Page 11 of Misfit Monsters
They’re waiting for me to scurry out so they can laugh at me for failing.
My legs balk at the thought of playing the horrible game they made up. If I do what they want… what will they try to make me do next?
In my hesitation, the man lets out a snarl. “Can’t you hear? Get the fuck away!”
With the words, another waft of emotion washes over me. Not rage this time, but fear that’s not mine, as suffocatingly sour as a flood of cheap whiskey.
This being… is afraid ofme?
That can’t be right, but I know what I’m tasting.
I don’t like the idea of abandoning a being in some kind of distress any more than I want to submit myself to my other dormmates’ judgment.
I should show them I won’t fail. I can be kind toeveryonehere. I can find ways to be happy no matter where I am.
I back up another step, but this time toward the bed. Sitting down on the mattress, I keep my hands raised and my voice softly bright. “I promise I’ll keep my distance. I’m not going to bother you at all. I just need a place where I can sleep.”
The man could lunge at me, and I’m not totally sure what I’d do then. But he stays where he is, confusion trickling through the unpalatable mix of anger and fear.
“You’dbetterstay away from me,” he warns, and vanishes back into the shadows.
I lower my hands to rest on the bedspread. My pulsekeeps hammering away, but a knot of resolve solidifies in my gut.
These are the circumstances I’ve been given. I’m lucky to be here at all, so I’ll just have to make the best of it.
I made Gloss upset—she thought I deserved this.
She doesn’t know how much I can endure. I won’t let her or any of the others shake me.
After all, I’ve lived through way worse before.
4
Raze
My new, incredibly unwelcome roommate appears to have fallen asleep.
How the fuck is that even possible? Doesn’t she feel doom breathing down her neck?
All I have to do is walk through the school halls in physical form, and the other students scatter in my wake. Even the instructors tense up when they meet my eyes, despite the contacts I conjure to stifle my gaze’s killing power.
But I outright demanded that this little ball of vivid fabric and hair get out, with all the brutality I could put into my stance and voice, and she just… sat down on the other bed and proceeded to ignore me.
It doesn’t make sense.
I thought it had to be an act. She’d break down eventually in shivers or tears and take off the way I expected.
Instead, she’s lain down on the mattress, pulled the blanket up, and taken a nap.
She really is asleep. My predator instincts pick up the shallow rhythm of her breaths, the slowed thump of her heart.
Somehow, even with me lurking in the shadows, she relaxed enough to drift off.
Maybe she wasreallytired? There’s no way of knowing what she was doing before the administrators caught her.
Not that she seems particularly dangerous.
I didn’t get close enough to tell for sure, but she looks so short her head would barely reach halfway up my chest. Even under the blanket, the slopes of her shoulders, breasts, belly, and hips give the impression of total softness.
