Chapter 63: Gone Get Beat

Aina

Aina sat crumpled against the dark wooden wall of the crawlspace, her chest heaving as she stared at the quiet girl sitting across from her. Residual red paint was still drying crusty on her jaw, and her broken arm throbbed in its plaster casing.

"Oh... Ally," Aina gasped out, adjusting her glasses with her left hand. "What are you doing here?"

Ally didn’t even blink. She blew a piece of hair out of her eyes and popped a pine nut into her mouth, chewing slowly. "I should be asking you that, Travis. This is my little hiding spot."

"Well," Aina muttered, leaning her head back against the rough wall with a bitter sigh, "I’m currently hiding from the entire school."

Ally tilted her head, her sharp brown eyes studying Aina’s paint-splattered face. "Let me guess... it’s because of the letter that was put out? The princes marked you."

Aina’s eyes snapped open. "I’ve been... that’s what I’ve been wanting to know!" she whispered fiercely, her voice hushed so it wouldn’t echo out to the staircase above them. "What letter?! Like... what does it say?! Are they making some promises like the same ones they had at the bash?!"

"Well, I wouldn’t know about the ones they had at the bash, I wasn’t there." Ally answered quietly. She reached into her dark uniform pocket, pulled out a cracked mobile phone, and tapped the glowing screen before turning it around to face Aina. "They released this message on the main academy broad-network group an hour ago."

Aina leaned in close, her eyes scanning the bold, golden text blazing across the screen:

[ACADEMY-WIDE ANNOUNCEMENT — ROYAL DECREE]

To all students of Moonside Academy:

Travis Whitelock is hereby declared OPEN GAME. He is dead meat. No rules apply.

Whichever student, pack, or house successfully extracts the exact location or identity of the Girl in the Purple Dress from him first will be officially granted a permanent, hereditary SEAT ON THE HIGH COUNCIL when the Royal Brothers ascend to the thrones.

Hunt well.

Aina’s mouth fell wide open. The blood drained so violently from her face she felt faint. "Oh my gosh..." Aina whispered, her voice trembling in pure, unadulterated horror. "I am so screwed."

Ally nodded solemnly, pulling another pine nut from her pocket and cracking the shell between her fingers. "Yeah. Everybody is after you now, Travis. Even the students who would have never done such a thing normally are coming for you. Their parents back home have definitely ordered them to go after you. Having a seat on the High Council is the highest possible honor in the entire realm." Ally looked her dead in the eye. "You’re screwed. You are completely done."

Aina let out a pathetic groan, sagging straight down onto her butt. She buried her face in her left hand, sliding down the wooden wall until she was practically curling into a ball.

"Oh... what have I done to deserve this?!" Aina whimpered quietly into her palm. "You know," Ally remarked, her tone utterly casual as she tossed a handful of crushed nutshells into her left palm, "I should actually thank you. It’s all because of this whole mess that my own bullies have finally laid off my back for a while. Everyone’s attention is entirely on you and that Council seat."

Aina pulled her hand away from her face, staring at the girl in confusion. "Why aren’t you backstabbing me right now? I mean... you could legit put a knife to my neck right this second and demand to know where the stupid girl in the purple dress is!"

Ally simply shrugged, tossing a nut into her mouth. "I don’t think you know where the girl in the purple dress is."

Aina blinked. "Why? Why do you think that?"

"It’s obvious," Ally replied plainly. "You don’t strike me as someone who knows where she is. If you actually knew, you would have long told the princes, ended your suffering, and gone back to having a normal life. You have absolutely nothing to gain from keeping this from them."

Aina let out a breath she didn’t realize she was holding. "Yeah... that’s so true."

"Besides," Ally added softly, looking down at her plain, worn shoes, "I am a rogue. I will never be allowed to have a seat on the High Council anyway. It is completely impossible. So none of this would honestly be beneficial to me."

"That all makes sense," Aina said, staring at Ally with deep respect. "Honestly... you’re the smartest person I’ve met in this entire stupid academy. I am so sad that the rest of this school isn’t as smart as you! All of them are complete idiots expecting me to somehow know where the girl in the purple dress is!"

Ally dusted her hands off, looking over at her. "So what are you going to do? You can’t run forever, Travis. When the students of Moonside want something... they get it."

"I won’t hide forever," Aina insisted stubbornly, clutching her broken arm. "I’m just going to... wait it out." Ally gave her a dry, pitiful look. "Good luck with that."

Suddenly, Ally froze.

The nut she was about to pop into her mouth stayed suspended in mid-air. Her wolf ears twitched violently upward. "Someone’s coming," Ally whispered, her voice dropping into a razor-thin thread. Aina’s heart spiked. "How do you know?"

"I can smell them, and I can hear them," Ally breathed, her eyes darting toward the tiny cracks in the wooden hatch door. "They’re very, very close. Keep quiet."

"Okay," Aina squeaked out, trying desperately to freeze in place.

Ally turned her head, her dark eyes locking onto Aina with sudden urgency. "Dude! Your heart, it’s beating way too loud! Take it down a notch! There are vampires out there! They are going to hear you!"

Calm down... calm down! Aina panicked frantically in her head, closing her eyes and trying to force her breathing into a slow rhythm. In... out... in... out...

