Chapter 8
I finished the last of the ham and cheese baguette I grabbed from the girls dormitory kitchen.
It wasn’t nearly as good or as fresh as the cafeteria food, but it will do for now. It also gave me more time to change for the Physical Defence class.
I throw on the academy's training gear; a matching pair of marl grey sweats with a navy silk embroidered crest on the chest. The grey sweatshirt had a long zip down the centre and you had a choice of white or black vest tops for underneath. I went with black, it was better for stains, or blood.
I make my way outside and toward the training grounds. That was where most of the Physical Defence classes were held, even in cold or rainy weather.
The grounds were located to the far left of the main academy building and spanned the length and width of around three football pitches.
The only thing bigger than the training grounds was the forest that surrounded it, and the academy, on all sides.
I see the training grounds in the distance. It was a bit of a walk from the dormitories, but I was excited to finally join in on a class that might actually benefit me.
I had only heard rumours about the instructor, Mr. Valor. He was a high pure-blood elf, who’s reputation on the battlefield made him someone even the academy's dean fought to get his hands on.
From the snippet of whispers I heard from the other female students, he was also apparently the most attractive among the faculty. But with a glare so icy you couldn’t keep your gaze on him for long. Not that I cared.
I walk past a row of wooden benches, the training ground now in sight, as I suddenly notice a group of boys making their way closer to me.
Their eyes harden when they meet my gaze, but they turn and continue chatting and chuckling to each other as they get closer to me.
I watch on from my peripheral view as they near me, my guard up and hands balled into fists and ready for any sort of shift or attack.
They continue to laugh and talk as if I don’t exist, my fists clenched and shoulder stiff as we stroll past each other.
My body begins to relax as they leave in the opposite direction, my shoulders slightly dropping as I make my way toward the training grounds again.
I guess with all the other incidents I’ve been a little paranoid lately.
Suddenly a hand wraps around my mouth from behind with an arm joining it around my waist. They pull me into the shadows behind a nearby building and out of sight. It's so quick, I don’t even get the time to react or fight back before I’m thrown hard against the building's stone wall.
Pain slices up my back as three large figures stand towering over me.
The three boys from moments ago.
They sneer down at me, their eyes dark and leery as they watch me.
“What do you think you're doing?” My back hits the wall as I watch them, cursing the slight tremor working its way down my legs from the hit to the wall. If I had been stronger, I would’ve brushed something like that off with ease.
A boy in the centre, with sandy-brown hair and dark brown eyes bends down toward me. His hand extends and reaches for me. I slap it away as the two boys beside him chuckle.
I could tell by their eyes that they meant business. And that whatever they had planned for me, was not something I would be walking away from with just a few broken bones.
“It's better if she fights a little,” Sneers a boy with beady grey eyes and murky moss-green hair. His eyes narrow, pulling at a small, thick scar above his brows as a slight glow of silver slices through his iris’.
A shifter then. And by the colour of it, and his hair, he was more than likely some type of reptilian.
“She’ll learn soon enough how things will work.” His eyes roam up my legs as his grin grows darker.
His look mirrors one I’ve seen hundreds of times before, one that without fail, makes my skin crawl, and screams for me to gouge out the eyes giving it.
A foul feeling slithers up my back, knowing what will come and questioning whether I can do what I have to. If this body can truly fight back like I need it to, and if it can find the strength it needs to defend itself against not one, but three shifters.
Because unfortunately for me, shifters usually group together, and by their large frames and the little grab from a moment ago, that seems to be what I’m facing.
Either way, I’ll have to fight.
“Are you sure we’ll be alright here, Dean?” Calls a blonde boy to my right, as his green eyes flicker back toward the pathway. “What if someone comes? We are pretty close to the cafeteria.”
“It’ll be fine.” Dean, the boy directly in front of me, stands back up and straightens himself.
“Even if someone does come…” He looks down toward me, meeting my eyes as a mocking grin stretches his lips. “Nobody would care if it's her anyway.”
He leans forward, extending the hand I'd just slapped away moments ago.
“We could also do this in a much easier way…” His eyes trail down my body, “Where we all could have a little fun–”
“That's not what we agreed on Dean!” Scowls the Joker wannabe, cutting off Dean's sick proposition.
