Wicked Rebellion (Darkwater Reformatory Book 3) Page 22

  I shivered. Forget excited. Now, I was totally creeped out. “What do you mean by get settled?” I refused to ask what else she could see. “I didn’t bring anything with me.” Just the clothes I’d dressed in this morning. My throat tightened. I’d forgotten my rabbit…

  “Cloven sent your things over already.”

  “Um, what?” I couldn’t imagine what that meant.

  Ester’s face twisted. “All your belongings.”

  “But Mom—”

  “Is gone and this is your life, now.” Her palm hit my back. Harder this time, enough to cause pain. “Go on with you, I said. Don’t be a bother.”

  Holding back my tears, I rushed up the stairs and turned right. A dingy carpet covered the hall and a worn path led to a solitary door. A quick shove and it hit the wall. I shuddered, worried Ester would screech about me damaging her property, but silence hung in the air like a thick fog. Maybe she hadn’t heard the bang.

  I fled inside the room and shut the door carefully. Turning, I stared around through blurry eyes, taking in the solitary bed covered with a homemade quilt. Two cardboard boxes sitting against the back wall. A tall wooden bureau, plus a stand beside the bed. On the left, a closet door I wasn’t sure I wanted to open. And a floor lamp sat near a small desk set up underneath the only window. Orange and green wallpaper in a floral pattern covered the walls. One corner had pulled away from the plaster and drooped.

  Like I drooped.

  My rabbit lay on the pillow. How…?

  Collapsing on the mattress and clutching my stuffed friend, I stared up at the flecked white ceiling. I pressed my fist against my mouth to hold back my sobs.

  No use.

  Giving up the fight, I turned and shoved my face into the pillow. I suffocated my grief, my wails, shoving my anguish into a tiny box in my mind and slamming the lid shut.

  That was the last time I cried.

  * * *

  You can find Crystal Wing Academy, Outling, here.