Savage Rites – Episode 9&10

I washed my face three times. The cold water didn’t stop the shaking.

I looked at my reflection in the bathroom mirror. I looked the same. Same dark eyes, same mouth, same hair. But I wasn’t the same. I was a traitor.

I checked the time. 9:05 AM. Class had started.

I had to go in. If I didn’t, Matteo’s man in the back row might get restless.

I pushed open the bathroom door and walked down the hallway. The air felt thick, like I was walking underwater. I reached the double doors of the lecture hall. I could hear my uncle’s voice through the wood.

He was talking about the French Revolution. About the fall of kings.

I slipped inside.

The hall was large and stadium-style. It was warm and smelled of coffee and damp wool. About fifty students sat in rows, typing on laptops or scratching notes.

Down in the “pit,” at the front of the room, was Uncle Arthur.

He looked small next to the massive blackboard. He was covered in chalk dust.

He was waving his arms, excited about history. He loved this. He loved teaching more than anything.

I tried to sneak to the back row, hoping he wouldn’t see me.

But he saw everything.

“Ah! Elena!”

He stopped his lecture. He smiled. It was a big, genuine smile that crinkled the corners of his eyes.

“Class, this is my niece,” he announced. He pointed at me with a piece of chalk. “She finally decided to grace us with her presence.

Better late than never, right?”

A few students chuckled. I felt my face burn. I forced a weak smile.

“Sorry, Uncle Arthur,” I whispered. “I… I got lost.”

“Take a seat, take a seat,” he said kindly. “We were just discussing Robespierre. The Reign of Terror.”

I climbed the stairs to the back.

I kept my head down. I didn’t want to look at the other students. I was terrified I would see the gunman. Was it the guy in the hoodie? The girl with the headphones?

I reached the top row. The shadows were deep back here.

I sat in the corner seat. I looked to my left.
My heart stopped.

The seat next to me wasn’t empty.

Nico was there.

He wasn’t looking at the professor. He was looking at me. He had a notebook open, but the page was blank. He was twirling a black pen between his fingers.

“You’re late,” Nico whispered.

“What are you doing here?” I hissed. “This isn’t your class.”

“I love history,” Nico said. His voice was smooth and low. “Especially the parts about betrayal.”

He looked down at the podium.

“He looks happy,” Nico noted. “He has no idea his life is over.”

“Please,” I begged, keeping my voice quiet so no one would hear. “I did what you asked. I put the envelope in the drawer. Just let it be. Let him finish the class.”

Nico stopped twirling the pen. He looked at me with those cold, gray eyes.

“The fuse is already lit, Elena. We just have to wait for the bang.”

Down below, Uncle Arthur turned to write on the board.

Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité.

The door at the bottom of the lecture hall opened.

It opened loud and fast. It banged against the wall.

The whole room jumped. Uncle Arthur dropped his chalk. It shattered on the floor.

Three people walked in.

First was the Dean of Students, the woman with the glasses I had seen in the office.

Behind her were two campus security guards. They weren’t the friendly ones who unlocked doors for you. These were the big ones. The ones who handled fights.

The room went deadly silent.

“Dean Miller?” Uncle Arthur said. He looked confused. He dusted his hands on his pants.
“Is something wrong? I’m in the middle of a lecture.”

“Professor Vance,” the Dean said. Her voice was ice cold. It echoed in the quiet room. “We need you to step away from the podium.”

“Excuse me?”

“Step away from the podium,” she repeated. “And please hand over your keys.”

The students started to whisper. Phones came out. They were recording.

“I don’t understand,” Arthur said. He looked small and frightened. “What is going on?”
“We received an anonymous tip,” the Dean said loudly. “About misappropriation of funds.

And illicit conduct with students.”

A gasp went through the room.

Arthur’s face went white. “That is absurd. That is a lie.”

“We checked your office, Arthur,” the Dean said. She held up a plastic bag. Inside was the manila envelope. The one I had held ten minutes ago.

“We found this in your desk,” she said. “Cash. And the photos.”

“I have never seen that before!” Arthur shouted. He was shaking. “I haven’t been in my office all morning! I came straight to the hall!”

