Chapter 4 - Gabi
GABI
Present Day
Thumping bass loud enough to rattle my teeth can be heard from the Uber as we pull up to Sigma. I climb out of the front seat, thanking the driver as I shut the car door.
My heels are unsteady on the gravel driveway, and I cling on to Ele’s shoulder for support.
Freshman girls wearing sneakers bound past us, and part of me wonders if we’re too old for this scene.
After spending a semester abroad and a summer in New York City, my tastes in nightlife have matured, leaving me with zero desire to attend another Sigma frat party. But whatever, we’re here.
Two powerful searchlights positioned in the center of the expansive front lawn beam massive halos onto either side of the house, making the familiar grey stone exterior glow.
From the street, Sigma looks like a medieval castle.
Colorful strobe lights create silhouettes of thrashing bodies that can been seen from the first-floor windows.
If I were a freshman and didn’t know the type of men living within the walls of this fraternity, I would find it intoxicating.
I did find it intoxicating once upon a time, but my naivety, along with my innocence, are long gone.
The girl we came with, Lana, marches straight up to the front of the line and says something to the stern-faced boy playing bouncer. He gives us an infuriating once-over before waving us past.
We walk through the two sets of ornate double doors and into what can only be described as the pits of hell.
The Great Room is the first room you enter once inside the fraternity house, but there’s nothing great about this room other than its size.
It’s a massive living room area with walls made up of dark wood panels that hold strange carvings.
When Sigma isn’t having a party, tattered brown leather couches face each other in the center of the room to give the illusion of civility.
When Sigma is having a party, like tonight, the furniture is moved into the adjoining room, and the Great Room is transformed into a dance floor.
Having danced in this room more nights than I can count, I thought I knew what to expect from Sigma after hours. Something about the atmosphere tonight, though, is off. It feels heavy and seedy like we’ve stumbled into an underground nightclub, and not the good kind.
Every single person around us appears obliterated, and that’s coming from someone who had more than her fair share of vodka sodas at Tommy O’s.
Girls, who I assume are freshmen and sophomores because they look like babies and I recognize none of them, trip over each other while trying to dance.
Some of the guys look to be equally plastered.
Bodies writhe against each other like this is one big orgy, and suddenly our presence here feels very, very wrong.
It’s not that we’re too old or too ‘been there, done that’ for a frat party.
It feels like we’re observing something we weren’t meant to see.
Lana drags us through the Great Room and into the smaller, adjoining room where they’ve set up the kegs.
I turn to Ele, who has her back to me, fixated on the shit show we walked through.
“I think we should leave,” I say, tugging at her tank top to get her attention.
She turns around, and her expression reflects exactly how I feel. Viv steps closer, and the three of us form a small circle.
“What the fuck is going on here?” she shouts over the music.
“I don’t know, but I think we should go,” I shout back.
“Can we go to the bathroom first? I really have to pee,” Viv says.
I nod and try to get Lana’s attention to let her know, but she’s engrossed in conversation, and Viv looks like her bladder is about to explode. We walk through the maze of hallways until we get to the first-floor bathrooms and step into what is fortunately a short line.
“Kasey!” I hear Ele gush from behind me, and I turn to see Kasey and two other girls I’m pretty sure are also members of Delta Gamma exit the bathroom.
Kasey looks… out of it. Like Monroe, she has long, blonde hair and thick, black lashes that frame smoldering bedroom eyes. Unlike Monroe, who has deep, complex ocean-blue eyes, Kasey’s eyes are a light shade of vibrant aqua. She has the type of look people pay thousands of dollars to emulate.
As I look closer, I notice her pupils are unnaturally dilated, and as the oldest of three sisters, I feel the immediate need to protect.
Kasey stalls at the mention of her name and looks at Ele with muddled confusion.
In fairness, other than Monroe, none of us have met Kasey in person since we weren’t here when she pledged.
We’ve only seen pictures of her on social media and her headshot in the official DG announcement email sent back in January to welcome new members.
“I’m Ele. Eleanor,” she states, “I’m Monroe’s friend and also in DG.”
We can see the wheels turning in Kasey’s head, but recognition has yet to click.
“And this is Gabi and Vivienne,” Ele says as she points to us.
