Neverland Academy (18 page)

No,
it would be easy to get his attention. The hard part would be getting away from
him without stirring suspicion. And since she would have the key, she
had
to get away. But Finn was watching. He wouldn’t let
anything happen to her. Not even for Lily’s sake. She hoped this was true.

Belle
could waste no more time. She tossed her head back and strolled leisurely
around the corner, swaying her hips from side to side. It only took a second
for Stuart to notice her. Then he couldn’t tear his eyes away.

“Hey
Belle.” Stuart smirked as he combed his fingers through his thick auburn hair.
His blue eyes sparkled with hunger. Belle stared straight at him. Her lips
curved up seductively. She had him in the palm of her hand.

“Hey
Stu,” Belle purred. “What are you doing down here all by yourself?”

“On
duty,” he snapped. Suddenly his demeanor shifted. He straightened in posture.
The smirk on his face disappeared into a puddle of stoicism. He was a soldier.
Responsible and tenacious. Belle could see straight through the veneer. She
traced her finger down the burgundy tie over his crisp white shirt, lightly at
first, then firmly as it went down.

“Oh.
I was hoping we could, you know, talk. Maybe even get to know each other a
little better. Since we’re all alone down here. We are all alone, right?”

“Uh,
yeah,” Stuart uttered, his façade beginning to falter. “But I can’t right now.
If Trappe catches me off guard, I’ll lose his letter of recommendation.”

“My
uncle is busy in admin right now. He won’t come down here.” Belle was grateful
the intercom system did not have installations in the church. Distractions
during services were frowned upon.

Stuart’s
eyes drifted down to the bare skin just above her barely-there skirt. His mouth
gaped like a panting dog. Inside, Belle was disgusted. She had no interest in
this boy. She only had eyes for Finn, although she was beginning to find Josh
kind of cute too. But Stuart was like a rotten egg: a pristine exterior, but
all slimy and gross on the inside. She needed to hurry and get the job done,
before she gagged on her own thoughts.

“Come
on, Stu,” Belle teased as she took a step back and placed her hands
provocatively on her hips. “I know you like me. Remember the locker room?”

A
bead of sweat formed on Stuart’s brow and began to drip down the side of his
face. Belle stretched up on her toes, pulled him down by the shoulders and,
with her tongue, lapped up the drop. She heard him gasp as the salty bead
coated her tongue. She wanted to vomit. But instantly his lips were on hers, his
tongue forcing entry. It felt like an oversized slug sloshing around behind her
teeth. Belle forced herself to withstand it. To pretend to enjoy it. Stuart’s
hands were all over her: under her skirt, cupping her chest, raising her leg up
to his hip.

Then
she came back to reality. She let her hands roam his body as freely as his
roamed hers. The back pockets. Up his back. Over his chest and blazer pocket.
Nothing yet. Further down they wandered to his front trouser pockets. Her hand
slid over a firm rigid object. There it is. Dangerously close to his . . .
Belle squirmed at the thought, but she knew she had to do it.
This is for
Lily; this is for Finn,
she thought as she
slid her hand into his pocket. She felt the cold metal at her fingertips when
his hand shot down to her wrist.

“What
are you doing?” Stuart demanded.

Quickly,
she shot her other hand to the bulge in his crotch and pressed him against the
locked door.

“Don’t
you like this?” she teased.

With
a deep groan, Stuart’s hand released her wrist and he leaned back into the
wall. His eyes closed as he let her touch him and she took the moment to slide
the key into her bra unseen. Now she needed to get out of there.

Maybe
she could just leave. If she was fast enough she could be around the corner
before he even knew she was gone. No. That wouldn’t work. She had to come up
with something.

“Did
you hear that?” She perked her head up, staring down the hallway.

“I
didn’t hear anything,” Stu said, pulling her back to him.

But
when she yanked her hand back, Stuart had grabbed her again. The lust in his
eyes was a powerful monster that had taken over him. He held her there by the
wrist and she only began to struggle when he unbuckled his belt.

“What’s
the matter?” he jeered. “Isn’t this what you wanted?”

“What?
No!” Belle twisted and writhed in his grip, but Stuart was nearly twice her
size. This was what she was afraid of. If she were here alone, she’d never get
away. She shot a sharp glance up to the ceiling. She knew they were watching.
And she needed help.

***

“Now!”
Finn cried.

Shag
and Toot jumped right through a ceiling panel, spraying chunks of cork over the
floor below, and shot down into the hallway. From the peephole Finn could only
see them for a second, then they were gone.

“Hey,
over here!” Toot hollered.

Stuart
pushed Belle aside and barreled after them. Belle crashed into the wall and
stood there, quivering with fear. When she signaled that the coast was clear,
Finn and the others spilled out of the ceiling.