I gripped the edge of my desk. My knuckles turned white.

Say something, my brain screamed. Stand up. Tell them it was you. Tell them it’s a setup.

I started to rise.

Under the desk, a hand clamped onto my thigh.

It was Nico. His grip was like a steel trap. His fingers dug into my skin, painful and hard.

“Sit,” he whispered. “Or the gunman takes the shot.”

I froze. I looked around wildly. I didn’t see a gun. But I saw Matteo standing by the exit door, smiling.

I sank back into my chair.

Down below, Arthur was looking around the room, desperate for an ally.

“This is a mistake!” he pleaded. “Someone put that there! I wasn’t even in the office!”

Then, his eyes found me.

He pointed up at the back row.

“Elena!” he yelled. “Elena, you were there! You were in my office just now!”

The whole class turned to look at me. Fifty faces. The Dean looked up, her glasses flashing in the light.

‘How did he know?’ I thought

“Ms. Vance?” the Dean called out. “Is this true? Were you in his office?”

My heart hammered against my ribs like a trapped bird.

Uncle Arthur looked at me with so much hope. He trusted me. I was his family.

“Tell them, Elena!” he cried. “Tell them I wasn’t there!”

Nico’s hand squeezed my leg harder. It was a warning.

I looked at my uncle. I saw the fear in his kind eyes.

I looked at Nico. I saw the darkness in his.

I opened my mouth. My tongue felt like lead.
“I…” I started. My voice cracked.

“Ms. Vance?” the Dean demanded. “Did you see who put the envelope there?”

I looked at my uncle one last time.

“I…” I swallowed the lump in my throat. I let the tears spill over, but I made my voice steady. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Uncle Arthur flinched like I had slapped him.
“Elena?” he whispered.

“I wasn’t in the office,” I lied. “I… I haven’t seen him all day.”

The silence that followed was heavy. It was the sound of a heart breaking.

Arthur stared at me. The hope died in his eyes. It was replaced by shock. And then, by betrayal.

“Take him,” the Dean said to the guards.
The guards stepped forward. They grabbed my uncle by the arms. They dragged him away from the chalkboard, away from his life’s work.

“Elena!” he screamed as they pulled him toward the door. “Elena, why?”

I couldn’t watch. I looked down at my desk.
Nico leaned close to me. He released my leg. He brushed a tear from my cheek with his thumb.

“Lesson one complete,” he whispered. “You’re a fast learner, Little Mouse.”

The doors slammed shut. My uncle was gone.
The lecture hall emptied fast.

Nobody wanted to be near me. I was a disease. I sat in the back row, staring at the empty chalkboard where my uncle had written about freedom.

My hands were in my lap. They were cold. I couldn’t stop seeing his face. The way he looked at me. Like I was a stranger. Like I was a monster.

I had saved his life. I had to believe that. If I hadn’t lied, Matteo’s man would have pulled the trigger. But saving him felt a lot like killing him.

“Up,” Nico said.

He was standing over me. He had packed his notebook. He looked bored.

I didn’t move. I couldn’t feel my legs.

“Elena,” Nico said. His voice was not loud, but it was hard. “Do not make a scene. Stand up.”
I forced my body to obey. I stood up. My knees knocked together.

Nico didn’t offer me his arm. He just turned and walked toward the stairs. He expected me to follow. Like a well-trained dog.

I followed him.

We walked down the stairs. Past the podium where the chalk was still crushed on the floor. Past the empty seats.

We pushed through the heavy doors into the hallway.

It was chaos.

The news had traveled fast. Blackwood was a small world, and bad news moved like lightning. Students were gathered in tight circles, whispering. When they saw me, the talking stopped.

Eyes. Hundreds of eyes.

They looked at me with disgust. They looked at me with fear.

That’s the niece, they thought. She turned her back on him.

I kept my head down. I focused on Nico’s back. His broad shoulders were the only shield I had.

“Hey! Vance!”

The voice came from my right.

I tried to keep walking, but a hand grabbed my arm. It was a strong grip.

I stopped. I looked up.

It was a guy. He was tall, wearing a varsity jacket. He had a camera phone in his other hand. He was filming me.

