Chapter 3 Who exactly is he?

Vee's POV

The academy spreads out before me like a small city. Tall walls surround it, higher than any prison I have ever seen. 

Behind the front courtyard, buildings of every kind fill the grounds. Some are worn down with age, while others look clean and modern. 

I don’t believe the rumors about demons and torture chambers, but from everything that the Internet has managed to expose, I know what this place really is. 

It is a holding pen for deranged minds, just as the name promises, or honestly no more than a dumping ground for children of the rich and wealthy who have committed offenses so great they should be in jail. 

I guess wealthy parents buy their children pardons and send them here instead of jail. Like a correctional facility. 

Now I am here too. I defended myself against criminals in an alley and that was enough to seal my fate. 

For years now, I have known my parents regret keeping me. Still I don't know how to feel. Sad or satisfied that they finally are doing away with me… though indirectly. 

“Useless,”

“A mistake…” 

“Better off dead,”

 “Should have been you. Not my baby!” 

Their voices echo in my head like they have for years. 

My back is still sore from last night's beating.

I had wanted to escape so badly. But now, standing in a facility rumored to house the most dangerous youths in the country, abandoned by the two people who were supposed to protect me, I feel smaller than I have ever felt in my life.

"Miss Vee, please walk with me." A kind-looking chubby woman approaches me, her smile warm but her eyes tired. She leads me through the inner gate, which is smaller than the main entrance but is no less intimidating.

We enter the midst of several tall buildings, two on each side of a wide stone path. They look like dorms, each one marked with painted names above the doorways.

Sun House, Earth House, Ocean House. 

Every building in sight has a name except one, a plain gray structure that looms at the end of the path. 

We step into that one, and immediately several eyes fall on us.

I keep my stride quiet behind the woman, but force my chin up. 

Some people glare at me with open hostility. Others smile, but their smiles are sick grins that do not reach their eyes… reminding me of the jerk who had hindered me from escaping when I had the chance. 

A few watch me with the sharp focus of predators studying their prey, and the rest barely pay me any mind, brushing past us on their way to wherever. 

"You'll have a brief meeting during which you will be assigned a house," the woman beside me murmurs. "When that is done, the person assigned will lead you to your room. There you will find everything necessary."

She opens the door, and cold air hits my face. The air conditioning is cranked so high that my breath literally turns to mist.

Who on earth thinks this is normal temperature?

"Just in time," a girl who looks no older than eighteen says, turning to face us. She brushes back her purple and black hair with one hand, and her eyes sweep over me with practiced indifference. "Everyone, meet Vesper Harrison, the newest resident. And Vesper, meet everyone." 

She pauses, her lips twisting into something that is not quite a smile. "You are late, so we won't be going over the introductions again."

"You've got to be fucking kidding me," a harsh murmur comes from the back of the room, and my whole body goes rigid when I see who it is.

"Hell no. No way this murderous bitch is following me down here too." The guy from last night laments, sounding just as dramatic as I remember. 

"James, mind telling us what your issue is this time?" The purple-haired girl frowns, her annoyance clear.

I don't even know if I should be surprised. It makes perfect sense that someone like him would end up in a place like this.

My jaw clenches as I scan the faces around the room, searching for anyone else from that night, but he is the only recognizable face. Currently the only enemy I need to look out for. 

The others must have gotten away clean. Or just didn't have enough connection to afford a better place than jail. 

If this can be called better. 

Some rules are read out as we are handed pamphlets, and I try to focus on the words instead of the burning hatred and uncertainty pooling in my stomach.

"Listen up," the purple-haired girl raises her voice a little. "You are the latest class of residents. Well, you all are except the false-eyed uncultured bird at the back who's too chicken to serve his term in full and always sneaks out of the academy only to start from square one every time." She snorts, her disgust obvious.

James smirks, leaning back against the wall with his arms crossed. "And somehow I manage to get to the top every time. Moreover, I have only snuck out thrice, Chloe."

She rolls her eyes at him. 

"Welcome to the asshole of Satan," the guy beside Chloe picks up in a very bored voice. He slides his hands into his pockets before continuing. "Here your opinions don't matter. There are set rules on ground and you are to follow every one of them without asking questions. But recognize hierarchy, or you will pay dearly for it."

"Yeah, can we have an actual adult address us?" A random guy hisses from the front row, adjusting his Rolex watch like it still means something here. "Not this three-foot-four wannabe big boy yelling in our faces and some little purple-haired girl who's barely twenty telling us what goes and what doesn't."

Chloe, as James addressed her, turns slowly, meeting the young man's gaze with a coldness that suits her goth style. 

"People like you," she mutters, each word harsher than the last. "don't last here. So I'm not going to waste my time educating someone who'll soon join the number of missing bodies."

I swallow hard… the sound loud in the sudden silence. James chuckles darkly and I'm not sure if it's because of how visibly uncomfortable I am or something else. 

I don't try to find out. 

"Behind your pamphlets you'll see names of your houses," Chloe continues, as though the interruption never happened. "Sun House to my right, Earth to my left, and Ocean to the middle."

I check my pamphlet. Sun House. I move obediently to the right, my feet heavy.

Everyone else falls into place around me. James scoffs before tearing up his pamphlet in half and strolling toward Earth House, looking smug and untouchable. 

Surprisingly, no one stops him. No one even comments.

Not even Chloe.