Tag, You’re It (Kingston Prep #2)

1. Delilah

DELILAH

Not all evil comes in the form of an easily identifiable villain.

Sometimes, it comes from the people we trust most. And from the institutions that were supposed to keep us safe.

It was a hard lesson I had to learn, but one that embedded itself into my marrow as a naive teenager.

When I still thought my life would turn out like how I always dreamed it would.

I was sixteen years old when I was yanked out of a deep sleep from rough hands, intent on terrorizing me.

My insides froze with a fear so visceral, I could feel it seep down into my bones.

I’ll never forget the guttural, primal scream that wrenched free from my throat.

How it burned and vibrated against my vocal cords.

How these men had gotten into my house, I didn’t know, but I knew I had to fight with everything I had.

I could barely see in the dark, but I could sense that there were multiple men from the way they talked to each other, working together to stop my thrashing.

“Shut up, you stupid bitch!” One of them said, gripping both my arms above my head. Their hands dug into my skin so hard I knew it would leave bruises.

I tried to kick, but I was pinned down with one of the man’s hips. Every thrash of my body seemed to excite this monster because I felt him harden against me. The sick fuck found pleasure in scaring me.

“We’ve got a feisty one, boys,” he said with a chuckle and slight southern twang. His face was so close I could smell the coffee and cigarettes on his breath. It churned my stomach and nausea roiled up my esophagus, threatening to spring free.

“Let me go!” I cried out.

I was no delicate flower and would fight with everything I had if that meant a chance at survival.

“Stop making this harder than it has to be, Delilah.”

My blood ran cold.

That was my father’s voice, and it was coming from the doorway.

Why would my father be here allowing this?

It threw me. That instinct to fight became subdued and the small hesitation was all the men needed to wrench my hands behind my back and zip tie my wrists together.

My shoulder blades screamed at the unnatural angle I found myself in and my thoughts churned anxiously.

Why was this happening? And why was my father so okay with the way they were treating me?

Sure, my father and I didn’t get along most days.

We’d even had a fight earlier in the night.

He’d smacked me so hard across my face for my supposed disobedience, that I’d gone to bed with a splitting headache and throbbing cheek, dreaming of the day I could finally escape this hell hole.

But in reality, I hadn’t done a thing to deserve that treatment.

He didn’t like my tone when I asked for someone to pass the salt.

“Dad?” I asked, feeling a sting of tears in my eyes at his betrayal.

“It’ll be alright, Delilah. Just stop resisting and go with the men,” My mom said.

Now I really wanted to vomit.

They orchestrated this, I realized.

“Mom?” My voice broke as a piece of duct tape was placed over my mouth, and a bag was tugged over my face.

I couldn’t see them. I couldn’t see anything and had no choice but to submit to being taken. The men dragged me out of my own house, bound and gagged—with my parent’s full consent .

My heart was beating hard against the cavity in my chest. How could they do this to me?

I wasn’t a bad kid. Sure, I questioned them sometimes, but this was extreme. Even for them. My parents hadn’t always been the most loving, but they were my parents. They were supposed to protect me from the monsters. Not hand me over to them.

In the vehicle they’d dragged me out to, I knew I wasn’t alone. Several others sat next to me, whimpering. I could feel their bodies next to me on either side, their arms and legs pressed into mine. Skin on skin. Sweat on sweat. Were they betrayed by their parents too?

My mind whirled as I put together the pieces of what was happening to me.

I’d heard about things like this before.

Living in Kingston, I’d heard the whispers of kids being taken in the night.

Problem children that needed straightening out.

Kingston Prep was legendary for that in the worst way.

It was the stuff of nightmares, and the source for every horror story I heard.

And now, I was being taken there. I knew it in my gut the way you know a storm is coming.

It seemed my parents finally had enough of me and my ‘disobedience’, and they were shipping me off to be fixed.

The blow to my face that my father had dealt me earlier in the night ached and I knew it was swelling.

My father firmly believed that children should be punished and as his only child, that meant I was his own personal punching bag.

If he had a bad day at work, he would seek me out and find some excuse to teach me a lesson.

I learned plenty from him. Like how even the people who were supposed to love you, could break you in ways you didn’t know were possible.

My mother was no better. She stood idly by as he inflicted his wrath onto me, quoting scripture as if that made his actions okay. To her, I was a disappointment. A problem that needed major intervention. I was another one of her prayers that had yet to be answered.

Well, she could wait forever for all I cared.

I shouldn’t have been so surprised that they would have me taken like this, but I was. A part of me, deep down, always knew it was a possibility. But I thought if I just adhered to their rules and kept my head down, that I could make it to my eighteenth birthday. Then I’d finally be free .

Clearly, I’d been wrong.

The vehicle jolted and my body surged into the one next to me. They let out a groan when my elbow met their ribs. I couldn’t help it any more than I could help my own capture. One minute I was relatively safe in my bed, and the next I was being hauled out against my will.

I was still wearing my nightgown, only one of the shoulder straps had been ripped off during the struggle and I could feel the thin material slipping down my frame.

There was no way for me to stop it or cover up since my hands were bound.

My skin was freezing and all I wanted to do was curl up and cry.

Each time the vehicle stopped, I wondered if we were at our final destination, or if we were picking up another unfortunate soul.

We’d picked up at least four others so far.

Some of them crying. Some of them screaming against their gag.

I was quiet though. Trying to observe every piece of information I could and file it away for later.