“Is it true?” he asked loudly. He shoved the phone in my face. “Did you really plant the evidence on your own uncle? How much did the administration pay you?”

“How did they even know of this” I screamed in my head,

“Let go of me,” I whispered.

“Come on, give us a quote,” the guy sneered. He squeezed my arm tighter. It hurt. “What kind of girl does that to her own family?”

I pulled back, but he was stronger.

“I said let go!”

Then, the world went upside down.

There was a blur of motion. A dark shape moved between me and the guy.

A sickening crack echoed in the hallway.

The guy in the varsity jacket screamed. He dropped his phone. He stumbled back, clutching his nose. Blood poured out between his fingers, red and bright against the floor tiles.

Nico stood there.

He hadn’t even broken a sweat. He stood with his feet apart, his fists unclenched now. He looked calm. Deadly calm.

The hallway went silent. No one moved. No one breathed.

Nico took a step toward the guy. The guy scrambled backward, slipping on his own blood.

“Please,” the guy whimpered. “I didn’t… I was just…”

Nico crouched down. He didn’t look at the crowd. He only looked at the boy bleeding on the floor.

“You touched her,” Nico said softly.
His voice carried down the hall. It wasn’t a shout. It was a statement of fact.

“I… I’m sorry,” the guy choked out.

“Elena is mine,” Nico said. He reached out and wiped a speck of blood from his own knuckle on the guy’s jacket. “She is my toy to break.

Not yours. Do you understand?”

“Yes,” the guy sobbed. “Yes, I understand.”

Nico stood up. He looked around the hallway. He looked at the cheerleaders, the nerds, the jocks. He looked at everyone.

“Does anyone else have a question?” Nico asked.

Silence. absolute silence.

Nico turned to me. His face was blank again. The monster was back in the cage, but the door was unlocked.

“Let’s go,” he said.

He put his hand on the small of my back. His touch burned through my shirt. It was possessive. It was heavy.

He guided me through the crowd. The students parted like the Red Sea. They didn’t look at me with disgust anymore. They looked at me with terror.

We walked out of the building and into the rain.

The black SUV was waiting at the park. Matteo was leaning against the hood, smoking a cigarette. He saw the blood on Nico’s hand and grinned.

“Eventful morning?” Matteo asked.

“Drive,” Nico said. He opened the back door and shoved me inside.

I slid across the leather seat. I was shaking uncontrollably now. The adrenaline was wearing off, leaving me cold and empty.
Nico got in beside me. The door slammed shut, locking out the world.

The car started moving.
I looked at my hands. They were clean. But they felt dirty.

“Why?” I whispered. “Why did you do that?”
Nico looked at me. He took a handkerchief from his pocket and began to clean his hand.

“Do what?”

“Hit him,” I said. “You hate me. You want to destroy me. Why did you help me?”

Nico stopped cleaning his hand. He turned his head slowly. His gray eyes bore into mine.
“I didn’t help you, Elena,” he said.

He reached out and grabbed my chin, forcing me to look at him. His fingers were hard.

“You are an investment,” Nico said coldly. “I have put a lot of time and effort into your suffering. I won’t let some random idiot take the credit for breaking you.”

He let go of my chin. He leaned back in the seat and closed his eyes.

“Rest now,” he said. “Save your energy.”

“For what?” I asked. My voice was barely a squeak. “I did the task. I ruined him. What more do you want?”

Nico smiled. He didn’t open his eyes.

“Tonight is the Blackwood initiation party,” he said. “It’s the biggest event of the year. Everyone will be there. The Dean. The students. The faculty.”

My stomach dropped. “I’m not going.”

“Oh, you are going,” Nico said. “You are going to walk into that room with your head held high. You are going to dance. You are going to drink.”

He opened one eye. It glittered with malice.
“And you are going to listen to everyone whisper about what a terrible person you are,” he said. “And you are going to smile.”

“And if I don’t?”

“Then I send Matteo to visit your uncle in his jail cell,” Nico said. “I hear the accidents in prison can be very… messy.”

The car turned a corner, speeding toward the mansion on the hill.

I looked out the window at the gray sky.

I had thought rock bottom was framing my uncle. I was wrong.

I was just starting to fall.

TBC