It didn’t work. Her pulse hammered against her ribs like a runaway train. On her sixth breath in, the little wooden hatch door under the steps was violently yanked wide open. Daylight poured into the crawlspace, illuminating Aina and Ally like a terrifying horror show.

Standing right outside the door was a wildly gorgeous girl with long, shimmering blonde hair and striking blue eyes. She leaned down, peering into the tiny closet with a slow, cruel smirk spreading across her glossy lips. "Found you!" the blonde girl chirped, her voice sickeningly sweet.

Ally let out a high, nervous laugh, shrinking back against the side wall next to the door oppsite Aina was sitting flat on the ground. "Oh... Sophia."

Sophia giggled, tossing her golden hair over her shoulder. "Oh! Ally is here too!" "Oh, Sophia... so good to see you!" Ally rasped out, her voice trembling terribly. Sophia tilted her head, her blue eyes glinting. "Oh, really? I kind of thought you were avoiding me there for a second."

"Never!" Ally insisted quickly. Sophia’s gaze slowly drifted away from Ally, sliding down until it locked directly onto Aina’s paint-stained face. "Is that not Travis?" Sophia gasped out loud, clapping her hands together in pure, childlike delight before bursting into a fit of giggles. "Oh my god! We found Travis!"

Standing just behind Sophia in the dimly lit hallway was a smaller, pale girl with curly hair and glowing red eyes. She was a vampire, staring straight at Aina like a starved hound. "I’ve always been the absolute best at hide-and-seek!" Sophia cheered, turning around to give the vampire girl a high five.

Then, Sophia turned back to face Aina. Her bright smile remained, but her blue eyes turned completely hollow and cold, sending a violent, sickening shiver straight down Aina’s spine. The girl looked utterly insane.

"Come," Sophia purred, waving her manicured fingers. "Come out, little boy. I caught you. Now... tell me where the girl in the purple dress is." Aina stayed completely silent, her breath hitching in her throat.

Ally let out a soft sigh, leaning forward slightly from her spot on the floor. "She does not know, Sophia. There was a bit of a mistake. I... I already tried to interrogate her, and she doesn’t know anything."

Sophia’s head snapped toward Ally. Her bright, beautiful smile never faded for a single second. "I wasn’t talking to you," Sophia whispered, her voice dropping into a razor-sharp threat. "Keep quiet. I will deal with you later." Aina slowly pushed herself up off the floor using her left hand, standing tall in front of the doorway to draw Sophia’s terrifying gaze away from Ally.

"She’s right," Aina said, her voice shaking slightly despite her best efforts. "I do not know where the girl in the purple dress is!" Sophia giggled, leaning in close. "Well... that’s not what the princes are saying! And you need to tell me where she is. Please... I’m asking nicely!"

"I really don’t know!" Aina pleaded, backing up a single step. Sophia’s smile instantly dropped into a dead, terrifying expression. "Well... I asked nicely." She turned her head toward the curly-haired vampire girl. "Bring him out. There are a few... things I want to test on him to make him speak."

Ally gasped, scrambling forward on her knees. "Just let him go, Sophia! I’m right here! You can take me instead!"

Why on earth is Ally so terrified of this Sophia girl?! Aina thought in absolute bewilderment, her eyes wide as she watched the girl she’s known for less than a day tremble violently. It doesn’t make any sense! She is shaking harder at Sophia’s name than she did at the princes’!

CRACK! Before anyone could move, Sophia’s hand lashed out, landing a violent, stinging slap straight across Ally’s cheek. Ally’s head snapped sideways, a red welt instantly rising on her skin. "I did not ask you to speak, okay?" Sophia said brightly, her terrifying, fake smile instantly snapping back onto her face like nothing had happened.

The red-eyed vampire girl ducked her head, stepping forward to crawl into the tiny space to grab Aina. In one swift, desperate motion, Ally’s hand flew out.

She slammed her fist together, violently crushing the sharp pine nutshells she had been holding into a powdery, jagged mess, and threw them directly into Sophia’s wide open eyes!

"AINA! WE GOT TO GO! WE NEED TO RUN!" Ally screamed at the top of her lungs.

"MY EYES!" Sophia shrieked in sudden, blinding agony, dropping to her knees and clutching her face as the sharp, jagged shell fragments stung her eyes.

The vampire girl froze in absolute shock, turning back to check on Sophia. Aina didn’t waste a single second. She lunged forward, using her whole body weight to shove the vampire girl hard to the side. She burst out of the crawlspace straight toward Ally.

Ally’s hand shot out, grabbing Aina’s left hand in a tight, unyielding grip.

"RUN!" Ally yelled.

Together, the two girls bolted down the corridor at full speed. They threw themselves through the heavy double doors, pushing and shoving frantically through the crowd of stunned students, bursting out of the academy building and sprinting straight across the massive Coliseum field.

Wind whipped through Aina’s short blonde hair, blowing away the lingering smell of foul paint and water. Her chest burned like pure fire, and her broken arm throbbed with every heavy step she took against the dirt.

But as she looked over at Ally, whose fingers were wrapped firmly around her own, a sudden, breathless smile broke across Aina’s face.

They were running for their lives, but for the first time all week, she wasn’t running alone.