I switched to slippers for the walk back to the dorms and checked my phone. None of us were supposed to go anywhere alone after Serina’s attack, but the vision had delayed me enough that none of my fellow dancers were still in the studio. I'd have to make the trek by myself.
Ollie: Hey you, hurry back. We need to fill you in on something.
I frowned, letting him know I was on my way as I angled for the shortcut through campus. During the day, the nature preserve was a relaxing space, the noise of campus dulled by the humming bugs and chattering birds in the trees.
I’d never walked through it at night.
Spanish moss hung low, swaying like phantoms, the canopy blocking most of the moonlight. I shivered, my slippers crunching on the trodden dirt and dead leaves. Rustling in the underbrush raised goosebumps on my arms. I hugged myself, turning my phone screen on again for extra light. The blue hue barely made a dent in the dense darkness.
Just a little further.I picked up my pace towards the break in the trees where warm light emanated from the back side of our dorm. More rustling. Were those footsteps? No, my imagination was getting the best of me.
A dark figure stepped into the path.
I yelped, my phone slipping from my grasp and tumbling into the brush. I tripped as the figure bent to pick up my phone. He rose with a grunt and extended his hand.
Trembling, I snatched my phone from his open palm.
“Thanks. You, uh, scared me.”
His face was familiar, but his name evaded me. Maybe he was in one of my classes? Short dark hair and a stocky build, he flashed a smile that didn’t touch his eyes.
“Sorry, didn’t mean to,” he said. I moved off the path to dart around him. His large hand shot out, clamping around my bicep. I sucked in a breath. “Hey now, I didn’t catch your name.”
His hand on me sent a pulse of nausea through my empty stomach. Danger, danger, danger. His hold tightened a fraction, a short pull and I stumbled closer to him.
“I didn’t offer it,” I bit out.
His plastered smile faltered slightly, unblinking eyes studying me like I’d spoken a foreign language.
“That wasn’t very nice.”
The chant dialed up in volume.
I wrenched free of his grasp. “Don’t touch me.”
He laughed at that; a cold, hollow sound. “Your pretty freak isn’t around to save you.”
Freak.
The chant became sirens wailing.Merit.He had to be with them. I glared at him, my pulse pounding in my ears.
“Excuse me?” I stalled.
He puffed out his chest.
“You heard me,” he taunted.
Rather than cower at his threat, the opposite happened. My lip curled as my hands rolled into fists.
“He doesn’t need to save me,” I snarled, raising my knee into his crotch so fast he didn’t have time to step back. “I can save myself.”
I jabbed my elbow into the side of his head, my body falling in practiced movements. All the self-defense training paid off. I took off at a sprint, my slippers left behind.
36
Ollie
Itmadesensetoportray temptation as a snake in the Garden of Eden. Temptation snuck up, hidden in the grass until it wanted to be seen, poisonous and deadly. It hissed demands, coiled around its victim’s throats, choking them into submission until they were slaves, willing to die a little every day for one more hit.