When we finally arrived, the men ripped open the back of the van and hauled us out one by one.

My bare feet struggled to keep up with their pace, and my nightgown slid even further, revealing my breasts to the cold night air.

The men snickered but made no move to help cover me back up. Fucking bastards.

Fury lined my stomach at how they were treating us. These men who would willingly sign up to torment underage children had the biggest case of small dick energy that I’d ever seen. Fingers dug into my skin hard and the way they jerked my limbs to follow them made me stumble.

I couldn’t see a goddamn thing.

The soles of my feet scrapped against the wet pavement. It had been raining earlier and the smell of damp earth still hung about the air. I wondered what time it was and how long it had been since they’d snatched me from my bed. It felt like forever as I braced for whatever came next.

The men ripped the bags off our faces, and I saw the school for the first time. It was still dark, but the parking lot was lined with streetlamps. Off in the distance, above the mountainous Catskills, I could make out a faint glimmering line of light .

Dawn.

It had taken all night for them to round us up and drag us here.

Glancing around, I counted ten others in different states of disarray like myself.

I noted that none of us had shoes. One of the men licked his lips and seemed to adjust himself as he stared at me.

A shiver ran down my spine and nausea roiled in my gut.

I could only imagine what he was thinking, and it was nothing good.

The building was dark and ominous and there was a feeling of dread that curled into my stomach, sinking down to my toes like a rock. This place was evil. I could feel it.

They shuffled us inside and finally removed our bondages, then ripped off the duct tape that held our mouths shut.

The delicate skin around my mouth burned and my tongue felt dry.

My muscles were exhausted and hardly able to support my weight as I shook feeling back into my limbs.

The first thing I did was pull up my nightgown, but it was too late.

Everyone had seen me and embarrassment coated my freezing body.

“Welcome to Kingston, pigs,” An older gentleman with short cropped gray hair said as he walked, spine straight, thumbs tucked into his black vest that he wore over his chest. A bulletproof vest? Who did these bozos think they were? A fucking SWAT team?

They looked ridiculous. Like a bunch of men-children playing dress up and enacting their violent fantasies.

But this wasn’t some video game. This was real life, and now I was stuck in this place of horrors.

I had two years left of my high school career.

Time that I’d been planning to get me out of this wretched town and away from my shit parents.

Now, I was back at square one.

I wasn’t sure how things worked here, but I’d heard enough to know that if you didn’t do what they told you, you could end up dead, and no one would even bat an eye.

They’d blame you for not following orders and make it look like an accident.

The deranged look in these men’s eyes told me they were just the sort of monsters that would enjoy shedding a little blood.

And it had me scurrying right along when they told us to move.

The men flanked us on either side, like they were waiting for one of us to flee.

And God I wanted to. I wanted to run as fast and as far as my legs would let me, but there was no escaping.

I was stuck here.

They dropped me off in the dormitory wing, shoving me into a cramped room hard enough that I nearly fell on my face. There were three other girls already occupying the room I found myself in, and they seemed pissed to have been woken up to help accommodate me.

“Ladies. See that she’s shown the ropes,” the gray-haired man said, I assumed he was the leader of whatever their little fucked up unit was called.

The door snicked behind him, and I was left looking at three incredibly angry looking girls, who didn’t make a move to assist me. Instead, they rolled their eyes and curled back up in their respective beds.

The room had two sets of bunk beds on either side. The only empty one sat on the left on top of a rickety looking ladder. There were no windows, and the only light came from a thin strip near the ceiling that circled the room.

It looked more like a jail cell than a dorm room.

There was one dresser and what looked like a possible closet, but it was too dark and I was too tired to go find out for sure.

Instead, I climbed the ladder and sunk into the most uncomfortable bed I’d ever had the displeasure of laying in.

I pulled the scratchy blanket over my body and tried to stop myself from shivering.

It was no use. The adrenaline had finally caught up with me and tears stung my eyes, making the swelling on my face hurt.

I’d never felt so alone or so angry.

My parents had betrayed me, and while their loyalty and love for me didn’t seem to run that deep, it still stung. Sniffling, I felt the first lone tear fall.

“Oh my god, we’ve got a crier,” one of the girls’ voices groaned.

I didn’t see us becoming friends anytime soon, and I wondered if it were even possible to find any in a place like this.

“Aw, is the princess mad her mommy and daddy didn’t want her anymore?” Another one of the girls asked in a mock baby voice with a chuckle, to which the other two joined in with their snickering .

“Welcome to the club, bitch.” They laughed like a band of deranged hyenas.

I let out a sigh, irritated at their mean girl behavior.

They continued their barrage of jabs, to which I tuned out, willing myself to not react.

Looking up at the ceiling, their voices faded to the background as I let the tears fall, despite the girls’ mocking. The emotions I’d been suppressing on the ride here came bubbling up to the surface, needing to be unleashed.

The pain.

The betrayal.

The rage.

I let myself feel it all. In this new place with unfamiliar smells and sounds, the knowledge of how easily a person could break engulfed me. I’m sure that’s what they wanted. To break me down and mold me into something entirely of their making.

Well, fuck that.

I made a promise to myself then and there, that no matter what this place threw at me, I wouldn’t allow it to break me. I would get through it—one way or another and then leave this place in the dust.

If my assumption was correct, I would only have an hour or so to rest before the day started. I wanted to use that time to rest so I had enough energy to face whatever it was this place threw at me next.

I had a feeling I would need it.