My jaw clenched, remembering the incident in the cafeteria yesterday. Ella hadn’t spoken to me since. And it was better that way. The girl was too innocent for her own good, and this would teach her a lesson. I had recognized Hans’ handwriting the moment she handed me the note. It was one of his usual tricks, so it didn’t surprise me. What I wanted to figure out was the motive behind it. Was it simply some silly prank – and he had a tendency to blur the boundaries between fun and danger – or did he mean to harm Ella? He couldn’t have known that I would be in that hallway in time to see Hank follow Ella. What if I hadn’t followed them? Hank was known to prey on new girls or the meeker freshmen. His threats stopped them from bringing it to the school’s attention – they were simply too scared. I knew this because one of Sean’s little playthings - as he called them - had asked me to keep an eye out for her, saying Hank had groped her and told her if she told anyone about it, he would make sure he would do worse the next time around. Hans knew about this too and knew I had kept my promise to her until she decided to move to another school. It wasn’t out of any particular sense of loyalty to Sean that I had helped her or anything – it was simply that I loathed Hank and what he did to the girls at school. And Hans knew that, too.
The thought that he had now set his sights on hurting Ella disturbed me. She was better off far, far away from him, which was why I had gone along with their bullying in the cafeteria yesterday. I had seen the hurt in her eyes when she learned that Hans had orchestrated Hank’s attack, and how pained she had looked when she thought I had been a part of it. I shuddered, remembering Hank’s hungry gaze when he had her cornered in that quiet lab. Ella had to leave well before Hans’ games escalated, which I was certain they would, now that she had escaped him unscathed. Hans loved a challenge. As kids, he would chase after everything and everyone I liked, believing that as twins, sharing was always better.
Ella had to leave, and I was going to have to break her and her stubbornness to make sure she left Gray Lake for good - an infinitely better plan than letting her see this game of Hans to its end.
Chapter 15
Ella
“Honey, do you wanna talk about it?”
I sat in the car, frozen, wishing we had arrived at the house already. I thought I had done a good job of pretending everything was alright, continuing with my daily routine, speaking as few words as I could to both Hans and Cole at dinner without giving anything away. I guess my mother knew me better than I gave her credit for.
“What’s there to talk about?” I tried one last time. My face wore the practiced expression I walked around with both at school and at home – the patient, pleasant smile, the one that hid the pain that blossomed inside me ever since that day at the cafeteria. I wasn’t sure who to trust anymore, and that complete shift from my ever-trusting, positive mindset left me shaken to the core. I couldn’t walk down a corridor after school without worrying about being ambushed, or having some stupid prank played on me. It made me depressed, and was beginning to affect my appetite.
“Well, the fact that you’re not your usual, smiling self for starters. Is something going on at school that I should know about?” She looked at me, really looked, worry etching her features.
Not just school, I thought miserably. Mom was unable to send me to school every single day, and she naturally expected I hitch a ride with the twins. It was painful, asking them, and then worrying the entire way whether something would happen to me. It was especially horrible with Hans, who pretended he hadn’t done anything wrong, and spoke to me as much or as little as he wanted to, but always with a pleasant smile on his face. The word sicko entered my mind more than once, but for once what sounded like a curse word to me felt justified.
“It’s a little bit of everything,” I replied vaguely, hoping not to get into the details. Please drop it, mom. I honestly can’t tell you very much, and you don’t want to know the kind of monster we live with currently.
“Do you have friends?” she prompted. Her question made my mind go straight to me and my new trust issues. Not that I thought any of the three people I hung out with were in cahoots with the monsters at school. But, my mom’s question did make me think. Jules was of no help – she was insensitive to my worries, and continued with her search of good gossip, fawning over Cole and his friends, and had even asked me about the party this Saturday night at the house – one I didn’t know about. It was obvious she wanted to go and was hoping I would invite her – but who was I to do that when I wasn’t invited myself?
It made me avoid hanging out with her alone, and I was glad I had Sarah and Cameron as a buffer whenever she was around. Sarah, thankfully, understood what I was going through, being her receptive self, so that even though I didn’t tell her every little detail, she got it. More than once, she had bought me coffee, knowing how much it cheered me up.
“Yes,” I replied, fully aware of how clipped my voice sounded.
My mother glanced at me again. “Ella, honey. I can’t help you if
