Chapter 4
C H A P T E R4
Let the Games Begin
Ella
The Present
W hen Callie and I crossed through the doors of St. Victoria high school, the dark aura surrounding the gothic-style building and the thick fragrance of incense, wood, and blood orange hugged my frame like an old inamorato.
Four months since I graduated, yet it felt like just yesterday I was sauntering down these arched hallways in my cheerleading uniform with my ex-boyfriend by my side.
Cade and I had been that couple. Inseparable and indestructible. I was the co-captain of the cheerleading team and he was the alternate captain for the Rangers. We weren’t oblivious to the gossip that followed our trail. People were either jealous of us or wanted to be us. No matter what or where we went, we incited envy and revered glances.
South Side’s resident good girl and bad boy was a goddamn headline.
For three years, we’d been the center of attention, sitting on our high horses.
Now we were nothing.
Funny how lovers who were tighter than a nun’s vow could be reduced to ashes.
Walking further into the dark foyer illuminated by our flashlights and lined with mosaic windows, brass-accents, and wooden floors, memories of our relationship played in my mind like a film.
From our first meeting to our last sighting. From our first kiss to our last fight. From the first moment we said I love you to the very moment he shattered my heart with a sledgehammer.
Even with all my pain, it was impossible to erase his memory.
He’d built himself a home in my heart and he never, ever left.
Being in St. Victoria magnified all the feelings I’d tried to avoid for three months. They clawed to the surface like ghouls and I desperately tried to kick them back below the surface, in the graveyard of all the things I once held dear to me.
Callie wasn’t oblivious to my inner turmoil. She kept shooting me worried glances as we leaned against a row of lockers, watching Initiators entering the building after us. They chatted in low voices, their excitement palpable in the air.
My best friend’s gaze burned a hole into my side. She finally bit the bullet and asked, “Are you okay, Ella?”
I knew what she actually meant to ask. Are you okay being back here after everything that happened with you and Cade?
Masking my emotions, I pasted a fake smile because I was in public. And as per my parents’ rules, you never let your guard slip in front of the world—never wore your emotions on your sleeve for others to witness. “Yeah, just waiting for the game to begin.”
“I can’t believe this will be our last one,” Callie whispered sadly. “I’m going to miss Initiation Night.”
Initiation Night was for the current St. Victoria students, but every year, former graduates—namely first year alumni—were granted the privilege to come play the game one last time.
My smile wavered when the hockey team entered at the end, cutting my gaze elsewhere so I didn’t start counting bodies and searching faces. “Me too, Cal.”
For decades, Initiation Night was a rite of passage—a coveted ceremony—taking place on the grounds of St. Victoria, where individuals from the cheerleading and hockey team broke into the school for a night filled with debauchery and mischief. In the afterhours, like a fever dream, it was a nail-biting and thrilling experience. It was a night that gave students the excuse to behave immorally and get away with it.
Restless anticipation thrummed through the throng of people gathered in the foyer, waiting for further instructions. We were breaking several laws by being here, but that’s what made it fun.
St. Victoria used to be a motherhouse—a convent, if you will. Less than a hundred years ago, it was converted into a high school. It’d been renovated through the years, but an eerie atmosphere was forever associated with the establishment.
In daylight, it was bearable. At nightfall, it was a beast. Like the walls lived and breathed old wives’ tales.
“Who do you think you’ll get paired with tonight?” Callie asked, adjusting the hem of her white minidress and her red cape. With her pixie blond hair and blue doe eyes, she resembled an angel instead of a slutty Red Riding Hood.
“Hopefully you.” A lot of the people in our senior class had been fake and gossip-hungry. I was big on protecting my peace and keeping only a few close people by my side.
I only trusted Callie now.
She smiled. “Yes, hopefully.”
“I’m going to win this year,” I manifested. “Watch it happen.”
I had a big competitive streak and Callie knew it too.
Last year, Darla Ivy Hill—my teammate, cheerleading co-captain, and now ex -best friend—and I were the reigning Queens of Initiation Night.
It was an epic competition. The level of exhilaration when we’d been crowned the winners was indescribable. I wanted to feel that rush again and break a record. No one in the history of Initiation Night had ever won twice.
“Well, here’s to you winning the game.” Callie raised her flashlight to mine in a toast. “You got this—”
“What are you ladies talking about?”
Cursing in unison, we both startled at the unexpected voice filled with amusement, resonating from our left.
“Oh my God!” Callie shone her flashlight at the intruder.
Gavino Ricci crossed his arms and leaned against a locker beside Callie, a devious grin sketched on his lips, showcasing a pair of fake fangs. His shoulder-length blond hair was mussed and he wore faded blue jeans with his old hockey jersey. I guess he was dressed as a hockey-playing vampire or something of the sorts. “Did I scare you?”
