Heartless (39 page)

I picked up my cane, an artifact of my tour through Primrose Path, and limped after them.

“That was a beautiful speech, Lucy,” someone said, grabbing my arm as I tried to walk. It was the Dean of Students. “Very touching.”

“Oh, thanks,” I said, trying to pull away. “I really did love her.”

“You conveyed that so well, dear,” she said.

“And if you’ll excuse…”
She called me dear, like Sondra did. Is she one of them?
I tried to pull away but she kept on talking to me, blathering on and on about touching and feelings and did I need to talk to a therapist.

Finally, Eli came to the rescue. He removed the dean’s hand from my arm, wincing when her elbows brushed his ribs, almost like she knew right where it would hurt the most. “Lucy, I need you.” Then he pulled me through the crowd slowly, deliberately.

Others tried to stop us but he kept on pulling. Soon we reached the doors to the lobby, and then the doors to outside.

“She’s gone,” he said, deflated.

“I knew she would be,” I said.

“Are you ready to get out of here?”

We headed back to my room, clutching each other for support. We didn’t even say goodbye to Mr. and Mrs. Hall, but I knew they’d understand. I knew Mrs. Hall had seen what we’d seen, smelled what we smelled, because I’d seen her lips form two words.

That bitch.

There was work to be done, and Eli and I were up to the task. Because with the Order around, none of us was safe from the fate that claimed the life of Jolene Hall.

Leah Rhyne is a Jersey girl who’s lived in the South so long she’s lost her accent...but never her attitude. After spending most of her childhood watching movies like
Star Wars
,
Alien(s),
and
A Nightmare On Elm Street
, and reading books like Stephen King’s
The Shining
or
It
, Leah now spends her days writing tales of horror and science fiction.

Her “Undead America” zombie trilogy was released via MuseItUp Publishing and her short fiction has appeared in such publications as
Abyss & Apex Magazine
and
Revolt Daily
. She writes for
LitReactor.com
, and for herself at
www.leahrhyne.com
. Leah lives with her husband, daughter, and a small menagerie of pets. In her barely-there spare time, she loves running and yoga. Follow her on Twitter at
@leah_beth
.

The following is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, events and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or used in an entirely fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Cover and jacket design by Magie Serpica

Interior designed and formatted by E.M. Tippetts Book Designs