14. Elyssa
ELYSSA
A fter Konstantin left last night, I barely slept. I stayed dutifully in bed and thought about how I could get myself out of this predicament. Of course, I came up empty-handed.
When my fourth alarm rang that morning, I was bone tired, but I still made it through the day. I missed breakfast because I’d woken up too late and lunch because I had a paper due that afternoon that I needed to finish up.
As it was, I didn’t see any of my friends all day until dinner. I spent all day thinking about whether or not to tell them what happened last night. On one hand, I knew I couldn’t tell them everything because that would involve coming clean about my involvement with Konstantin, but I also knew I simply couldn’t not tell my girls that there was a possible killer on campus.
Today, no one was talking about it, because they didn’t know. Hannah and her boyfriend, Jared, had been sent home last night, and although the school’s gossip mill was running, their information was all wrong. Word was Hannah had gotten pregnant and was sent home alongside her boyfriend.
Others speculated that she didn’t maintain the agreed-upon GPA for scholarship students and since Jared couldn’t live without her, he decided to quit too.
That one was particularly stupid, considering we were barely a month into the semester, but whatever. Word was a new scholarship student would be joining the ranks of the Academy soon.
My stomach rumbled as I finally sat down with my friends for dinner, my first meal of the day.
“Hey, stranger. Where have you been all day?” Sinem smiled at me while helping herself to a piece of lasagna.
I groaned, slouching against the table. “Today was crazy and I didn’t sleep well last night. I think I saw something I shouldn’t have.”
My voice was low, nothing but a whisper, which my friends took as a sign to lean in, their plates forgotten. The cafeteria was busy, people were loud and I knew nobody would hear me.
“They found a body in the woods yesterday.”
Mia’s fork fell out of her hand and clanked against her plate. All three of my friends gaped at me, in shock, until Briar broke the silence at our table.
“What the hell? A human body?” At my nod, she crossed herself and clutched the little gold pendant around her neck, representing the Virgin Mary.
I cleared my throat, clearly shaken myself over last night’s discovery.
“Hannah Fronwerg and Jared found her in the woods. I was walking around the dorm when I heard Mrs. Chapman and Gastow rush in with a freaked-out Hannah. Then they talked and said they had to send them back home to keep the news from spreading.”
“What the fuck?” That came from Sinem. “A student was killed and they don’t want us to know?”
I shook my head. “It’s not a student. It’s a girl from the village; she and her friend had been missing for a while. The second one hasn’t been found yet as far as I know but…I think they’re gonna cover their deaths.”
I’d checked the local news on my phone all day and there wasn’t anything on Lauren Leigh and Ashleigh Deivers, the girls from the village.
“Oh shit, that explains the way people treated me earlier today in town,” Briar exclaimed, still whispering.
“You were in town today?”
She nodded at Mia’s question. “I had permission from Madame Ferdinand to get the new ballet shoes I ordered. I’m auditioning to be Odette's Black Swan in Swan Lake next month.”
Pride swelled in my heart and I smiled at my best friend, putting my hand on hers on the table and squeezing. I knew how much that meant to her, it was the role of her dreams. She grinned back before her face got serious again, remembering the subject at hand.
“People were glaring at me, some guy even spat on the ground while looking at me. I swung by Foams on the way back and Lewis was in an even worse mood than usual. He slammed my coffee on the counter and turned his back on me before I could pull out the cash to pay him. I just left it on the counter and left. I was honestly scared for my life.”
“They blame us,” I blurted. “From what I heard, Chapman and Gastow talk about yesterday, I don’t think it’s the first time something like that has happened.”
“What do you mean?”
I just shrugged, not willing to reveal more and put them at risk. I wanted to find out what was going on, but couldn’t deny it would probably be dangerous and I wasn’t willing to put my friends at risk.
Seeing I didn’t want to talk more about it, Sinem changed the subject and I was so grateful for her. She was slowly becoming one of the few people I considered good friends, and something in me screamed that I could trust her.
The time on my phone showed 11:45 and I was shaking. I stood by the entrance to the woods, hidden by the bushes and trees, trying to muster the courage to walk further in, but I just couldn’t.
Even the light on my phone didn’t show much in the darkness and my mind reeled with all the things that could be lurking within those trees.
“It’s okay, Elyssa, you got this. You’re gonna walk in there and make this forest your bitch,” I tried reassuring myself, but every time I took a step in the direction of the Church, my body locked within itself and I shuddered.
When the sound of leaves crunching echoed around me, I nearly fainted. Someone was there, and by the sound of it, they were coming in my direction. I was frozen in place, wanting to run out of there, but unable to do so because of the incapacitating fear gripping me.
My breath came out ragged and my hands were trembling, when Konstantin emerged from the darkness.