Callie swatted his bicep and jokingly glared at him. “Yeah, you did, asshole! A little warning next time, eh?”
“My bad.” Gavino appraised her like he wanted to devour her whole. “You look cute.”
Callie blushed under his perusal.
Not wanting to slice the sexual tension but also wanting to help escalate this, I inserted in a sly manner, “We were just talking about who we’ll get paired with tonight.”
Although Callie and I would make a wonderful team, I sincerely wished, like any good bestie, that she and Gavino got paired together. They were definitely into each other, but neither of them had the courage to make the first move. Perhaps tonight they’d get some action. It wasn’t uncommon for Initiators to abandon the competition and hook up with their teammate, especially if it was someone they’d been crushing on for the longest time.
Pressing his forearm on the locker above Callie’s head, Gavino closed into her personal space and said suggestively, “Is that so? Maybe you and I will end up together.”
My eyes widened, shocked at his forwardness and double meaning. But also applauding him for it because fina-fucking-lly .
“Y-Yeah,” Callie stammered, blushing harder than ever. “Maybe.”
Biting my proud mama smile, I angled away from them to give them privacy to flirt.
Meanwhile, my eyes swept over the darkness in the foyer, broken up by the wedges of light emanating from our torches, the caliginous sky visible from decades-old windows, and shadowy figures housing the familiar faces of those I had not spoken to since the summer.
I’d been so wrapped up in my world of hurt that once university started, I lost touch with a lot of my so-called friends. I didn’t mourn those lost connections. Not when I had more important matters to tend to.
I waved at a few of them with borderline ersatz smiles. Sometimes it was tedious maintaining a perfect, happy fa?ade before others.
But a real smile split my lips when I saw a group of young cheerleaders dressed like The Hex Girls, taking selfies, as a handful of boys from the hockey team whistled and showered them with compliments.
Despite my love for Halloween, I didn’t wear a costume tonight. Instead, I opted for an all-black outfit. Ankle high-heeled boots, high-waisted skinny jeans, cropped leather jacket with a white painted skull on the back, small crossbody bag with necessities, and an orange knit bralette—my sole pop of colour.
Just to be safe, I pocketed my signature black ski mask.
If Initiation Night went south, there was no way in hell I was risking getting caught, much less recognized. My parents would punish me by revoking my car rights, taking away my credit cards, and turning me into an example for my little brother Emilio. Basically, my life would become hell.
It didn’t matter that I was nineteen.
In my parents’ eyes, I remained a little girl forever.
Hearing a familiar girlish laugh, my attention drew to Darla, who tossed her long raven hair behind her shoulders with a beauty queen smile while a freshman cheerleader spoke to her in an animated fashion.
Darla looked tired, but similar to me, she was trained from a young age to always be sweet and attentive in public. Never allowing the outside world to really see how you’re feeling. Never allowing anyone to see the real you . It was one of the many woes of being a high society daughter.
Knowing Darla, right this moment, she probably wanted to be curled up in bed with a romance novel and a sugary treat, reading about Prince Charming and happily ever afters.
Without breaking her conversation, Darla’s head tilted my way, feeling my gaze on her. Giving me a once-over, she quickly dismissed me as though I was a mere fly on the wall. An inconvenience. Absolutely irrelevant.
It stung more than I’d like to admit. I lost Cade and Darla—two of my pillars—during the summer. Him, for obvious reasons and her, for reasons I still couldn’t fathom.
Due to our mothers running in the same circle, Darla and I met when we were three years old, bonded over Fruit Fantasy Barbies, and instantly became best friends. All my prominent childhood and teenagehood memories were tied with this girl, who’d been like the sister I never had.
Somewhere in the last few months, Darla decided she hated me.
She now treated me like her enemy. It was heartbreaking to see such an amazing friendship crumble to nothing. We knew each other before Callie became part of our group in fourth grade. I once asked the latter if she knew why Darla was acting the way she was, but Callie claimed that Darla no longer spoke to her either…
I never figured out what went wrong between Darla and me, and my ex-best friend refused to speak up.
I tried to mend our bond in the beginning until I realized you couldn’t fix something you never broke. I was sad such a wholesome friendship ended like this, but I was done extending an olive branch.
Shaun wrapped an arm around Darla’s shoulders and whispered something in her ear. She nodded in return. They were getting ready to make their announcement.
This year, Darla and Shaun were the ringleaders. Tradition called for both alumni captains on either teams to lead the night. Since I wanted to actively participate in tonight’s game, I let her run the show with Shaun.