“Follow
them and keep Stuart busy,” he instructed. “Josh, stay with me.” The other boys
shot down the hall out of sight.

“Belle.
Are you alright?”

Belle’s
heart sank. It wasn’t Finn who asked about her. It was Josh.

“Did
you get it?” Finn demanded. Belle nodded, tears streaming down her cheeks. “I’m
sorry,” Finn added, though he felt mildly uncomfortable saying it. He didn’t
want her to get hurt. But he needed to help Lily. He would praise Belle for
doing a fantastic job later.

After
she slipped him the key, Finn hastily unlocked the door. Inside, Lily was lying
on her side on the floor, against the corner.

“Finn?”
she whimpered.

When
she raised her head, her hair swept away, revealing a puffy magenta patch, just
below her eye. Rage billowed inside Finn. He ran to her, helped her to her
feet, and studied her bruises.

“Did
Trappe do this to you?”

She
nodded. “When he heard you calling my name last night, he—”

“I’m
sorry Lily. We can’t talk about it now. I have to get you out of here before
they catch us. Josh, take Lily and Belle and go out through the west staircase.
Trappe will be here any minute, so be careful. Then go chill the rest of the
day. You need it.”

“Yeah,
sure,” Josh replied. He led the girls around a corner leading to the far side
of the basement. Before he vanished he turned back to Finn, who had closed the
door and was locking it.

“Finn.
My sister, is she—”

“She’ll
be fine,” Finn interrupted. “Trappe’s on his way here. Don’t worry.”

Josh
gave a quick nod and disappeared into the wall. Finn tossed the key up into the
air, watching it flip over itself before landing back in his palm. He continued
this action while taking a leisurely stroll down the hallway, whistling a happy
tune that one might do on a sunny day while pruning roses in the garden. He
stopped when he reached an air duct. With a flick of the wrist he slid the key
into the vent as if it were a coin slot on an arcade game, and then continued
his jolly jaunt.

He
turned at the next intersecting hallway. He could hear the jeers and rants of
the boys taunting Stuart somewhere in the basement.

Now
it was Finn’s mission to find Trappe. He’d already arranged that prank call
earlier to get him out of his office. Now he had to keep him out for as long as
he could so Daphne could finish her job. When he rounded another corner by the
staircase he was relieved to find his mission incredibly easier. Trappe was
standing at the top of the stairs, sneering as Finn bowed dramatically and
peered up with his trademark mischievous grin. This was going to be fun.

Chapter Twenty

The
Truth

Daylight streamed in
through the open
windows where the breeze struggled to toss the heavy drapes. The heat of summer
had been diluted with the earliest of autumn chills, yet Daphne felt beads of
sweat cling to her forehead as she eased through the room cautiously. When Finn
first brought up her critical task, she’d imagined doing this in the middle of
the night, under the cloak of darkness. Now she felt vulnerable, like anyone
could peek through the window, regardless that she was on the second floor, and
see her.

Her
eyes roamed the walls, scanning over bookcases that held a vast collection of
nineteenth century first editions, a pair of framed portraits that looked like
they were from the civil war era, a model ship sailing across the top of an
antique General Electric console stereo. She brushed her fingers over the
massive desk that looked like it could be the size of a small bedroom, leaving
a dark trail through the dust. There were no framed family photos on the desk
like there were on her father’s. Just a Tiffany lamp, a three-tiered metallic
bin with neatly stacked papers, a glass paperweight with some creepy bug in the
middle, and the usual gadgets you’d find on an office desk. Atop the short leg
of the L-shaped desk there was the computer monitor, silver and sleek. Next to
it, under the mouse pad, laid a newspaper with some files to the side, like
they’d be shoved away in a hurry.

Daphne
sat down and immediately tensed when the rolling leather chair squeaked at her.
Though the sound was minimal, it sounded thunderous in her ears, like a stack
of heavy books smacking the floor.
Nobody is here,
she thought.
Nobody can hear me.
She switched on the computer and stared at the
pinhole camera above the monitor that seemed to be watching her intently, like
it was recording her every move so that it can tattle on her later like a
bratty little brother. She knew she was being neurotic, but she placed a small
post-it note over it anyway. It was a small, silly gesture, but it helped to
relax her.

Pulling
her own USB flash drive with the hacking software from her pocket and the one
that Finn gave her, Daphne got to work. It only took about five minutes to
break into the account, which seemed like hours to a 17-year-old girl freaking
out about the idea of getting caught. In the system she found all sorts of
information. She started with the documents folder, not bothering to open any.
Next she copied the pictures folder. After what Finn told her, and the creepy
vibe she got from the headmaster, she wouldn’t be the least bit surprised if he
had some kind of child porn in there. She wasn’t about to check for it. Next
she went for the emails. She hadn’t intended to read any—she didn’t have
time—but couldn’t help skimming over one that was open in the window.

