The Real Horror Is Today
SCARLETT
“Lily, why… why would you try to do such a thing?”
The words cracked out of me, barely above a whisper, as fresh tears rushed down my cheeks. I stared down at her unconscious, fragile form, hooked to monitors that beeped too steadily, too calmly for what she’d been through.
Fresh bruises bloomed across her face in ugly purples and blacks, one eye swollen almost shut, split lip crusted with dried blood. Even after the school’s “cleanup magic crew” had scrubbed the buildings spotless, replaced doors, erased every trace of last night’s carnage… they couldn’t erase this.
The physical and mental trauma.
The sickening proof that the Purge had happened.
And here I was, hypocritical, shaking and asking an unconscious girl why she’d tried to end it when I’d only survived one night of that horror.
One night.
And already I understood: sometimes death felt kinder than another sunrise in this place.
I exhaled shakily and turned to the attendant adjusting Lily’s IV drip. Her face was blank, professional, and detached, like she’d seen this exact scene a hundred times before.
“Do you know who found her?” I asked, my voice scraped raw.
The nurse didn’t even look up.
“No. She was just dropped here. Thankfully the poison had been removed from her system before it could do real damage.”
“But how?”
“I do not know,” she said flatly.
“You have two more minutes before you have to leave.”
I looked away before something vicious slipped out of my mouth, then she walked out of the room.
My hand drifted to Lily’s stomach. At least she’d gotten rid of it. At least she hadn’t been forced to carry something conceived in violence.
“What do you think would happen to the dead bodies of other students?” I asked quietly. “What would they tell their parents?”
Emma snorted, a bitter, tired sound.
“It’s a new day here, Scarlett,” she said, meeting my eyes dead-on. “Open your eyes and see that. On your way here did you see any dead bodies? Any blood in the halls? Any broken doors? Last night never happened. There were no bodies.”
I felt like throwing up.
Milo cleared his throat. “Relax, Emma. She’s new to all this.”
He turned to me, voice gentler but no less heavy.
“What she means, Scar, is that the bodies are cleared before dawn. Magic, cleaning crews, whatever the fuck they use—it’s gone. And the parents… most don’t give two shits. They are the ones who sent their kids here or they are students like you on scholarships.
They’re usually from packs that don’t care, runts, rejects, kids with no family left to ask questions. And the ones who do care?”
He shrugged. “They get paid handsomely. Or threatened. Or killed. Silvercrest is run by very powerful people. The kind who watch the Purge on private feeds to get off. They don’t let loose ends dangle.”
“Kill them,” I echoed, numb.
“Yeah,” Milo said simply. “Which is very likely.”
Emma leaned against the wall, arms crossed tight.
“The group of higher-ups who allow this maybe even run it—they’re sick perverts who treat the Purge like their personal snuff film. They profit from it. Sell the strongest graduates as elite killers. Breed the survivors. And the weak?” She laughed without humor. “Culled like they never existed.”
I pressed my palm to my stomach, suddenly nauseous.
Lily stirred faintly on the bed, her eyelids fluttering, a small whimper escaping her cracked lips.
I reached for her hand.
She didn’t squeeze back.
The nurse walked back in and cleared her throat.
“Time.”
I didn’t move.
Emma touched my shoulder.
“Come on,” she said quietly. “She needs rest. We all do.”
I let her pull me away.
But as we walked out of the medical wing, the hallway was perfectly clean.
I couldn’t shake the feeling that the real horror wasn’t last night.
It was today.
And every day after.
Because Silvercrest hadn’t just survived the Purge.
It had erased it.
And we were expected to do the same.
Pretend it never happened.
Pretend we weren’t hurt.
Pretend we were safe.
But I wasn’t pretending anymore.
I was done pretending.
And whatever came next, whatever monster I had to become to survive this place—I would become it.
Because if Silvercrest wanted to erase the Purge…
I would make sure the world remembered.
*****
We were all gathered in the large assembly hall the next day for some “announcement meeting” they insisted every student attend.
I sat between Milo and Emma in one of the middle rows, Lily still in the medical wing under observation. The hall smelled like polished wood and fresh coffee.
My body still ached everywhere: ribs, wrists, thighs, I kept my arms crossed tight over my chest, trying to hide how badly I was shaking.
“It’s not even been two days,” I muttered under my breath as more students filed in. “They didn’t give us enough time to even try to forget.”
Milo leaned in close. “They only give one day break after the Purge. That’s the rule. Classes resume like nothing happened. Pretend it was just a bad dream.”
Emma snorted quietly on my other side. “Pretend is the school motto.”
I looked around the hall. Hundreds of students, some bruised, some limping, some staring blankly ahead like they were already checked out but there were others who looked fine, smiling and chatting but no one talked about last night.
I scanned the rows for the Triumvirate but there was no sign of them.
The Dean stepped up to the podium.
“Good afternoon, students,” he began, as if it were any other day. “As you’re all aware, last night was… eventful. But Silvercrest Academy prides itself on resilience. We move forward and we grow stronger.”
No one said a thing.
He continued.
“To help facilitate that growth, we are pleased to announce an upcoming campus-wide camping retreat. It will run for three days immediately following your upcoming tests.”
Murmurs started, nervous, confused, and angry.
“You will be separated into twenty-five groups,” he said. “Each group will be assigned a different location across the academy’s extensive grounds and surrounding forest areas. These include:
- Crimson Hollow Grove
- Whispering Pines Basin
- Blackthorn Ridge
- Silvermist Falls
- Obsidian Hollow
- Moonshadow Vale
- And nineteen others, each with unique terrain and challenges designed to foster teamwork, survival skills, and… personal development.”
Emma muttered under her breath, “Now they’re going to pretend to be a normal school.”
He smiled wider. “Group assignments will be random and fair. Please form an orderly line at the front to draw your placard from the ballot box. Your group number and location will be printed on it. After that, you can go about your day.”
The hall filled with reluctant shuffling as students began lining up.
I stayed seated for a moment longer, my stomach churning.
Milo nudged me. “Come on. Better to know where we’re going than wait for them to surprise us.”
Emma stood up. “If they put me in a group with any of those Pit bastards, I’m burning the forest down.”
We joined the line.
I kept glancing over my shoulder, half-expecting golden eyes, black claws, red gaze.
They weren’t there.
But I knew they would be.