Finally, Darla faced the crowd and cupped her hands around her mouth like a makeshift speakerphone and yelled, “Welcome to St. Victoria’s thirty-fifth annual Initiation Night!”
The foyer rang with loud cheers and boisterous claps.
“We are ecstatic to have everyone here tonight!” Darla said loudly over the crowd’s noise. “As most of you know, Initiation Night was formed decades ago by our predecessors and every year this tradition serves to initiate the newest members of our team into the roster. To belong here, you must embody trust and loyalty. Initiation Night is a test of your character. You will demonstrate trust by working with your teammate to accomplish every dare and you will exemplify loyalty by never speaking to an outsider about this night. Each and every single one of you was chosen for a specific reason: you were deemed worthy. Now it’s up to you to prove that you deserve to be one of us .”
Shaun picked up where Darla left off, his booming voice carrying through the horde. Newcomers listened with rapt attention while people like Callie and me, who’d done this many times, impatiently waited for the game to begin. “Now for the rules. They are simple. One, no phones permitted. Nothing about this night can be documented. Two, no fighting. This is self-explanatory. Three, you are not allowed to break anything on campus. Everything must be left how you found it: in complete fucking pristine condition. The last thing we want is outsiders to piece together what happened tonight. Those who’ve failed to comply with our rules in the past have been penalized and punished in various ways. Don’t force us to make an example out of you.
“As for pranks, anything that isn’t physical or involves breaking shit on campus is fair game.” Shaun’s blue eyes met mine knowingly.
Shaun was what you’d classify as a class clown with a heart of gold. We had a love and hate relationship, but I truly adored him. The last few years of high school were packed with us pulling pranks on each other.
I shook my head at him and mouthed, “Don’t even think about it.”
If he messed around with my chances of winning Initiation Night, I’d smash the windows of his brand-new Rolls Royce.
Shaun gave me a teasing wink in reply and Darla continued their rehearsed speech.
“Tickets to Montardor’s Ravens’ hockey game, two crowns, and your name forever immortalized in the Black Book of Initiation,” she bellowed. “Those are what await our winners. Once the initiation starts, you must see it through. The first ones to finish all their dares win. If you decide to forfeit in the middle of the game, you get kicked off your respective teams. We have no place for quitters here.”
Shocked gasps and murmurs rose around us.
I always thought kicking people off the cheerleading and hockey teams was a bit extreme. But Darla and Shaun insisted we stick with the rules set by our predecessors. In the past, the hockey players had easily influenced Coach Ryan to remove someone off the team. Pure talent wouldn’t keep you on the roster. Not when you didn’t obey St. Victoria’s elites.
Essentially, Initiation Night was sacred to us, the same way enchiladas were sacred to my mamá.
“One last thing. Although this has never happened in the history of Initiation Night, if, for whatever reason, the cops show up…run like hell. Try not to get caught. And should you get caught, you will not breathe a word about what transpired tonight or say the names of those involved,” Shaun added sternly. “Have I made myself clear?”
Low echoes of yeses rang in our circle.
I glanced around and instantly froze, spotting a familiar figure amongst the group of hockey players huddled close to Shaun.
Was it really him ?
My eyes must be playing tricks.
Cade would never show up willingly to Initiation Night.
And it wouldn’t be the first time my traitorous mind conjured up the image of the boy who broke my heart. The one who still held its tattered pieces in his rough palms.
Excitement and fear bubbled in the pit of my stomach. Conflicting feelings were the norm when it came to thoughts of my ex-boyfriend.
I wanted nothing to do with him…yet a small masochistic part of me did want to see him in the flesh.
I forced myself to listen to the rest of the instructions, but all my mind kept chanting was Cade, Cade, Cade .
“Remember, this isn’t just a competition.” Shaun gazed around the circle conspiratorially, his flashlight flickering. “This is a chance to prove yourself worthy of your team and to have a fucking good time!”
Students roared their glee to the rafters, the noise parallel to a crowd in the coliseum.
Initiators pounded their fists against the row of lockers, creating a beat that mimicked the loud bass at a club. It skyrocketed my own excitement.
I loved Initiation Night. Something about it appealed to the adrenaline junkie inside of me. Other high schools were notorious for taking hazing way too far, but we toed between the line of safe and completely insane.
One thing I could do without was the tenebrosity looming over the campus. The lights out at St. Victoria would freak out even the seasoned horror movie loving fiend. It felt like Sister Victoria’s ghost would make an appearance any second.
There was a rumour that Cassidy Johansson, a sophomore in the chess club, fainted last year when she stayed back to clean the crypt during detention. Apparently, she saw Sister Victoria glaring at her from her resting place.
