Page 148 of Feed Your Fiends

He puts another shot glass to my lips, and I drink.

“Go dance for us.”

For him and his sea of Stassi’s.

The music changes to a combination of classical and trap music that’s jarring at first. Everything is jarring.

“It’ll feel good,” he assures me.

I think he could assure anyone that anything would feel good.

But for how long?

What am I doing?

My blood warms at the liquor, and I like the rush, the feeling ofsomething.

I let the girls pull at Bae’s turtleneck, and I don a corset behind their backs. With the wig and the costume, I do feel like a completely different person. No, like a beast ready to join the menagerie.

I don’t know what the fuck I’m doing as I dance. I don’t know if it’s cute or cringy as I twirl and leap to the music, with trays of shots balanced on each palm like I’m auditioning, too. My mix of flexible ballet moves and guzzling shot after shot has the girlies hyping me up, though it’s Hale’s look of approval as I join his circus that makes me give it my all.

The club’s filling up, and through my haze, I recognise faces from Beaulieu for the back-to-black event. Some are shocked to see me, others impressed, others livid, and Beaussip’s heated comment section comes zooming back to me. But before I can figure out if they want to maul or praise me, Hale guides me to one of the gilded, golden cages and locks me safely inside with a half-full bottle.

Those frozen pools watch as I ascend to the ceiling where no one can reach me. Where I’m alone without actually being alone. I grip the bars, watching the ocean of people below me move and ripple with the music, and I truly feel like the little dove he always said I was. But he isn’t here, and he isn’t the one that trapped me.

Still, I feel like I’m waiting for him to free me, to transfer me to his cage instead, but those black abysses never appear in the crowd. But every time I look down, I find those baby blues looking up at me. It’s like Hale only sees me tonight because I’m the only one that sees him. Because for all the kisses he’s getting to his throat and dick, he’s transfixed on the cage, my cage Stassi had lept from.

I let the music take over again and sway to the beat. Song after song. If I exhaust myself, I can rest, and if I rest, I can dream. I can have a nightmare that’s more bearable than this one.

Below the floor is nothing but a moving sea of gold, and I keep waiting for a speck of black to invade it.

And it does come, but with a blanket of darkness.

Elle

“Rie!” I scream hoarsely when I blink awake. I pry my cheek from the bars of the cage and feel the deep indents marking my skin as I massage it with the back of my hand. My muscles protest as I stretch my curled legs, and my stomach roils as I sit up. “Rie!”

The cage swings, and my head swings with it. I’m still dangling above the club, but the sea of blondes and Beaulieu students are gone, though a few stray blonde wigs remain as evidence that they were here. Through the balconies’ French doors, I can see that it’s pitch black out.

“Hale!”

I hear Rie Rie’s heels before I see her.

“You’re still here?” she asks, blinking up at me behind her thick lenses.

I can’t believe they just freaking left me up here. Then again… I can. Hale put me in the cage because he sensed the split vibe of the crowd. Maybe he thought he was protecting me. Hale Pierrot caring about me, even a crumb, wasn’t on my bingo card.

“Where’s Hale?” I croak. My throat’s parched despite all the drinks I’ve downed. Water, I need water, and I need to get out of this damn corset so that my ribs can expand enough for me to breathe.

“He’s hosting a private event tonight, remember?” she says, pulling a lever, and the cage begins its slow descent.

“He mentioned something about branching out, yeah.” I freeze. “Wait,tonight?He said the private event was tomorrow night.”

“Itistomorrow night. You partied into the morning and slept the day away. Like I said, I didn’t know you were here.”

“Wait,” I rub my eyes, and they immediately begin to burn. My fingers are sticky, covered in some dried ultra-high-proof alcohol. I try to blink away the sting, my eyelashes sticky from sweat and tears. “Who’s working the private event with him, and why didn’t he wake me up?”

“You saw the new workers. Well, the ones that passed the first round, anyway.”

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