fuck and influential. His dad was some fancy district attorney whose pockets ran deep thanks to all the bribes he took from people like us. His mother was some kind of Swiss heiress with a knack for organizing useless charity balls.
From the rumors I’d heard, Dean Taylor managed to talk them down, saying there would be an investigation and that he was sure this was all a bad and cruel joke from the townspeople.
In fact, the last part was something that was actively circulating through school and it ate at me not being able to deny it.
I’d heard those people. I knew that they weren’t villagers: they couldn’t have had access to the castle, and a group as large as them would’ve been discovered in a second by the guards.
No, whoever did that knew about the guards’ schedule and was clearly familiar with the layout of the school.
It had been an inside job.
Hiding out at the library, I was still trying to figure out what to do with what I knew.
I needed to see Dean Taylor and tell him all about it but he was out of office for the day after what happened.
When we got out of class, the body had been cleaned up and there wasn’t even a drop of blood left. I had no idea where it had been taken but it looked like it had never even been there in the first place.
Frustrated with myself, I shut the book on Macedonian art I had desperately been trying to read for my Art History class. Mia had forced me to take it as an elective even though I was a business major and couldn’t give less of a fuck about art.
The reason she was so adamant about being in this class was because every two weeks, it was taught by master’s students as a way for them to win credits. One of them was none other than the man she was so certain would be the father of her children one day: Dominik Korolov.
I rolled my eyes just thinking about it, taking advantage of the fact that I was alone with only books as witnesses. If anyone back home caught wind of Mia’s infatuation, there would be hell to pay.
Italians and Russians didn’t get along, but for the sake of mafia etiquette, we coexisted. Officially, we were in peace. Some families even had treaties and small alliances in place to make sure one didn’t cross the other.
The thing was that, even though my family tolerated the Bratva, the Korolovs were not part of the Russian brotherhood. Actually, I was pretty sure they would take great offense in being called Bratva.
A sniffling sound brought me back from my musings and caused me to freeze.
It was a little past eight at night, everybody was in the dining hall and the library was mostly empty, especially the second floor where I was. It would fill up again right after dinner when people came in for a couple of hours of studying before curfew.
Another sniffle echoed around me, making me frown and push away from the desk, the book I’d been trying to study long forgotten. I walked stealthily through the rows of books, following the silent weeping until finally I came face to face with its source.
His back against a shelf, Charles had his knees brought back to his chest, his forehead resting against them as soft sobs racked his body.
He wasn’t built by any means, if anything he was a little scrawny, but right then he looked even smaller. My heart squeezed at the sight because although I had never felt the same pain he was going through, I was no stranger to loss.
Biting my lip, I took a step towards him before calling softly, “Charles?”
He startled, his head snapping up before he wiped angrily at his cheeks, clearly embarrassed to have been caught in this position.
“H-hey, Elyssa.” His gaze was evading mine, he couldn’t look me in the eyes.
I walked up to where he was and plopped myself next to him, my back against the shelves. For the longest time, neither of us spoke, we just stared silently in the distance until Charles decided to speak.
“I can’t believe he’s gone.” His voice was broken and hoarse, still in shock. “He was my best friend, you know? I’m not… cool or super interesting. I know people call me boring behind my back. I’ve had so many people befriend me for my father’s money or connections over the years. I know many people don’t understand the relationship between animals and humans, but Buxley… I loved him more than I do most people.”
His face crumpled as he said the last part aloud, like maybe that was the first time he was admitting it. Or, maybe, it was that his words had hit home and he finally realized Buxley was gone for good.
Either way, my heart broke a little at the pain etching itself on his face. Before I could think about it, I reached out and brought him in for a hug, not caring that this was not in my nature or that he seemed as startled as I felt.
I was too fucking empathetic to watch someone cry without offering any kind of comfort. After years spent handling sorrow and grief on my own, it wasn’t something I would wish on anybody.
Charles shrugged off his surprise pretty quickly and hugged me back, squeezing me tight.
He was silently crying, tears soaking the neck of my shirt, while I gently rubbed his back. I had to admit I wasn’t extremely comfortable, but I could tell Charles needed a friend and a deep sense of pity and guilt made me want to be there for him.
A little voice in the back of my mind kept on telling me that I could have kept it from happening. If I’d realized yesterday that the people roaming the halls weren’t guards but sickos who liked to hurt animals, maybe I could have alerted someone, left a clue somewhere… anything to keep the morbid spectacle from this morning from happening.
As I sat there, silently rummaging through my brain in search of what to do, my eyes caught sight of icy cold ones, a few feet away from us.
Konstantin stopped in his tracks, taking in the cozy scene Charles and I painted, before narrowing his eyes at me. Something in his jaw twitched but I maintained his gaze. My hand on Charles’s back tensed a little but he didn’t seem to notice.
Neither of us said anything, and he eventually kept walking towards the stairs, a few rows behind us.
I willed my heart to stop beating so fast, but it just wouldn’t listen.
Mia: Where the fuck are you!!! Curfew is in three minutes.
Me: Sorry, didn’t see the time! I’m almost in my room. Call you soon.
Mia: K. Just a heads up tho, I’m a little high.