Mr. Trappe,

I am getting concerned over
the welfare of my son, Sean. Though I receive weekly emails from him, I have
not spoken to him in over a year. Every time I call to speak to him, he is
unavailable and he never returns my calls. As you know, my husband and I are
unable to visit the academy due to career obligations. Yet, last year when we
sent an airline ticket for Sean to visit us over Christmas we simply got an
email from him saying he had to study for finals. We are very worried and beginning
to think that he is no longer at the academy at all. Please, have him call us
immediately upon receipt of this email. If we do not hear from him within one
week, we will be forced to alert the authorities. Thank you very much for your
cooperation.

Sincerely,

Helen Volkman

Daphne
was intrigued. Was Sean one of the outcasts? Or just some student who hated his
parents for leaving him here? She brushed it off and continued her search,
aiming for hidden files and folders. But while she was copying more files she
couldn’t help but snoop through the emails some more. She checked the sent
messages, but found nothing of interest. Under the deleted items there was one
email similar to the one she read, but still nothing that could put Trappe
under too much suspicion.

Daphne
clicked the accounts tab. She found a list of names, most of which she didn’t
recognize. One of them was ‘Sean Volkman.’ She clicked his name. A page full of
emails appeared. They all appeared to be emails sent from Sean to his parents.
But why was it in
Trappe’s
mailbox?
Scrolling down, Daphne found two names she did recognize: Kevin Willard and
Preston Price.

They
were the outcasts. All of them. Did they know about this? They all told Daphne
that their parents had abandoned them. But what if that wasn’t true? What if
Trappe had been intercepting communications between them? She wondered which
boy was Sean.

Daphne
spied a printer on the other side of the room. She didn’t have time to print
all of the emails out, but she wanted the boys to know that their parents
hadn’t forgotten about them. She printed the most recent email from Sean’s
mother and watched the lengthening striped line move across the window on the
monitor as the last file finished copying.

As
she pulled the flash drives from the computer, her elbow pushed the mouse pad
off the desk. She knew she’d better put it back, as Trappe might become
suspicious if anything were out of place. When she returned it, her eyes caught
a glimpse of a familiar face on the newspaper. Pushing the mouse pad to the
side, she stared in shock at the picture on the front page of the
Athens
Herald
. It was her mother and father,
embracing each other as they peered out at her. Mrs. Werring looked about ten
years older, with extra creases folding her reddened tear-stained face. Her
father looked empty and hopeless, like a child whose favorite toy was taken
away. The headline read, SEARCH TURNS UP NO CLUES AS TO DISAPPEARANCE OF LOCAL
TEENAGER.

Daphne’s
worries at getting caught diminished as she read the article below the picture.

“We just want our daughter
back,” Mrs. Werring stated in a press conference. Her husband continued,
“Daphne is an intelligent young lady with a bright future ahead of her. We want
her to know that we love her and believe in her. And we miss her very dearly.”

Daphne’s
eye’s welled up. For the first time since she’d been at Neverland Academy she
truly missed her parents. What had she done? The punishment she’d had to endure
before coming here seemed like a mere slap on the wrist now. Looking back on
that night, she could see she that she’d overreacted. She couldn’t put her
parents through this. She had to go home.

As
she picked up the newspaper to take it with her, Daphne froze at what was
beneath it: a simple manila file folder with the name Preston Price printed in
big block letters. She knew she shouldn’t look, that it would be an invasion of
Finn’s privacy, but curiosity got the best of her. If she was really going to
be with Finn, she needed to know him. And she wasn’t sure she really did. After
a quick glimpse inside the file Daphne’s heart broke and anger rose to the
surface. She didn’t know Finn at all.

Angry
footsteps marched down the hall and stopped at the door. Daphne’s heart leaped
into her throat as the handle rattled. She locked the door, but Trappe would
have a key. Would that few extra seconds be enough to get out in time? She
stuffed the flash drives in her pocket, folded the newspaper and file under her
arm, grabbed the printed email and slipped back into the wall, replacing the
panel just as the door opened.

***

Finn
congratulated himself on a fantastic chase through the church and grounds of
Neverland Academy. His speed and agility could have made him a wide receiver on
the school’s football team. Trappe knew he couldn’t catch Finn on his own so he
put the entire academy on alert and lockdown. Finn was eager for the challenge.
He’d had every professor and staff member after him. After parading through the
halls of the west wing classrooms, ducking out of reach of the oncoming
professors and relishing the cheers from students delighted by the interruption
in classes, he scurried through the open window of Professor Davey’s science
classroom, knocking over a vivarium and setting free Opie, the class lizard.

