Page 82 of Tis the Season to be Bullied

We don’t encounter anyone else on our way to the exit. Whoever had tried to enter the bathroom had disappeared. Maybe one of the younger guys had wet their bed or something. That kind of shit happens a lot around here.

Apollo’s waiting for us at the door leading to the northern grounds. Soon as I give him a nod, he runs to the crypt.

I wait a few seconds, and then slap Reuben on the shoulder not currently occupied by the bound and gagged girl we’d almost fucked in the showers.

Trinity lifts her head anyway and glares amber daggers at me.

Fuck, but she’s beautiful, even with Reuben’s belt between her teeth. Probablyespeciallybecause she’s fucking gagged.

In class she’d been meek and submissive—the perfect prey. But she showed me her teeth tonight, if only for a moment. It had roused the animal in all of us. Self-control, morals, revenge—for a few minutes nothing existed except our new toy.

Will I ever get to play with her again?

I grab her chin and brush her skin with my thumb.

Not a chance. It’s too easy to lose control around her. Too easy to make a mistake. We haven’t gotten this far for someone like her to fuck this all up.

Reuben breaks that brief contact as he steps forward and breaks into a trot. Cass and I stay behind, waiting for him to get clear.

“Ever wonder what’ll happen when Rube gets mad?” Cassius murmurs as he squeezes into the doorway beside me. “I mean like really, really mad?”

“Like when he comes face to face with his Ghost?”

Of course I’ve wondered. That imaginary scene of chaotic violence has been the focus of some of my best jerk-off sessions.

“Yeah. Like that,” Cassius says before jogging across the grounds.

I follow after a beat.

Reuben is only a few yards from the crypt entrance when we arrive. When he throws open the door, there’s nothing but pitch black beyond. Apollo hurries forward and holds open the door for me, giving me a mock salute when I step through.

He doesn’t follow us inside.

His job is to make sure we aren’t disturbed.

Reuben’s already halfway down the library’s easternmost aisle when I reach the basement level of the crypt. Cassius trails him, toying with Trinity’s hair as they walk. People come down here so rarely there’s a layer of dust over everything. That’s why we make sure to tread where we least suspect someone will notice our footprints.

Over the months and years we’ve been enrolled at Saint Amos—and especially after I got my first set of keys as a teacher— we’ve managed to carve out a space of our own. Back here, far out of sight, we’ve arranged a few of the bookshelves so it looks as if the library ends a few yards short.

The ground floor of the crypt is for short meetings. This place, on the other hand…it’s our nest. A sacred space no oneknows exists. The only way in is through a gap hidden by a drape.

Reuben stands there now, holding Trinity’s upper arm.

Now that she’s back on her feet, Trinity seems to be a touch calmer than before. Or it could be the books. They have a calming effect on us too. The same hush seems to fill every library in the world fills this one too.

“Go ahead,” I tell Reuben as I grasp Trinity’s other arm. “We’re right behind you.”

He shrugs his shoulders, pushes aside the thick drape, and miraculously makes himself disappear into that dark sliver.

Cassius follows, and then sticks out a hand for Trinity. She resists a little at first, and then throws me a furious look when I make the kind of soothing sounds you use to calm a skittish horse. With a chuckle, I feed her through the gap, Cassius pulling her from the other side.

Unlike us, she goes through easily.

Tooeasily.

If we don’t pay attention, she could escape.

Good thing Apollo’s keeping watch upstairs then.

---