Page 37 of Snitches and Serpents

He glances down at the rats, as if he has to double check to see if what just happened actually happened. Then he drags his gaze up to me.

Cocking my head, I flash him a vicious smile. “After all, vermin belong with vermin.”

Then, before he can retort or shoot me in the head or something, I spin on my heel and storm off.

Lightning pulses through my whole soul, and I have to stop myself from trying to just leap up and soar towards the sky.

A laugh bubbles from my throat. And this time, I don’t stop it. Grinning, I practically skip all the way back to my dorm.

I feel invincible.

It’s absolutely intoxicating.

And suddenly, I hate Tristan a little less.

Yes, he put a rat in my bed and I still want to murder him for that. Yes, he has now probably ruined my chances at making friends. At least with the people in my dorm. And yes, I hate his incessant bullying.

But there is also something about him that forces me to push myself out of the very restrictive box that I have been living inside all my life. Something that pushes me past my own limits. Or the limits I thought I had.

And I hate to admit it, but I quite like that.

14

TRISTAN

As opposed to Elle, I’m no stranger to finding rats indoors. Dead or otherwise. They often snuck into our house back when I was younger. But I still took three showers and washed my shirt twice after that little stunt Elle pulled today.

God damn, she actually threw them in my face. My face. I didn’t see that coming.

In fact, I’m shocked that she even retaliated at all. I thought she was just going to crumble. To sink down on the floor and bawl her eyes out. And then maybe to come and beg me to stop.

But instead, she got angry. She stormed across half of the residential area to throw the rats right back at me. Vermin belong with vermin.

A huff of amusement, and grudging approval, escapes my chest.

Because fucking hell, I can’t deny that I am a little impressed.

Up ahead, Elle finally comes out of the store she went into twenty minutes ago.

I washed my shirt to get any traces of rat off it, but she must have simply thrown her bed linen away, because when I snuck over to her dorm after my three showers, I found her striding towards a campus shop that sells sheets and things like that. Apparently, it took her twenty minutes to browse through the meager collection and make a decision. Which should have annoyed me. But instead, I’m grateful. It gave me the time I needed to get my head back on straight and make a plan.

Leaning against the wall in the shadows of a building across the street, I watch as Elle walks back out through the door and into the gloomy afternoon light with a colorful paper bag full of bed linen in her right hand. White clouds still cover the sky, painting the entire area in bleak hues, which makes that bag look ridiculously bright in comparison.

Elle glances up and down the street before she crosses it and then starts back towards her dorm. Or I presume so anyway, since she is walking back the same way she came. I study her for a few seconds.

She’s wearing a hoodie, of all things. In all the years I’ve known her, I don’t think I’ve ever seen her wear a hoodie out in public. But maybe she doesn’t care as much what she looks like right now. Not after she has no doubt spent the past two hours scrubbing red paint off her door and meticulously cleaning her room. Or maybe she was simply cold because the afternoon is growing late and the sun is blocked by the clouds.

Still, it’s an odd sight.

But it gave me a great idea. Originally, I had planned to just confront her and threaten her a little. But seeing her in that hoodie gave me an even better idea, which I thankfully had the time to properly plan while Elle spent twenty minutes picking out bedsheets.

Pushing off from the wall, I start back down the road that I came from so that I can circle around her. I’ve already decided on the perfect location. I just need to get there first.

I jog between the white stone buildings until I reach the narrow alley that Elle will need to pass through to get back to her dorm. Technically, she could simply walk around the cluster of buildings, which is what most people do, but she used this shortcut on the way to the shop, so I have gambled that she will do the same on the way back as well.

When I reach it, it’s empty. Gray light from the overcast sky barely reaches the alley now that the sun has started slanting towards the horizon. I draw myself up along the wall right outside the mouth of the alley. And then I wait.

After about two minutes, footsteps echo between the white stone walls. I steal a discreet glance into the alley.

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