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My eyes widen. "What the fuck isThe Room of Atonement?" I think back, feeling like her name sounds familiar. "I think I had her first period."
"History?" Hazel asks.
I nod.
She shakes her head. "Seriously, don't get on her bad side. I swear she enjoys putting people in The Room of Atonement. They come out pretty fucked up."
"What is The Room of Atonement?" I repeat. I feel like screeching the words. Maybe jumping off the ledge isn't such a bad idea, after all.
They all shake their heads. "I don't know what The Room of Atonement is. But you go there, and it fucks you up real good," Hazel mumbles.
I drop my bag to the rocks with shaky fingers. Unzipping the top, I pull out my pack of cigarettes and lighter. "I need to get the hell out of here."
A dark-haired girl stands up from the rock and walks over to me. She lifts her hand, palm out and asks, "Can I bum a cigarette?" I lift an eyebrow, placing one in her hand. I light mine up and pass her the lighter.
"Even though it’s never been confirmed, people die in that room. People say the old sisters come back from the dead and tear you apart,” she whispers.
"That's just a fucking rumor, Piper. No one knows if those peopleactuallydied in there." Blaire rolls her eyes.
Piper lights up her cigarette, glancing down at the white lighter with a smile before passing it back to me. "Did you ever see those kids again, Blaire? No, you didn't. Because they fucking died. It's not a rumor. This place, this entire town and everyone in it, is haunted. Whether or not you want to believe it."
It feels like I'm being cloaked with something sinister as she says these words. Like an invisible blanket of noxious venom is spreading over my skin in a sticky substance that I can’t shake off.
Piper watches me as she takes a drag of her cigarette. "I'm Piper. I moved here about five years ago. You seem like me, like you want to leave this shit place the first chance you get?"
I nod, eyes narrowed as I take a drag.
She shakes her head. "That was my hope at first, too. Until I came to realize that the people who come here only leave to be buried. Unless you want to jump." She points over the side of the cliff. "There's no other way that you'll leave. I didn't want to believe it, but once you're in this place long enough, you'll figure it out. The sun doesn't shine the same. The rain doesn't fall the same. The wind doesn't blow the same. This place, it shouldn't exist, but it does. And now you're living in it."
"Can't you just walk out? Like, literally, walk out of here?" I ask, turning around and looking at the school. I stub my cigarette out as I watch the kids sit on the front steps, their trays of food propped on their laps as they eat and converse with each other. It's like they're puppets, or robots, playing their games, following the rules.
It's not how I live. I live by my own guidelines.
I notice Malik's Range Rover, with him and his friends sitting on the hood. As if he notices I'm staring, he turns his head, glaring at me from across the yard. His friends look after a moment, too. All of them sending me the same look, like they're hoping I catch on fire at any moment, combust into flames. Maybe plummet over the side of the rocks.
"Holy shit," Blaire whispers. "What the hell did you do to get on his bad side?"
"That's her new stepbrother," Hazel says.
Blaire and Piper scoff. "Well, this is an interesting turn of events," Piper says.
"Trust me, I hate it. He's a piece of shit, and I want nothing to do with him." I glare at him, watching as he glares straight back. We're in this void, where only the two of us exist. He sees me, and I see him. There's no school, there're no students. It's just us, in a space full of hate and misery.
"I don't think I can say the same for him. It looks like he wants to swallow you whole," Piper breathes.
"Or chop your body into pieces," Blaire chimes in.
"And scatter you across Superior." Hazel chuckles.
I smile. "He can try, but I'll be the one to tear him apart. I'll enjoy watching him fall to pieces at my feet."
Hazel makes a noise in her throat. "I like you. You'll fit in good here, with us."
I look back at them, the three girls who are the only ones who seem somewhat normal. The only ones who talk to me in this strange town. I like them, and I want to befriend them. But I also don't want to get too close, because I don't plan to stay here long.
10
MALIK
