Page 99 of Depraved Desires

He helped torture you, tried to kill you, and helped kill your friend. You’re just going to forget all about it because he started being nice?

The bitch did have a point. Sighing, I made my way toward the opposite side of the room and halted short of my bedside table. Opening the drawer, I reached in and retrieved the small bottle of pills.

Haliperidol.

Commonly treated for: Schizophrenia.

Well, he definitely didn’t have schizophrenia, so the drug should affect him more quickly. I shoved the pills into my bagand secured them within it before returning my bag to my shoulders.

The walk to the academy was monotonous. The icy air bit into my skin, sending a current of chills through my body despite my jacket doing its best to warm me. Students littered the parking lot, hanging out near their vehicles and talking amongst each other. Anxiety clawed at my throat. Having these pills in my bag felt equivalent to bringing a loaded gun to school.Nerve-wracking.

My stomach flipped with unease. If I even attempted to eat this morning, I knew my body would reject it and I’d be hovered over the toilet vomiting it all back up. Deciding that’s not how I wanted to spend the first half of my day, I headed to my first class—Monroe’s.

There were only a few students here when I arrived. Nameless faces I’d seen in passing, but no one who particularly stood out. They all seemed to know me, though, because as I made my way through the classroom to find my seat, everyone stared, looking at me as if I were a ghost. In a way, I suppose I was.

Shrugging my bag off my shoulders, I dropped down into my old seat. My gaze drifted around the room until Monroe was in my direct line of sight. His attention was fixed on a stack of papers sprawled out before him, his jaw tight, and his back to his chair. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to know that he was avoiding me. It was all in his posture.

I suppose waking up in bed with one of your students was a huge no-no. Good thing I stopped his advances before it could escalate.

People chatted quietly around me as more people trickled into the room. It wasn’t a huge surprise that I was back. I had gone to the cafeteria with the guys on one or two occasions since mydisappearance.

When the bell finally rang, I bent down to retrieve my things, laying them out on the desk in front of me. The noise in the room thickened and continued to grow louder as the class filled.

Foster didn’t even bother to spare me a glance when he entered, making a beeline for his desk that was positioned diagonally from mine.

I’d only been here since the end of September, but it felt like a lifetime. So many things have happened. So manymemories. At one point, those were things I wished I could forget. Hell, some still were.

My attention was snagged by Gia, who sank down into the seat in front of me. She wasted no time, turning so that our eyes immediately clashed. A look of surprise decorated her features as she stared back at me, eyeing me as if she’d seen a ghost.

“I-I heard you were back,” she whispered. “But I didn’t think it was true.”

I saw her in the cafeteria when Collin took me, but she’d been too distracted. I had wanted to run to her, to tell her how much I missed her, and that I was alive.

She blew out a breath and shook her head, not waiting for a response before continuing. “They found two bodies in the lake. I was worried that…” She trailed off, a grimace capturing her features.

Twobodies were found?

“H-have they been identified?” I questioned, knowing deep down that one of them had to be Raven.

Gia shook her head again. “They were unable to. Something about them being in the water for too long and having missing pieces of their bodies.” Her nose scrunched up in disgust. “I don’t remember exactly what they said, but who would do something like that?”

I could think of a few people who would do something like that. Absentmindedly, my eyes drifted over to Foster. His backwas ramrod straight, and even though we were talking in low tones, he was close enough that he could probably overhear us.

“I don’t know,” I lied. If she knew anything about this, it could potentially put her in danger, just like it had done with Raven. Knowledge got her killed, and then it nearly got me killed. Gia needed to stay as far away from this as possible.

Gia glanced around the room, making sure no one was paying any attention to us before she leaned toward me, dropping her voice even lower. “Where have you been? What happened?” Her brown eyes were glazed with desperation, the need to know what happened to me and Raven. It felt fucked up keeping this from her, but she didn’t need to know. Not if the price of her knowing was her life.

Guilt clawed at my insides as I worked to form my next words. Lying was something I despised. Glancing down at my hands that were folded on top of my desk, I released a shaky breath. “I-I don’t remember. I woke up by the lake, completely drenched and naked.” The lie tasted bitter on my tongue. “Rocky found me and took me to Monroe’s where I’ve been staying.”

Gia’s eyes widened. “You weren’t—no one…” A nervous breath slipped past her lips, and she shook her head, trying to form coherent words. “You weren’traped, were you?”

“I don’t think so.”

The flashback attempted to weasel its way into my mind, but I forced it back to the recesses of my brain with all my might and plastered on a fake, reassuring smile that I hoped she couldn’t see through.

Before she could say anything else, Monroe made his way to the front of the room and started taking attendance. Afterwards, he went over some shit that the class had been working on during my absence. His voice was monotone and bored, which only aided in making me bored and causing my gaze to wander around the room.

I had this period with FosterandJessica. Luckily, the she-devil sat in the very back of the room, so we usually didn’t have to interact or see each other much.

---