Emily froze. Fear stabbed its hand into her back, piercing her. She felt a horrible terror wash over her. This was far beyond anything she had experienced so far. She knew that as soon as she was outside alone, they would chase after her and try to kill her.
Rebecca stood up and pointed to Richard who was looking at her in stupefaction. "If you ever talk to this bitch again you'll have to beg me on your knees..."
Richard yelled, cutting her off. He seemed furious, almost hysterical. No one had ever seen him like this. "Are you fucking crazy?!" Richard reached over to help Emily, but Emily shrank back so Richard wouldn't even touch her. She didn't want to give Rebecca any more reason to go after her.
Richard enraged, realizing all this, yelled at Beth. "Do you see my father anywhere? Do you see him?! And yours? Look what a coincidence! You can't blackmail me now saying that your father will fire mine! You crazy bitch! You'll never tell me what I can or can't do again."
He pointed to some in the crowd and shouted. "Aren't you sick of these crazy bitches who think they own our lives? Let's go together! Let's see how long they survive alone with no one to be their lackey."
Emily listened to that with astonishment, realizing that she wasn't the only one suffering under the yoke of Beth and her four horsemen of the apocalypse. She didn't feel any better for it, but she drew some conclusions. "Is it possible that Richard would have always talked to me if Rebecca didn't stop him every day? Would I have a relationship with him?" She contemplated an imaginary timeline without Beth and Rebecca. A place where she was happy with an amazing boyfriend like Richard. Possibly, she wouldn't be so shy and indecisive. Although, she knew her mother would be adamantly against it. "No boyfriends, you hear me? Do you want everyone to think you're one of those bitches?" It seemed that she could hear her mother's irritating complaints. The pain and the eerie silence brought her back to the present.
Emily barely raised her head and saw how many were accusing them with their eyes. Some even teamed up with Richard. It seemed that a new leader was born with that public accusation towards Beth, Rebecca and the other three girls. Sick of them.
Emily tried to keep absolutely silent. She wasn't even breathing. She knew that if this didn't work in her favor, it would hurt her even more. The tension was palpable and ended up being cut off by the one who hadn't left the settlement yet. Ian. Someone who was very strange not to see putting everyone in their place. As judge and executioner.
Ian was a very handsome boy with honey-colored eyes and strange jet-black hair. Natural hair, of course. He was closer to eighteen than most, but looked much older. He was very smart, very tall and too muscular to have never stepped foot in a gym in his life. He would be any girl's dream if it wasn't for the fact that everyone was genuinely terrified of him when he was angry. No one dared to look him in the eye in that state. No one. Not even the teachers. Not even his father.
He had been orphaned at the age of thirteen. A bizarre accident that had involved his parents while his father was driving a bit drunk. Or so Ian had been told. But he soon learned that he had blamed his mother's death on his father, to no avail. It was his mother who was driving. She had tried to kill that bastard who beat her when he was completely drunk and didn't even remember it. She was fed up and completely martyred by him. A man weak to others and cruel to his family. A coward who had made her feel like she would never get rid of him. Ian was nothing like him.
Emily had been one of the few friends he'd had in his childhood. That's why, many years ago, when Ian had seen how some kids were beaten Emily in the park, he got into the fight. Many had ended up in the hospital. One of them almost died after many days in intensive care. For Ian there wasn't much gray. Things were either black or white of different intensities. Maybe that's why he felt his mother never loved him.
After that, Emily's parents had strictly forbidden any contact with him. They said he was also possessed by the Devil. They had even left the town for two years to treat Emily in a place where sanity, was nowhere to be seen.
Ian raised his voice loudly. A voice that was no longer that of a boy, but of a man. It was clear that he wanted to make his intentions clear right away. He asked Kalha and the guide who had not introduced himself yet. "You say you will pay us for any animal meat that can be eaten or for the ears of our prey, right?"
The woman didn't understand what he meant, but the guide did. He twisted his smile slightly. Ian finished. "I haven't seen or heard your famous dogs. It doesn't smell like dog either, so I don't know if that's an excuse for not acknowledging that you eat human flesh." The woman mouth twisted into a macabre smile full of sharp teeth. Everyone froze in their tracks.
The guide interceded nervously and perplexed. "What the hell are you suggesting boy? Nobody eats humans here, and yes, there are dogs, but they're in the other part of the settlement.
Ian smirk. "Sure! Whatever you say." He paused momentarily at the visible look of annoyance on several warriors' faces. "You have to excuse me for not recognizing the symbols on that crappy sign you showed us earlier. I'm curious to know if it's more profitable for me to hunt vermin, apes or motherfuckers!" Several students felt their blood run cold as Ian watched them. They looked like dogs about to be run over by a huge truck.
Ian was capable of a lot of things with the police involved. What would he do without them being involved? Unlimited? Emily didn't even want to imagine that. She'd heard rumors about Ian. Rumors that he belonged to a very dangerous criminal gang. Emily hadn't believed it when she heard it. It sounded like complete nonsense to her. The Ian she had grown up with was a good boy. Sensitive and adventurous as she was then. Not a crook. But Ian seemed dangerous now. Extremely dangerous.
More than one stepped back until they were hidden by the frames of the settlement's large entrance. Emily stood up quickly and turned so Ian couldn't see her face. Emily was trembling. She knew Ian got furious when facing abuse, and she wasn't about to watch him jump on them and beat them like an enraged beast. She'd seen him do it before. In high school. During a break, some boys had cornered her. Ian had interceded right after Hector touched one of Emily's breasts. That hadn't gone well for any of the braves. None of them were ever the same. Some even had to change high schools.
Back then, Emily had explained to Ian that her parents forbade her to have any contact with him. She had told him that she wanted to be his friend, but if he kept behaving like that, she couldn't. Her parents also believed that he had a demon inside him.
Ian hadn't said anything. He had simply turned away and gone back to his business. Emily supposed that he held a grudge again her, for not having the courage to remain her friend and disregard her parents. After all, Ian didn't obey his father. Emily supposed he would expect the same of her.
Her parents were not in this strange world. No one would force her to stay away from him any longer. Ian was the only person who had ever made her feel comfortable. Even if they were just kids. Even if it had been almost a decade ago. Emily treasured that memory. Emily came back to the present, leaving all of that behind.
Trembling and staring at the ground, Emily wondered if her former best friend was still her best friend. Although, she used to feel terrified around him, it wasn't so much because of the fear he provoked in her, but because of the violence that almost always erupted around him. He was like a mix between a justice hero and a brawler of an epic tale. Wherever he saw an injustice, trouble always followed. Emily was sure that now he was about to make a mess. But… Against how many? Ian had a grudge against many. Not that he had told her, since they didn't talk to each other, but she could tell just by looking at the way he looked at many of the students. What worried her the most was that she didn't want him to get hurt because of her.
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