I rolled my eyes, not bothering with an answer. She knew I didn’t like it when she smoked pot, mostly because it had become some kind of coping mechanism and I didn’t want it to escalate.
When we were sixteen, Mia was sent to rehab because she’d gotten addicted to cocaine. Viola was the one who initiated her to it during one of those private high school parties I was never invited to.
There was a time when she and Mia were on good terms. That bitch knew to never put me down in front of Mia and even went as far as lying and saying she liked me but I was the one not wanting to put the past behind us. Back then, Mia refused to choose between her two cousins, so she didn’t. Like many rich kids, Viola sometimes did molly and liked to snort a line when the occasion presented itself, which she introduced Mia to.
Her family life was in such shambles at the time, even worse than usual, that she went too far down the rabbit hole and got herself addicted to it. Those were some of the worst months of my life. Having to endure her meanness whenever I tried to reason with her was hell. Not having anyone to talk to because my best friend was more interested in hooking up with her dealer was pure torture.
She said some things to me during that time, about my parents and my old life, that deeply hurt, but I’d since forgiven her. It wasn’t her talking, it was this aggressive and mean version of her under the influence.
The day her parents found out, Mia’s father beat her up badly. He was always a violent fuck, but rarely to her. My aunt and Lorenzo always took the brunt of it.
Mia went away to rehab for six months and she came back like her old self, thank the Lord.
She didn’t do sleet anymore, but a year ago she started smoking joints and doing pot. She said it was for medicinal purposes, to relieve her anxiety, but I kept a careful eye on things and she knew I would not hesitate to let her mother know if I thought she was abusing it again.
Pocketing my phone, I started ascending the stairs two by two, knowing our dorm leader would be starting her rounds soon, and if I wasn’t in my room when she came knocking, she’d use her key solely to make sure I was there but just sleeping. The dorms weren’t coed, and curfew was from eleven at night to five in the morning. In those hours, going out was strictly forbidden. I took the far east staircase, which was rarely ever used but led straight to my room.
I was almost at the common hall, where a sort of lounge-slash-playroom was set up, when a hand gripped me from behind. The breath was knocked out of me as my back slammed into the brick wall of the staircase I had been ascending.
“What the fuck do you think you’re doing?”
I could barely hear Konstantin’s voice through the ringing in my ears.
It lasted a few seconds before I was finally back to my senses.
“Bitch, why are you always slamming me around?!” I hissed back, doing my best to push him away, but he was way taller and stronger than me and wouldn’t budge.
“What the hell was that in the library?” He got in my face and his scent of musk made me a little dizzy. How could someone so horrendous be so gorgeous and smell so good? Life wasn’t fair.
I frowned, wondering what the hell he was talking about until it struck me.
“Are you fucking serious right now?” Gathering all my strength, I finally managed to push him off until he took a step back.
Or maybe it wasn’t me but only the fact that he decided to take that step back.
“His dog died, Konstantin! In horrendous circumstances,” I whisper-yelled, “A-and we heard him walk to his death. I’m going to the dean tomorrow and telling him I heard several people out of their dorms last night, that they had Buxley with them.”
“Like fuck you are,” he seethed.
“Don’t worry, I won’t mention you were with me when we heard them.”
“You’re not going to the fucking dean and you’re staying the fuck away from Charles, too.” Konstantin grabbed my tie and pulled on it until I stumbled a little. “You’re so weak you’ll probably start telling him all about what you think you heard the next time that bitch starts crying in your arms.”
“What I think I heard? We both know it wasn’t the guards last night in the halls.”
“Okay, and what is Taylor supposed to do with that information? You think it’s gonna bring that mutt back to life? Newsflash, it won’t. It only will incriminate you and they’ll probably call your family.”
I flung my arms around, looking at him like he was totally out of his mind. “Why do you care!”
“Because,” he got in my face, his eyes basked in anger and his jaw taunt with it too, “this year, you’re mine to toy with as I please and I’ll be damned if you cut my fun short. If I catch you anywhere near Dean Taylor’s office, I’ll fucking strangle you myself before emailing your cunt of a grandfather personally to tell him what you were up to last year. You feel me, Ayaari?”
Rage coursed through my veins and before I couldn’t think it through, my hand slapped his cheek, hard. The sound resounded around us, shocking us both. But I wasn’t done.
There was just too much anger in me right then to stop after one slap. I needed to verbally rip him to shreds, too.
“You’re the most self-centered, cold-hearted, empty-minded bitch I’ve ever met in my life. You can go fuck yourself, I’ll never be your toy.”
I barely had time to bask in the feeling of pride I felt at putting him in his place, because the next thing I knew, Konstantin’s hand wrapped around my throat, and he pushed me back against the wall so hard, that it actually gave way.
Like, it disappeared from behind me.
Shock made my eyes widen as I felt myself falling. My arms flailed but with nothing to grip and save myself, I was doomed. Korolov wasn’t expecting that either because the surprise on his face matched mine.
“Fuck!” I heard him cuss before he launched himself toward me, putting his giant hand at the back of my head and following me in my fall.
It turned out we had just discovered one of the Academy’s infamous secret passages.