The crazy events of the weekend had come and gone, just like their last week of school. Sitting in science class, the final class of the semester, they turned in the project they had finished at Elle’s.

Chloe had an emotional breakdown that night after she had awoken from her nightmare and become vulnerable enough to reveal her dark secrets. She had ended up telling Elle everything that had happened to her that horrible night. She had also told her about her parents and what it was like for her at home. Thankfully, Chloe didn’t regret it. She and Elle were in the same boat of secrets and had nowhere to turn except each other.

She’s the only one I will ever tell.

Chloe looked up to Elle. She was strong, whereas Chloe was not. She didn’t show her fear to the world, whereas she did. Therefore, she found herself depending on Elle to survive this hell and to keep her sanity. At this point in her life, at its lowest, the most important thing to her was their friendship.

Brrring.

Quickly, all the students ran out of the classroom, eager for Christmas break. Even the teachers were scurrying to leave.

Elle and Chloe continued to stay put, waiting for the hallways to clear. They were being extra careful because, now being two, their target was bigger.

“You’re going to come and spend the night at my house during the break, right?” Elle asked.

Um …

Laughing, Elle could see what she was thinking. “Next time, we can stay up all night, watching movies. We will just pull all-nighters, so no need to sleep.”

Chloe’s lips turned up into a smile. “Okay, deal.”

“I think it should be good now.”

They both stood, gathering their things, and ventured out into the hall. Chloe followed a step behind her, and even though the hallways were pretty much cleared out, she still kept her head toward the ground. The science class was in the back of the school, so they had a good distance to go, and Chloe didn’t want to take the chance of someone mocking her face on the way out for the last time.

They were getting closer to the front of the school and only had one turn left to get out of the halls. When Elle took the sharp turn first, Chloe heard the massive whack that sent Elle flying back to her butt.

As she held her nose, the blood started to trickle down her hand and face.

Chloe felt every muscle in her body freeze as she looked at the twisted expression on Sebastian’s face with a big biology book in his hands. Her mouth dropped open to scream, but a cold hand appeared over her lips, keeping her silenced.

The devil’s voice whispered in her ear, “Stay still, little girl.”

Chills ran up her spine as she waited for her turn from Sebastian’s wrath. She knew she should move, run, or help. She could feel something deep down inside of her screaming at her to do just that. However, it was as if the devil’s hands were holding her still. She could feel them gripping her wrists.

“You need to fucking keep your eyes to yourself, bitch.”

Elle’s shirt was getting stained redder and redder by the second.

“I wasn’t going to say anything. I don’t care what you do.”

“What the fuck did you just say to me? You don’t care what I do?” Sebastian went to smash the book over Elle, but she covered her head just in time.

The book smashed into her forearm hard enough to hear a small crack.

“Keep your fucking mouth shut, both of you.” He looked at Chloe and raised the book again.

The invisible hands cuffed her wrists more securely, causing tears to brim her eyes.

“Or it’ll just hurt worse.”

Elle grabbed Sebastian’s leg. “No …!”

“Don’t you tell me no.” Sebastian reared the book back toward Elle again, giving her barely enough time to cover her head. He connected the book to the same arm, but this time, the cracking sound was much louder, solidifying a break in the arm.

A smug look crossed his face as he left.

“You’re one lucky, little girl,” he whispered before his invisible hands slowly disappeared.

“Chloe …? Chloe, are you all right?” Elle’s pained voice finally rang through her ears.

Blinking away the tears in her eyes that rained down her cheeks, making her scars glisten red, she looked down at Elle. She was able to see the destruction Sebastian had caused once again.

“I-I’m s-so sorry. I t-tried to—” She began to violently shake.

“I know you did.” Elle slowly got up off the floor, careful not to put any pressure on her hurt limb. “I’ll be okay.”

She wiped the tears off her face when Elle did the same and then looked around, expecting someone to come help.

Elle used the arm of her black hoodie to wipe some of the blood off her face. “No one’s coming.” Then she zipped up the rest of her hoodie to cover her blood-splattered shirt and put up the hood using her good arm. “No one cares.”

Looking around once more, it looked as if the hallways had been deserted years ago.

She’s right; I couldn’t even care enough to help her.

The tears blurred her vision again, but she tried her best to push them back down. “Why did he do it?”

Holding her broken arm to her chest, Elle winced. “When we came out of class, I saw him buying weed off a senior in the halls. I thought I turned my head away fast enough, but I guess not.”

That was why she had no clue what had pissed him off and why he had wanted them to keep their mouths shut. She always kept her head to the ground, so she never noticed what went on in the halls and didn’t see the faces of those who called her a freak.

Chloe picked up Elle’s satchel from the ground and put it on her shoulder with her own book bag. “Come on. I’ll walk to the hospital with you.”

The hospital was thankfully just a street over from the school.

“But isn’t your mom waiting to pick you up outside?” Elle asked.

“No, she’s always an hour late. I’ll text her to pick me up there.”

Elle nodded. “I’ll call my mom and tell her when we get there that my last indoor soccer game didn’t go so well.”

It was wrong for them to chuckle at that, but the two had to make light of the situation somehow.

Walking through the rest of the school, Chloe noticed how the teachers turned their heads or ducked into a room as they passed. There was one fact Cassandra and Sebastian Ross made clear to the whole school the moment they had first walked through the school doors, and that was how their father had funneled donation money to the school. The principal and the teachers would look away from the murder of Elle Buchanan for a million dollars. The beating of a girl whose parents couldn’t afford to donate a dime came at a much cheaper price.

No one ever fucked with the Ross’s, and no one ever would, because the Ross’s were one of the richest families in Kansas City, if not the richest.

“Why’d you do it?” Chloe quietly asked her.

“Do what?”

“Stop him from hitting me.”

Elle waited until they reached the freedom from the school before she spoke.

“I haven’t been able to sleep since you told me, and I’m hoping now I’ll be able to get one night’s rest without having my own nightmares of what happened to you.”