Outside,
he taunted Trappe, who was watching from the terrace, with a silly dance from
the gardens before pointing at Trappe and making an ominous slashing motion
across his neck. It took several minutes for the other professors to meet him
outside, but by the time they’d reached him he was gone, nobody close enough to
discover his secret tunnel entrance.

Now
his heart was racing. Adrenaline exploded into a haze of mind-numbing euphoria.
This was Finn’s drug of choice.

The
jaunty laughter down at the other end of the tunnel signaled to Finn that his
friends were back. From the sound of it they’d had just as much fun as he had.
Before heading into the cellar, he peeked his head into Daphne’s little cove.

“Daffy?”

It
was empty. He turned to continue on to the cellar when he was met with the girl
he sought.

“There
you are! That was so epic! Oh, Daffy, I wish you could have been there. That
was, beyond a doubt, the best trick we’ve ever pulled.”

Daphne
wouldn’t look at him. She simply stared at some papers in her hands.

“Did
you get the files? How’d it go?”

Finally,
she looked up, meeting him with an icy glare that even he couldn’t deny struck
his heart and melted his euphoria.

“What
happened?”

“We
need to talk,” Daphne growled as she pushed past him into the tiny room and
turned on the lamp.

“What’s
the matter, Daffy?”

“Why
are you really here, Finn?”

“I
told you, my parents kicked me out. I had nowhere else to go.”

“That’s
not what this says. Preston.” She tossed his file to the floor, where sheets of
paper spilled out with a photograph of an eight-year-old Finn, his onyx hair
trimmed much shorter but the same glowing emerald eyes.

“Don’t
call me that,” Finn grumbled.

“Why
not? It’s your name.”

Finn
hunched over to gather the papers. “Where did you get this?”

“Trappe’s
office. Why did you lie to me?”

“I
didn’t lie.”

“You
told me your parents kicked you out.”

“They
did.”

“Finn,
you
never
went home. You just stuck
around here like a lost puppy looking for scraps from sympathizers.”

“I
did go home!” Finn shouted. It shocked Daphne so much she jumped back into the
wall, banging the back of her head on the cold bricks. “I flew home to
Connecticut, Trappe put me on the plane himself,” Finn explained. “My parents
didn’t even show up at the airport. I stood there for hours, waiting.
Eventually I had to take a taxi home. When I got there I saw them out in the
front yard, playing with a little boy. He was only about four years old. He
looked almost exactly like me. All those years my parents said they’d put me in
the academy because they didn’t have time to raise me, not even during the
summer breaks. They didn’t even come to visit. They’d said they had to travel
for work, that I’d be better taken care of here. And yet, there they were,
spending quality time with their new child. Time that they couldn’t find for
me. I told the cabbie to take me back to the airport. I had enough in my meager
account to fly first class back to Atlanta. So I did. And I came back here.
Trappe had pleaded with my parents to come get me. They wouldn’t. They just
don’t care anymore.” Finn glared at Daphne. “There. Now you know the truth.
Happy now?”

Daphne
returned his glare, refusing to give any sympathy to his heartbreaking story.
“What about the other boys? I know what you did, Finn. Their parents have been
asking about them, trying to get in touch with them. You can’t keep them here
forever.”

Finn
collapsed to the floor, his head in his hands, a flood of repressed emotions
taking over.

“I
did it for them.”

“How
can you say that? Finn, you’ve been sending emails, impersonating them all this
time? And they don’t even know that their parents are concerned!”

“You
can’t tell them.”

“Finn,
they need to go home.”

“I
don’t want to be alone,” Finn whimpered.

“Come
with me. You’re nearly eighteen; you don’t
have
to go home. We’ll find a place for you. Maybe my parents could loan
you some money for an apartment while you look for work—”

“No!”
Finn shot up, frowning at Daphne. “No, you’re not going to tell me what to do.
I do what
I
want. I won’t be some
pathetic minion to do chores for someone else for a meager income, barely
enough to live on. I write my own life. Not you or anybody else!”

“Finn.
I’m leaving,” Daphne said quietly as she looked down at the floor. She held out
the flash drive for Finn.

“Fine!”
Finn snapped, snatching the drive. “Go! You can all go for all I care.”

He
stormed out leaving the file behind.

Daphne
picked it up and plodded down to the cellar where the boys were celebrating
their victory. She didn’t know what to feel anymore. Her mixed feelings for
Finn resulted in an emotional anesthetic. Maybe going home would bring
something back to her, whether it was anger or love, she didn’t know.