Page 32 of Dead End

Cal met Jason’s eyes over my head with a friendly smirk. He stuck his right, ring-clad hand out for a shake. “Hey, man, we didn’t really get to meet yesterday. I’m Calvin.”

His hand hung there in the air, even past the point of being awkward, but he held his ground. I whirled, pinning Jason with a glare. “Stop being a dick. Remember what I said about getting eaten alive?” Jason wouldn’t look at me, keeping his gaze fixed on Cal.

I turned back around as Cal said to me, “How about I give you a tour?” He lowered his hand and stuck his elbow out, indicating that I should loop mine through.

I considered his offer for a moment, weighing my options. I wanted to stick near the guys, but they were being dicks, and it was only our first day here... I didn’t know how much more of their taunts and jabs I could take today. Maddie nudged me when I was taking too long to respond.

“That sounds great,” I said, looping my arm through his.

I felt Jessica crawl out from under my hair, and she made her way towards my ear, whispering, “Wolf boy looks like he’s about to lose his lunch.” There was a giggle in her voice, but it made me flit my eyes over at Freddy. Wolf boy?

“That’s not happening,” Freddy grumbled, stepping forward and squaring his shoulders.

“Excuse you?” I asked angrily.

“You’re not going anywhere with this fucking creep,” he said without looking at me. What was it with these guys talking to me as if I wasn’t even there, as if what I wanted didn’t even matter?

“What’s your problem, Freddy? I thought you’d jump at the chance to get rid of the freaky girl,” I said sarcastically.

Cal cleared his throat. “I believe the lady can make up her own mind, as I assume none of you have claimed her for yourself yet.”

Freddy looked ready to argue but never got that far. I practically choked, but Maddie didn’t even try to hide her sudden cackle. I shot her a glare as she slapped a hand over her mouth.

“You guys are all on drugs if you think any of that shit makes sense. Nobody is claiming me.” I looked at Cal apologetically. “Ignore them. They actually hate me and love to torture me whenever they possibly can. I’d seriously love a tour.” I went to move forward, but a strong hand caught my upper arm.

“Over my dead body, I’ll eat…alive.” Norman’s tone was scary enough, but when his lips didn’t move, I realized he was definitely holding the real violence back. His mind was like a raging hellfire right now.

Why me? Why did this keep happening to me?

“Oh, boy, here we go...” Maddie mumbled, circling around to Cal’s other side. I saw her loop her arm through his and smile. I could tell she thought he was hot, and secretly, I hoped her charm would get him off my back. Four guys to worry about were more than enough.

I looked up into Norman’s darkening green eyes. His jaw was ticking, and the muscles in his forearms were straining. Something about him just looked...feral. “You’re not going off with him, October.”

I sucked in a sharp breath. He must be upset if he was using my actual name, but he was being ridiculous. “What’s wrong, vampy? Scared of being alone in the big bad castle?”

“You know that’s not what I meant,” he warned. “You don’t know him.”

“Exactly. Maybe I feel like fixing that.” I tried to tug myself away, but his fingers only tightened. “Let go, Norman. You have no right to tell me who I can hang out with. Apparently, this is all my fault, right? So why don’t you start acting like it?”

“I know what we said was...” He frowned, tripping over his words. “He’s dangerous,” is all he ended up saying.

“And you’re not?” I raised a brow, my eyes fixating on the little black veins that started to creep under the skin around his eyes. “Look at yourself, Norman. Look at Jason with his fucking tongue, and Michael with the snake and... I don't even know what’s going on with Freddy.” I gave Freddy a wary glance.

“What the fuck did I do?” he growled, but we ignored him.

“That’s different,” Norman said.

“I don’t think so.” I laughed, jerking my arm from his grasp. He let go before I hurt myself. “Leave me the fuck alone, Norman. I’ll see you guys in class. Try not to start any brawls with the locals. I know it’s hard for you to hold in that much testosterone.”

Maddie snorted, and Jessica giggled. Looking up at Cal, he looked positively delighted. I turned away from the four seething men and let Cal lead Maddie and me away towards the looming castle—I mean, school.

Cal showed us around campus, and the journey took about an hour. Thank goodness we’d been early for the school day—or was it a school night? Whatever it was, we were early, and it gave us time to really take it all in.

We started on the right side of the campus, where most of the core academic classes were apparently held, and when I say core academics, I don't mean math, science, and grammar. I must have read and reread my schedule at least fifty times, but the words refused to morph into something I recognized. I saw things like potion class, hex readiness, combat arts, creature taming, and realm history—at least that one sounded somewhat normal, I suppose.

I couldn’t believe I was standing here trying to convince myself that any part of this was normal. Not the town, nor anyone in it. It was a quaint little place, if you overlooked the ghosts and ghouls. Still, it wasn’t the Sunset Hollow I'd grown up in. We’d been here a week, and I was still having a hard time wrapping my head around the fact that this was our new reality. I was pretty sure the guys were convinced we’d be going back home, but I knew better. The aunties were setting us up for the long haul. The truth was, I didn’t think I could ever go back to living with the mortals, knowing all of this was here.

I’d never tell the others this, but I was sort of... excited? Yeah, I was, actually. I was excited to find myself out of the hellhole that was Sunset Hollow. That town had been a nightmare for so long that I hadn’t really let it sink in just how miserable I was. Midnight Hollow seemed to be the polar opposite of my hometown. Everything I used to be ridiculed for loving is now considered normal and expected.

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