“Oh my God,” Kasey stammers, “You’re Gabi? Oh my God, Monroe told us about you. She loves you,” she slurs.
The other two girls standing beside Kasey start to fidget.
“Wait,” Kasey says, getting uncomfortably close, and I ready myself because I’m sure she’s a second from toppling over. “Have you heard from Monroe? Is she back? I really need to talk to her. Like really, really.”
“No, I haven’t. I’m sorry. Can I help you, though?”
“No,” she sways. “Maybe. I don’t know.”
“Let’s talk at our chapter meeting on Sunday. Will you be there? Or tomorrow,” I offer, giving her a way out. I’m not sure I should leave her here. “Here, give me your number and I’ll text you.”
She gives me a sad smile as I dig around my purse for my phone. “Please tell Monroe I need to…” She pauses to hiccup. “I’m scared,” she says.
“You’re scared?” I ask, my eyes flying up to meet hers. Her eyes glaze over, and I start to panic. “Why? What’s going on?”
She shakes her head. “I can’t…”
“Kasey,” a male voice booms from down the hall. “Let’s go.”
I whip my head his direction, because I know that fucking voice, and glower.
“Fuck off, Kieren,” I call, positioning my body in front of Kasey. “Can’t you see we’re having a conversation?”
He stalks toward me, flanked by his despicable lackey, Barrett.
I despise that man, maybe more than I despise Jace.
Kieren stops five feet away and crosses his arms. He looks me up and down with a cocky sneer, and although I remember Monroe telling us he looked different in our group chat, seeing his transformation up close and personal is jarring.
On the surface, the changes to his appearance are subtle – the new tattoos and piercings merely enhance what was already his aesthetic.
He’s also bigger, taller somehow, in a way that suits him.
By the end of our sophomore year, he’d lost a considerable amount of weight, which, in hindsight, is not surprising from a person who allegedly snorted cocaine for breakfast. His frame now looks healthy, and he’s clearly put on muscle.
No, it’s not the physical changes that give me pause.
It’s his eyes.
They’re empty in a way that makes him look inhuman.
Chills prickle my skin as I take in his hardened, expressionless face. If we weren’t surrounded by people right now, I’d be tempted to reach out and touch him simply to confirm he has a heartbeat.
“Gabi,” Kieren says in a disgusted tone that turns my blood to ice. “Who the fuck let you in?”
“Excuse me?” I snap back.
“Jace,” Kieren barks, and a towering, menacing figure emerges from down the hall. I cross my arms, pissed off, as Jace fucking Carver makes his way to Kieren’s side. The repulsed look he gives me, dripping with venomous hatred, would make most people cry.
But I’m not most people.
“Jace, get these geriatric cunts out of here, and tell whichever fuckhead let them in that he’s cleaning the basement with his toothbrush for the next month.”
“Do not fucking touch me,” I growl when Jace takes a step in my direction.
“Gabi, it’s okay. Let’s leave. This party sucks, anyway,” Vivienne adds.
“Yeah, I know this party sucks ass, but I’ll be damned if I let some oversized minion throw me out.”
“What the fuck did you say, cunt?” Jace snarls, edging me backward, and it takes me a second to collect myself because this man, who talked about marriage and babies within two weeks of dating, who begged me not to break up with him, who sobbed at my feet, just called me a fucking cunt.
Somewhere in the background, I hear Ele tell Jace to knock it off, and then my back slams against the wall, and I see red. My hand has never moved so fast.
I feel the searing sting across my palm before I realize I’ve slapped him. His head whips to the side, and I feel a fleeting moment of satisfaction until I watch him slowly turn back to face me.
“That was a mistake,” he growls, then picks me up and slings me over his shoulder as if I weigh less than a backpack.
“Put me down,” I scream as I claw at his backside in a vain attempt to give him a wedgie. It’s childish, I know, but it’s my only form of retaliation.
“Where are you taking me?” I demand. I try not to focus on the fact that this is the first time Jace has touched my body since our breakup. He winds through the halls at an alarmingly fast clip, and I start to feel dizzy. Ele and Viv are on his heels, screaming at him with equal vigor.
The sharp clang of a metal door hinge cuts through the commotion.
