Chapter 19

When Jess met the others at their unofficial gathering point by the school gates, she almost fell over her own feet.

Pausing to take in the unusual scene, she heard a scrape of feet as Ricky stopped beside her.

"What the ever-living fuck?" he cried, echoing Jess's thoughts perfectly.

"What?" Damien asked with a smirk. He scratched his face, jangling the metal chain that hung from the leash in his hand.

On the other end of the leash was a girl.

'She's so beautiful,' Jess gasped. 'Is this Annabelle Ross?'

With long, raven hair, skin like ivory and deep red lips, she was the living image of Snow White. Well... if Snow White were a fishnet wearing goth with tattoos and piercings.

She knelt at Damien’s feet like a dog, wearing a skirt so short every male student who walked by took a less than sneaky look.

As if the situation couldn't get more weird and awkward, a guy pushed through Jess and Ricky to get a look.

"Belle! What the actual fuck?" the guy shouted. His longish, pink-tinted hair was flying in every direction as he shook his head in disbelief. "What on Earth is this? You don't come home for days! You don't answer your phone!"

Damien, being significantly smaller than the newcomer, took a step back as the guy advanced.

Annabelle scrambled after him, clinging to his leg.

"Go away, Drew," she demanded in a stern voice. "I don't wanna be with you anymore."

"You're dumping me for him?!" Drew screamed. "Why?!"

"I—" Belle stuttered. Her face crumpled, as though she might cry. She turned and buried her face into Damien's leg. "I want to be with him! Just go away. Please."

The jaded ex turned his attention to Damien, face twisted in pain fueled rage. "You little shit, I don't know what you did to her, but I'm going to fucking—"

"No!" the girl cried.

Damien looked like he was about to run when Ricky grabbed the boyfriend by the back of his neck and shoved him to the ground.

"You didn't apologize for shoving me and my girl," Ricky said.

The ex-boyfriend turned to Ricky with a scowl. "Oh, get fuc—"

He didn't manage to finish his sentence, cut short by Ricky's punch. It was a first for Jess, seeing someone get punched up close. Instead of being sickened by the wet thud of knuckles on flesh, she was impressed by the speed and power in Ricky's arm.

'Am I his girl?' Jess wondered, remembering his words. 'Am I Ricky Jameson's girl?'

The question filled her chest.

"Seriously though, man," Ricky said to Damien, stepping over the limp body of the girl's ex. "What is this?"

He grabbed the girls face and inspected the leather collar, flicking the D-ring with his finger.

She whispered something to him, something that made him stand and frown.

"I'm going to use this on her," Damien said, ignoring the questions. He pulled a slender riding crop from his backpack and whipped the air a couple of times. "Wanna watch?"

"Sure." Ricky shrugged.

Jess opened her mouth to protest but was cut off when Caine appeared behind Damien. He wrapped his arm around Damien's waist and rested his chin on his shoulder, as though the pair were lovers.

As Caine appeared, she felt Ricky stiffen at her side, tensing his muscles and making fists. He hated the guy. That... or the spell was taking some kind of effect similar to Annabelle’s. She couldn't picture him crawling to Caine and didn't want to.

'He's mine,' she thought defensively.

"This is going to be so much fun," Caine said. He glanced down at the girl and must have seen an expression he didn't like because he used his foot to press her face into the floor.

"Look at me like that, will you?" he muttered. "You need to train her better."

Jess felt the heat of Ricky's breathe as he leaned in and whispered, "Your friends are so weird."

Looking around the group she saw Sammy had arrived. He had Mike Strawbridge hanging off him in a similar fashion to Damien's victim. As he eyes scanned Caine, Damien and Kiaan she replied, "Kiaan is normal. I assume. I don't know him that well."

‘Thank God for Kiaan.’

"So how come you guys all started hanging about together?" Ricky asked. It was a fair question, but not one she could answer honestly. It occurred to Jess that inviting one of the victims was probably a bad idea until she realized both Annabelle and Mike were victims too.