“She needs to be taught a lesson and be shown her place.” He spits his words, a vitriol hate swirling in his murky eyes as they meet mine again. “Something so worthless only deserves to be used and discarded like the little whore she–”
Before he can finish his useless little speech, I kick my foot out, slamming it into his leg and making him stumble forward. My best bet was to try to catch them off guard and move quickly.
I clench my fist as tight as I can and throw it forward, aiming for his head, but before the hit can land, it's caught by another large hand from beside me.
Deans.
He yanks me up with ease before throwing me back into the stone wall behind me. I hear something crack as pain splinters through me, slicing down my back and shoulders as my body slides down the wall.
“I guess that's what I get for trying to be nice.” Dean pushes his fingers through my hair before roughly grabbing it and pulling me closer to face him. Every strand on my head burns with his grip, as if each one is going to be yanked out by the force of his grasp on me.
“We could have done this the easy way,” He sighs, as he uses his other hand to loosen his trouser belt, “...but I guess, I wouldn’t have been gentle either way.
” He slowly begins to undo his top trouser button as a slight moment of panic pushes to the front of my mind.
Memories and flashes of the first few weeks in The Facility and the constant threat of the guards hit me.
I pull myself back just as quick, taking a slow breath and pushing the memories and my panic back down. I bury them deep in the place I put all my pain and fear I’ve carried over the years.
If I could fight and survive back then, I could do it here and now. I didn’t have strength then either, and I was still able to protect myself.
A low chuckle rings out from beside Dean.
“About fucking time,” The green-haired ass grins as he pushes in closer beside him and sneers down at me. His eyes leer toward my chest as his hand reaches toward me. And just as he leans closer, I spit on him, hitting him directly in the face.
“That's the only thing you’ll be getting off of me.”
He reels back, a look of pure shock taking over his expression before it quickly turns to rage.
He tries to grab me, but Dean elbows him, pushing him back again. “Patience Leon, you’ll get your turn with her. And then you can do whatever you want.”
“As if I’ll–”
My words are cut off as my head is yanked back harder with Dean chuckling. He pulls his trouser zipper down, just as I try to throw my knee out and toward his crotch. But it's quickly caught by Leon , who also catches the fist aiming for his face. Fucking shifter speed.
The grip on my hair falls away as I’m shoved backwards, slamming into the bricks behind me again. And hard.
I quickly scramble to straighten myself but suddenly my head is whipped sideways, my vision sporting tiny black spots as I try to steady myself and take in what's happened.
He hit me.
The asshole had slapped me hard enough to make my head turn, and my teeth chatter with its force.
The pain works its way from my stinging cheek into my head. A throbbing pain hammers its way through my skull while I try to pull myself quickly back together.
I stumble sideways, my hand falling on the wall behind me as muffled voices ring out around me.
“You should have done that from the start,” Chuckles Leon , “Then she wouldn’t have acted so stupid.”
“I didn’t want her face bruised or swollen…it's a turn off.” Answers Dean with a nonchalant tone as my vision begins to clear.
“I couldn’t care less, it's not her face I’ll be having fun with.” Leon's eyes leer down toward my thighs and then back up to my chest. “Besides, you can always take her from behind.” A low chuckle leaves his throat, as a dark, twisted grin stretches his lips.
“Fuck yo–”
A hand grips my shoulder roughly, pulling me up straight and cutting me off before slamming me against the wall again.
The back of my skull hits the cold bricks as my head spins and vision blurs. A sharp pain sears down my back, with the pain from the first hit to the wall re-emerging and permeating through me even more.
Something was definitely broken or fractured there.
A tremor works its way through me as I feel a large hand roughly grasp my throat and shift my face upwards, followed by the feel of bodies crowding closer to me.
I try to throw myself forward, but a hand grips my wrist on each side of me and slams them both into the wall above me with a bruising grip.
A feeling of uselessness tries to seep its way into my mind as I struggle and thrash against their holds to no avail. I couldn’t let them do this, I wouldn’t–
A hand suddenly pulls at my sweatshirt before I feel cold air on my chest, followed by a rough hand grasping and groping my breasts. I hear a low hum and a muffled voice
“...Not bad.”