“Outside,” Jace bellows. I don’t know where we are, and all I can see is the ground behind Jace’s feet as he holds open the door. We’ve all stopped screaming. What’s the point? I remain hanging upside down over Jace’s shoulder, and it’s not like any of us can physically go toe to toe with him.
“Can you put me down now?” I plead, but in the blink of an eye, I’m back inside, and Jace has pulled the door shut.
He flings me off his shoulder like I’m a rag doll and shoves me into the wall. My head bounces against the hard surface, and I let out a cry.
I hear Ele and Viv pounding on the outside of the door, threatening to call the police.
He presses his body against mine, pinning me in place.
“Stop,” I grind out as he squeezes my cheeks together and forces my face into an upward tilt.
He’s so much bigger than me. There was a time when I found our size difference to be thrilling, but now I’m doing everything I can to stop myself from shaking with fear.
“Do not come here again,” he growls down at me. “Do you understand? You and your friends are not welcome at Sigma.”
“You’re pathetic,” I snarl through my clenched jaw. “Are you Kieren’s bitch now? Is he your daddy? Tell me, Jace, do you suck his dick before tucking him into bed at night?”
Jace squeezes my face harder, but I refuse to cower. I refuse to let this sorry excuse of a man see me beg. That’s his style, not mine.
Jace drops my jaw but grabs me by the scruff of my neck, slams open the door, and throws me – not pushes, not shoves, throws me – outside.
The force of the door smashes into Ele and Viv, who were standing directly on the opposite side, and knocks them to the ground. My back collides with grass, and I roll to a halt somewhere between eight and ten feet from where Jace launched me into the air.
I roll onto my side, grimacing in pain. Ele and Viv scramble to kneel beside me.
“Oh my God, Gabi, are you okay?” Viv beseeches as she shines her phone light over my body in search of injury.
“I’m fine,” I grit, worried I cracked a rib because it hurts to breathe.
“What the fuck?” Ele stammers. “What the actual fuck?”
“He assaulted you!” Viv cries. “Should we go to the police? At minimum, we have to report this.”
“To whom?” I snap. “You saw what was happening in there. Look at those girls! Nothing has been done to stop Kieren and his army of assholes so far. Sigma has always been fucking invincible, but this is a whole new level of crazy!”
After a moment, I say, “I’m okay, I just need a minute.” I push myself into a seated position. Tears run from my eyes, and I’m not sure if it’s the pain, humiliation, or both. “Where are we?” I ask.
The three of us look around our inky surroundings. Music from the party sounds muted, nearly drowned out by the sound of rushing water from the nearby gorge.
“I don’t know, maybe it’s an emergency exit, you know, in case of a fire,” Ele guesses, helping me to my feet.
“I always forget how huge Sigma is. Wait,” I gasp, reaching for the nearest arm, “Kasey. What happened to Kasey? Did either of you see?”
“No, I mean, no offense to Kasey, but you were our priority, and we thought Jace was going to strangle you,” Ele says.
“Dude, she looked fucked up,” Viv adds. “And not just drunk. I mean fucked up.”
“She said she was scared,” I say. “She kept saying she needed to talk to Monroe. And then Kieren…”
“There is no way that was Kieren,” Ele says. “That thing in there was an alien wearing a Kieren bodysuit. Did you see his eyes?”
“Dead,” Viv agrees over the sound of liquid splashing against grass.
“Viv, are you peeing?” I whisper-shout.
“I had to go!” she exclaims in a whisper-shout of her own. “This place is trash, anyway. Might as well piss on it.”
“She’s not wrong,” Ele agrees with a shrug and a small smirk.
“He made Kasey go with him and Barrett,” I say, “but I don’t think she wanted to.” My words catch in my throat like the truth of what we saw is too horrible to repeat aloud.
“Goddammit,” I sigh in frustration. “I was trying to help her, to talk to her, before henchman Jace was tagged in and literally throttled me.”
“We’ve got to find her tomorrow,” I continue. “We need to figure out what’s wrong and help her, or I’m afraid whatever happened to Monroe is going to happen to Kasey, too.”
“First of all, we need to get out of here,” Viv shudders, pulling up her shorts. “This place is giving me the creeps.
“The vibes felt rotten, like Sigma is decaying from the inside out,” Ele states.
I nod in agreement. “Whatever corruption is going on in there, it’s not good, but I’m determined to find out.”