"We decided to form a study group," she said, using the same lie Damien had told his parents.

"No way!" Ricky shouted, storming off to apprehend Damien. "You're letting these losers leach off you? Why not study with me? I'm the only one who is even close to your level and we both know it."

"I'm helping the less fortunate because I'm kind like that," Damien told him.

"Kind! You’re about the least kind person I know,” Ricky cried, throwing his arms up in exasperation.

Jess glanced down at the girl, feeling her heart sink in her chest. Surely she didn’t like being treated this way?

"Oh, let her walk, Damien," Jess begged. "Please. This is weird and embarrassing."

"Don't be so pedestrian," Damien huffed, curling his lip, but he gave in as she continued to pester him, pulling on his arm, and making puppy dog eyes at him.

When they arrived, she overheard Mike pleading with Sammy.

"Can we go somewhere else? Please? This doesn't seem like it will be fun," Mike was asking.

"Somewhere else? Like where?" Sammy asked.

"Let me take you to dinner. Please? Please?" Mike was asking, knitting his fingers together.

"Fine," Sammy conceded with a heavy sigh.

Jess flinched at Mike's overreaction as he jumped up and punched the air. "Yay!"

"We aren't into all of this," Sammy told Damien, waving his hand in their general direction. "Laters."

"Please can I join you?" Kiaan asked the lovebirds in a desperate bid to get away.

"Whatever," Damien said, dismissing them.

He shrugged and told the remainders to hurry up and get inside. With a glance, he turned their attention to an old man who was watching from his garden while pretending to preen a bush.

"If I ever become a serial killer, I'm starting with him," Damien huffed.

"At his age, I'd consider it a mercy killing," Ricky mused. "Imagine how boring his life must be."

"Why don't you just send Belle round there to give him a heart attack?" Caine suggested.

"You guys are horrible," Jess said, not that any of them paid any attention.

As they reached the bedroom Jess pulled at Ricky's sleeve.

"Maybe we should go too," she suggested. "I don't think I want to see this."

"You want to leave that girl alone with Damien and Caine?" Ricky asked.

"Erm..." Jess hadn't thought about it that way.

As Ricky raised his eyebrows, Jess wondered if his reason for tagging along was to help the girl. Was Ricky the school bully secretly a hero?

When they entered the room, Jess saw the moment the girls composed outer shell crumbled. Her pretty face creased as she began to sob and fell to her knees.

"Please just forgive me. Please. What do I have to do? Is there anything that will make me forgive you? Please, there must be something. Some way I can atone."

Without warning, she shot across the room and grabbed Damien's engraved knife.

Ricky, quick as a flash, pulled Jess back by the arm, getting in front of her.

It only took a second for them to realize she had no intention of hurting anyone but herself.

"If I cut off my right hand, will you forgive me? Huh?" she cried, pressing the blade into her wrist. “Will that be enough? Will you forgive me?”

"Sure." Damien snickered. "Cut off your right hand and I'll forgive you."

The girl let out a long, anguished cry as she held the knife in position, arm shaking with the tension. Eventually, she threw the blade down and collapsed into another fit of sobs.

"Let's go," Ricky whispered, pulling Jess from the defensive position at his back and in for a hug.

Reluctantly, Jess let Ricky guide her away. She didn’t’ like the idea of leaving the girl there with Caine as well as Damien. There was something odd about him.

"Do you think there's something weird about Caine?" she asked once he was out of earshot.

"There's plenty. He doesn't blink. Doesn't sweat. His arms and legs don't go opposite directions when he walks. His center of balance is off when he stands still. His tone rarely aligns with the words he speaks, and his facial expressions are weird too," Ricky listed. "And that is just the tip of the iceberg."

"All those things are almost explainable," Ricky went on. "But there's the way he doesn't seem to have any product in his hear, yet it never blows in the wind. Honestly, I think he's a ghost."

"Is that why you bullied him?" Jess asked.

Ricky made a scoffing sound and shook his head. "No."

...

"Don't ask about that. I'm still pissed off."