Page 82 of Soulless Rivalry

I wasn’t hungry anymore and simply went back to my room.

KONSTANTIN

I enteredElyssa’s dorm silently, careful not to wake her or the girls living on the same floor. The whole room was plunged into darkness; the only source of light came from the moon outside her window. It was full and particularly high in the sky tonight.

Shedding my shoes and clothes, I got in bed next to her, wearing only sweatpants. I wasn’t here for sex, all I wanted was to hold her. Today had been fucked up and I knew she must’ve had a day from hell.

Elyssa must’ve been exhausted because it was barely eleven at night and she was already deep in slumber. Usually, she would be reading Arnold Hangmire’s journal, researching The Order, or studying around this time. I tried calling and texting her, telling her to meet me in our usual spot, but when no answer came through, I decided I’d check on her myself.

Wrapping my arms around her lithe body, I brought her closer to my chest, feeling like I could finally breathe easier now that she was next to me.

It was strange, those emotions she brought out of me. With her, I felt everything more strongly: attachment, obsession, anger, attraction… she took the few things I could feel and multiplied them tenfold. She put my mind at ease and made me feel normal for once, and the more time I spent with her, the less I could imagine myself ever living without her.

Slowly, she started waking up, eyes fluttering open, long lashes dusting the top of her cheeks. When she felt me behind her, she relaxed in my hold, her hand coming to rest over mine on her stomach.

“Are you okay,lebedochka?”

She sniffled, burrowing her face against her pillow further.

“The last thing I said to her was to get out of here. That I never wanted to see her again,” she whispered, her voice broken, and I felt like something was keeping me from breathing.

I could feel her pain, her hurt. I hated the fact that she was so sad and there wasn’t anything I could do about it. Grasping her hand in mine, I squeezed once, sending her strength as she told me her mom used to do. Elyssa turned around in my arms, flinging her arms around my neck and hugging me tight. My own went around her waist as I breathed in her sweet scent, kissing the top of her head softly.

She cried quietly and I held her until she fell back asleep, her heart beating against mine.

The call came in around one in the morning. Her phone rang on her bedside table, waking us both. When she saw the caller ID, she grabbed it fast, pressing the green button and bringing it to her ear. I sat up next to her, watching her intently.

“Hello,” she breathed, the hand holding the phone shaking.

Lorenzo’s voice echoed from the device, clearly crying and distraught.

“T—they found her body, Lyssa. Mia is dead.”

My little swan crumbled down, broken and in pain.

ELYSSA

All hell broke loose at the Academy after the news of Mia’s death. She had been found in the woods, hanging from a tree. A suicide, they said.

Or, that was the official report anyway, but something in me refused to believe it. We never know what people go through internally, Mia could have looked fine from the outside while losing it on the inside, but something in me knew it wasn’t the case. My gut was telling me that Mia had been murdered.

And the Academy was hiding it again, disguising it as a suicide to pacify parents and fool them into thinking there weren’t people on campus sacrificing women to an old deity.

But it wasn’t everything.

Traces of cocaine had been found in her blood, too. Her parents were coming down today to get her body, and then we were all going back to New York together. Exam week had been canceled and everyone would be getting another week off for Christmas break. The school had explained that a psychological cell would be opened as soon as we came back, to avoid ‘tragedies’ such as what happened to Mia.

To say I was angry would be an understatement. I was livid with how the school handled this, with the fact that there hadn’teven been a proper investigation. The fact that Mia had had drug abuse problems seemed enough proof for them to call it a suicide.

I asked, no, demanded to see her body because I knew deep down that I would find the symbol of The Order on her, but they categorically refused, claiming only direct family had access to it. I tried telling Lorenzo he had to request access but my cousin only broke down in sobs, refusing to see her like that.

For now, the only thing giving me the strength to hold on was anger. The fury coursing through my veins whenever I thought of what they did to her, made me want to retch. I wanted to cry, I wanted to grieve, but I couldn’t. Not only because my body couldn’t seem to function like it normally would, but also because of the anguish going back home brought me.

I finished putting the last of my things inside my suitcase, just numbly going through the motions when someone knocked on my door. As I opened it, I felt like I might faint at first, thinking I’d seen a ghost.

Mia had been the literal copy of her mother. They shared the same hair, the same eyes, same complexion. I had no doubt she would have looked just like Aunt Matilda with time… but that thought didn’t matter anymore.

Tears flooding her cheeks, Aunt Matilda pulled me into a bear hug, holding me tight and sobbing in my arms. I was hurting but, clearly, that was nothing compared to what a mother who knew she would have to bury her child soon must have felt like.

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