Page 4 of Degradation
‘Hey, you’re pretty good,’ I tell her a few minutes later and, when I next look over at her, she’s smiling wide at the screen, her feet moving back and forth almost in excitement as she drives.
I grin at her profile. She doesn’t look at me, but I think I’m going to like having a sister.
Chapter One
DAISY
It’s cold, much colder than I realized. My feet ache with it and my toes are numb. I’m still dizzy from the alcohol Marcus poured down my throat. I fell and scraped my legs at some point since I ran, too, but I don’t remember exactly when.
My grand idea to leave Richmond was at the forefront of my mind when I fled the party, but Plan B: ‘Barista Daisy In City Far Away From Here’ was always half-cocked and, in my drink-addled brain, it seemed much moredoable. Now that I’m sobering up, I know that in the cold hard light of real life, I have no way of going anywhere.
Jesus, I don’t even have shoes on!
I huddle in the doorway of the dorm Lu lives at, shivering and trying to think of something. It’s been hours, I’m pretty sure, but I can’t see the clocktower in the Quad from here, so I have no idea what time it is.
She might be back by now. Maybe she can hide me from the Blanks, from The Heath, while I figure out what I’m going to do next.
I try all the entry buzzers on the entryway, but no one answers or lets me in, so I hide the shadows out of sight, wrapping my arms around myself tightly as I shiver, both from cold and fear.
A guy leaves the building a few minutes later, staggering into the open. I slink out of the bushes behind him while he slurs into his phone that he’s on his way.
I catch the door before it clicks closed and enter, breathing a sigh of relief when warmth begins to permeate my skin. I pull down the stupidly short dress that keeps riding up, cursing Lu’s costume choices. I wouldn’t be so cold if I was dressed as my original Viking idea. But I suppose it did help with getting that guy, David, to drop his guard around me, or, more accurately, my cleavage, because now I know that John was there that night, that he was driving the car.
That fucker killed my mom and then covered it up, I know it. And, even though my stalker scares me, without him, I wouldn’t have even known there was anything fishy about her death.
Not for the first time, I wonder who it is, and why they care. Could it be one of John’s house staff. Stevens, maybe, or one of the maids. Them seeming more masculine could be a double bluff. I should go to the house and see what I can find out.
Except I can’t, I recall, because John is sending me back to England. I tense with anger even as I shiver with the remnants of the cold. He’s going to get away with it because I’ll be stuck in an institution where no one will listen to me and there won’t be anyone to uncover the truth. If my stalker could, they probably would have already. It was up to me.
Understanding my failure hits me hard, stealing the air from my lungs, and I have to steady myself against the wall for a few seconds.
I need Lu to either hide me or investigate without me. But how can I ask that of her? It’s too dangerous.
As if I needed yet another reason to not be taken back to The Heath. I steel myself. I have to make sure it doesn’t happen.
I check that there’s no one around before I slip through the building. I climb to the next floor. Despite rallying myself downstairs, I begin to feel more and more desperate with every step. What if she’s not there? I can’t stay here roaming the hallways until morning. What if there are more guys like Marcus and his friends who catch me alone...
I try to push away the thoughts of their hands on me, of their threats and laughs, the way they smelled and my terror.
My left ankle is beginning to throb, and I focus on that instead. I hadn’t realized I hurt it, but now that the adrenaline is wearing off, I think I must have gone over on it at some point. Walking is getting harder.
I look down at it. It’s definitely swollen.
I get to Lu’s room, and I give her door a soft knock. She doesn’t answer. I put my ear to it, but don’t hear anything from inside.
A door opens behind me without warning, and I freeze like an animal in the road.
Two boys come out into the corridor and stare at me, their eyes flitting over me.
‘Hey, isn’t that?—’
‘Daisy?’
It takes me a moment to recognize the pair. Travis and Mich. I’ve seen them a few times since we met on my first day here. They’re members of Dagorhir so they’ve been at battles and practice, and sometimes they hang out in Grinder, but we haven’t spoken much. Mich got me a coffee the other day, though, and he smiles at me sometimes. He’s been nicer than he was at first, when he and Travis tried to turn me away from their table at the sign-up fair.
I feel a lot more myself now that I’m somewhere a little familiar and not sodrunk, but when I open my mouth to speak, I can’t make a sound. I don’t even know what I’d say even if I could talk. Instead, tears fill my eyes. I can’t stop them.
‘Are you okay?’ Mich asks, seeming genuinely concerned.
