Page 55 of Cruel (Brutal Academy)

I aimed my gun, but lowered it when I saw Tina and Angie.

"Looks like we weren't the only ones who thought to come here." Tina stepped past us and picked up a weapon of her own.

"Definitely not." Zachary entered next, followed by another handful of students.

"This went from a party to a battle," Parker remarked. "The battle for Brutham Academy." He put a fist to his chest. "They can take our school over our cold, dead bodies."

Chloe made a derisive sound in the back of her throat. "They can have the fucking school. I just want to get out of here alive."

"Me too," I agreed. Loyalty was one thing, getting killed to save our school was another. "Zachary, those aren't friends of yours?"

"I was going to ask the same question," he replied. "I thought you might be getting desperate, so you called in reinforcements."

"Nope, nothing to do with us," I said. "I guess this means we're on the same side, for now." If that was what it took to get out of this alive, then I'd do it. But I wouldn’t turn my back on him or Chloe. Vice versa, no doubt.

"What's the plan?" Dane asked Slade. "Do we take them on or get the fuck out of here?" He winced at the sound of another few gunshots.

"You can get the fuck out of here if you want," Slade said. "I'm not going to stand by and let them kill everyone in the school."

"That's noble, but you might get yourself killed," Dane said.

Slade shrugged one muscular shoulder. "I'm not that easy to kill. Are you? Imagine the gratitude you'll get from the students’ families."

Dane considered for a moment, then aimed his gun at Zachary's head. "Did you drug Chloe?"

Zachary didn't flinch. "No, I promise I did not. The twin assholes engineered that."

"Guilty," Parker said. "Now, are we going to stand here talking or are we going to go and kill some motherfuckers?"

"We could kill some motherfuckers right now," Dane said. He swivelled his upper body and aimed at Parker's head.

"Pull the trigger and we’ll find out how well a rocket launcher works at close range," Hunter warned.

I sighed. "You all have big cocks, okay? Let's go before there's no one left alive."

I turned and stepped toward the doorway. I half expected to hear shots behind me, but I didn't. A few grunts of dissatisfaction, but then everyone filed out behind me.

"Men."

I glanced over to see Chloe walking beside me. I actually managed a half-smile.

"We can't really blame them for not trusting each other," I said. "We haven't been very good role models in that department."

"If you're trying to—" she started.

"I'm not trying to do anything," I whispered. "Just stay alive. After that, we can go back to being at each other's throats."

She didn't answer for a minute or two. "I'm not going to let myself get killed to convenience you, just so you know."

I laughed softly. "Me either. I wouldn't want to disappoint you by taking that away from you. I'm sure you'd prefer the satisfaction of killing me yourself."

"Exactly," she replied. "I'm sure you're thinking the same thing about me."

What I was actually thinking was, how did we get to this point? When everything was said and done, she was still my twin sister. We must have been close once. Maybe before we were born. I was almost certain neither of us tried to loop an umbilical cord around the other's throat.

I grimaced. If Dad was here, he'd probably tell me that was exactly what I should have done. If I had, it would have changed every aspect of my life. What would it have been like growing up without my twin? Boring, at worst.

"Just don't go getting yourself killed tonight, okay?" I said.

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