Lost Girl

Chapter Nine: The Burn

Lilly put a hand on her hip and assumed an expression that Eve suspected was meant to convey how thoughtful she was being about this whole thing. She looked instead like she was having a weird seizure.

"Do you know how bad I needed a good grade on that test? I'll probably end up with a D in the class now. Probably be stuck at community college because of you." Eve thought it highly likely that would have been the outcome regardless, but again managed to remain silent.

Lilly took another puff on the cigarette, then pulled it from her mouth. She licked her lips and Eve was treated to the sight of an ornate tongue stud that looked like it had a ruby embedded in it. Entirely possible – the reason the three girls hovering above her looked so fashionable but still lived in this school district was that all three of them had parents whose primary method of earning money involved selling vast quantities of drugs.

Lilly blew on the lit end of the cigarette until it glowed red-orange, then held the cigarette to the lower corner of her test. Nothing happened for a moment, then a tongue of flame licked upward, curling against and around the paper and blackening it within only a second or two.

"I even told you," said Lilly. Her voice sounded suddenly dreamy, as though the fire had cast a spell on her. "Told you the day before the test that you should miss a few." Then her voice snapped out of its trance-sound and back to the .45 caliber crack of her usual tones as she said, "I guess you forgot."

Lilly nodded at Martina and Ali. The two girls fell on Eve like bit players in a zombie movie. Eve screamed, though a moment later she realized that the scream had been one of surprise and not pain. Martina and Ali hadn't kicked or punched or bitten her. Instead, each of them had grabbed an arm and yanked, hauling on her hands until she was laying spread-armed on her back. The tile floor was cold, but that didn't explain the chills that were twirling back and forth from the nape of her neck to the base of her spine. She had expected Martina and Ali to batter at her a bit and then let go when their fury had cooled. But what they were doing was already cool. Calculating. Terrifying.

"What are you doing?" she said. Her voice came out as a thin, high-pitched wheeze, her throat closing in direct proportion to her fear. She had had the chance to scream before. Now she couldn't do it even if she wanted to.

Lilly straddled her. She was rolling the lit cigarette between the thumb and forefinger of her right hand, and she stared at it with a creepy, almost stoned expression that was a mixture of elation and near-sexual satisfaction. She knelt down. Lilly was wearing a skirt so short it was basically a wide belt, and as she knelt Eve had a quick moment to see that the most powerful girl in school wasn't wearing any underwear before Lilly's knees pressed on her chest. Eve's breasts weren't the hugest in the world, but there was enough of them that having knees on her torso quickly went from uncomfortable to distressing to agonizing.

Lilly leaned close to Eve. Her breath was hot and smelled like cigarette smoke mixed with something even more unpleasant that Eve couldn't guess at. "Gonna give you a reminder," said Lilly quietly.

The girl held the cigarette between their faces, so close that if Eve so much as twitched forward the cigarette would be embedded in her eye.

"What are you...?" Eve whispered. Her voice was almost gone. She was trying not to gasp, knew somehow that to do so would be to fan Lilly on to even worse torture, but also knew she wasn't going to be able to stop it from happening in another few seconds. She gulped. The spit felt like an ice cube the size of her fist as it went down, fighting through her throat. "I'll tell," she managed. "I'll tell the cops."

"Really?" said Lilly with a smirk. She nodded to Martina and Ali again. The two girls yanked Eve's jacket off, tearing it badly in the process. Lilly remained on Eve's chest while it happened, only moving a bit when her cronies had to pull the jacket out from below Eve. They tossed the coat – one of Eve's nicest articles of clothing – in one of the stalls, where it landed mostly in the toilet.