Not a lot scared me, but a one-hundred-plus-year-old ghost roaming the halls of the institute in her habit did. It was said that Sister Victoria and twelve other nuns died in an unforeseen fire, their skeletons buried in the crypt below us.
Apparently, if you paid close attention, you could hear their screams till this day.
Darla asked all the Initiators to leave their phones with Shaun, who held out a brown tote. Everyone lined up to deposit their devices, including Callie, Gavino, and me.
My eyes chased one person after another to confirm if what I’d seen before was a mirage or really Cade. There were many hockey players present…though none of them were him.
Standing behind me, Callie murmured in my ear, “Don’t look now, but Darla’s glaring at you.”
My hackles rose. I waited a few seconds before my eyes flicked over to Darla.
True enough, my ex-best friend glared in my direction.
Seriously, what’s her problem? Won’t speak to me anymore, yet still shoots me daggers with her eyes…
Once all the phones were deposited in the bag, Darla walked around with a chalice filled with red paint. She dipped in her fingers and smeared them along the back of our hands, branding us with the customary mark of the hellhound—the Devil’s very own print. It was something we’d always done since the dawn of Initiation Night, but no one knew the exact reason for it.
When she got to me, I extended my fist with an apathetic look.
“Do you pledge your allegiance?” she demanded blankly.
My jaw tightened. “Yes.”
Cold, brown gaze fixed on me, she scraped the back of my hand with three fingernails. Luckily, she didn’t break any skin. Didn’t mean I was going to let her get away with it.
I snagged her own hand and smeared my mark over the back of hers. “Oopsies.”
She bristled but didn’t say anything, moving on to the next person.
Then Shaun and another player brought forth last season’s hockey championship trophy like it was the Holy Grail. The golden cup brimmed with folded pieces of paper housing the first round of dares and our team numbers.
I plucked one when it was my turn, and Shaun canted his head to get a better look. “What did you get?”
I unfolded the piece of paper and read it.
Team number: 6
The key resides in the land of fiction.
“Huh. That’s quite interesting,” Shaun mumbled cryptically.
I frowned. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
Shaun quickly moved on to the next person without replying.
The low whir of conversation started once again as people matched with their partners. Callie and Gavino let loose surprised chuckles. By some twist of fate, they actually got paired together.
I walked around the foyer aimlessly, trying to find my partner without avail. So far everyone said no when I asked them, “Are you team number six?”
“You have three hours to complete the game,” Darla hollered. “Shaun and I will be waiting right here for the winners.”
Every year, we got away with Initiation Night because Darla’s mom—Diane Hill—was the principal and St. Victoria was the legacy of the Hill women. They practically ruled and owned this establishment since its conversion from motherhouse to high school. Principal Hill willingly chose to turn a blind eye every year during the weekend of Initiation Night. As far as I knew, she had also participated in this tradition during her younger days.
By 3:00 a.m., Initiation Night would be complete. Everything would resume as normal once the weekend was over. No traces of the shenanigans that went on tonight come Monday morning.
Shaun blew a whistle with his fingers. “Good luck!”
Bodies scampered around, jostling my frame until I was pushed against the lockers. The pitter-patter of footsteps echoed as people broke away to start their dares.
Everyone was in pairs, except for me.
“Um, I don’t have a partner,” I drawled, confused.
Gavino and Callie blinked at me. My best friend rubbed my shoulder in comfort and glanced at Darla and Shaun. “How is it possible that Ella has no one?”
Darla ignored us and pretended to busy herself with her phone.
Shaun folded his palms over his cane, shrugging his shoulders almost comically under that ridiculous plague doctor costume. Even in the dark, I felt as though he were watching me with a calculating look. “All forty-two of you were paired. Twenty-one teams. Maybe your partner got a head start?”
“Without me?” I hedged, surprised at my teammate’s audacity if that were really the case.
The ex-captain of the Rangers said slyly, “You never know. Maybe they saw your face, got scared, and ran away.”
I narrowed my eyes at his shitty sense of humour. “Wow. Thanks, Shaun.”
“You’re welcome.”
“We’re going to get started.” Callie added sympathetically, “You’ll be fine, Ella. Don’t worry.”
I was a little peeved to be in this predicament, but at this rate, I’d just have to get started alone.
I gave them what I hoped was an encouraging smile. “All right. Good luck, guys.”
Not that they’d need it since I’d be winning Initiation Night.
With or without my partner.
Callie and Gavino ran away with quick waves, murmuring about their dare, while Shaun’s eyes drilled into mine. “You got this, Ella.”
Sighing, I headed down the hallway and shone my flashlight over my first dare again.
The key resides in the land of fiction.
I only had to ponder for a few more seconds before it clicked in my mind.
Then I ran headlong for the library on the second floor.