But the weirdest thing was that I felt relief rush all over me when I saw him. I’d never thought I’d be so happy to see his face, but the fact remained. It was pathetic.
“What—” I cleared my throat, willing my voice to not sound so high-pitched. “What are you doing here?”
“The moon isn’t out tonight. I knew you’d be too scared to cross those woods alone.”
My first reflex was to tell him to go to hell, that I wasn’t scared, but I stopped myself. It was thoughtful of him and a part of me was grateful that he’d come to me. Another, larger, part was still angry that he was making me do this in the first place.
“Thank you. I—I appreciate it.” My reaction must’ve surprised him because he stayed silent for a while—right before he ruined it all.
“Shut up,” he muttered, causing me to roll my eyes. “Come, grab my sleeve.”
I didn’t have to be told twice and rushed up to him, taking hold of the sleeve of his jacket and following him as he expertly trekked through the woods.
The whole way there, I felt calm and at ease, like nothing could reach me. Maybe it was because of his reputation, maybe it was his family name, either way, I felt safe with him.
The realization hit me like a train and I wondered how it even happened. How did we go from him blackmailing me, to that, in barely a month?
When we arrived in front of the old building, I swallowed thickly. According to old tales, someone died in that church.
When the Academy first opened, it used to be an all-boys Catholic school. The bishop was a severe and awful man who believed in a variety of corporal punishments, which included, but wasn’t limited to, waterboarding. One day, he went too far and a kid died, drowning in the basin. His friends went berserk, they rebelled against the bishop and ended up killing him after excruciatingly torturing him.
It was just an old wives’ tale, but every year a student or two said they saw a shadow lurking upstairs, which was where the boy was killed.
When the Korolovs and their friends decided to make it theirs, people said they were crazy. In my opinion, that’s the whole reason why they did it. They wanted to show everyone that they truly were savages, that they weren’t scared of anything or anyone—dead or alive.
“Come on.” Konstantin continued advancing and I followed, clutching his sleeve a little tighter and willing my heart to slow down.
When he opened the big double doors, laughter came through. There were people in there.
The conclusion made me angry all of a sudden. It was one thing for me to clean this mess in front of Konstantin, it was another to be doing it with his friends and brothers watching. More than that, they would probably ask questions, and wonder why I’d agreed to do it in the first place. And as much as I wished they were, Korolovs weren’t stupid. They would know Konstantin had something on me… unless they already did know about my little secret.
I stopped in my tracks, causing Konstantin to look back at me. My jaw was clenched and I did my best not to cry from fatigue and humiliation.
“You said you didn’t tell anyone.”
Konstantin looked me up and down, then crossed his arms on his chest. “I didn’t.”
I breathed a little easier but I was still unsure that he was saying the truth.
“I will not clean in front of them. I know you have no respect for me—or anyone whatsoever—I know this is a way for you to assert your misplaced authority over me, but I will not debase myself and play submissive little cleaner for your friends. I have more pride than that.”
He stayed staring at me for a while, pensively. Then the ghost of a smirk crossed his lips before his hand came down to clutch mine. It sent a shock wave up my arm and I nearly gasped when he pulled me further inside with him.
“Out,” he decreed as soon as we came into the foyer.
I looked around, seeing the inside of this mysterious building for the first time. There wasn’t much, it was in dire need of some dusting, and spiderwebs were slowly taking over, but I got the appeal. In its own freaky, gothic way, the Church was cozy.
I recognized Mikhail, Royal, and Rhodes lounging around on one of the couches in the middle of the room. The piece of furniture looked like it had seen better days, but it must’ve been comfortable enough for all of them to sit there.
The guys looked like kings, powerful and deadly. Along with Konstantin, the four of them painted a picture so dark yet so attractive it hurt. The four horsemen of the apocalypse were nothing compared to them.
“What’s up?” Mikhail asked before his eyes fell on me and he smirked. “Oh, are you finally gonna pop your cherry, mladshiy brat ?”
My eyes widened and I immediately looked at Konstantin in surprise. I could feel my cheeks redden against my will.
Konstantin looked bored as he rolled his eyes. “I said get the fuck out. We have some cleaning to do and she’s too shy to do it in front of you.”
Surprisingly, Mikhail got up, shaking his head in mock reprimand. “Cleaning? Is that what you kiddos call it nowadays?”
Rhodes snorted before getting up too, swinging his arm around Mikhail’s shoulders and leading him out. Royal was the last one to leave. He assessed us silently before smirking at Konstantin and finally getting up too.
Once the double doors swung shut behind them, Konstantin looked down at me and said, “The shit you’ll need is in the corner. Get to work.”
He then sat down on the sofa, legs spread and arms on the back of it, like the royalty his family name implied. His gaze was burning holes into me and I nearly stumbled when I tried walking to the corner of the room.
I couldn’t decide if it was because I hated his eyes on me, or the opposite.