"In violent emotions, we do not read, we wrestle down the paper which we hold, so to speak, we strangle it like a victim, we crush the paper, we bury the nails of our wrath or of our delight in it; we run to the end, we leap to the beginning; the attention has a fever; it comprehends by wholesale, almost, the essential; it seizes a point, and all the rest disappears." ~ Victor Hugo, Les Miserables
Molly could not get to sleep. Excitement seared through her bones. She did not know why she was so happy, but the feeling felt so good, she did not want it to stop. Molly's eyes drifted over to the bed across from her. In the dark it was difficult to tell if Taffy was still awake. Molly found herself hoping she was. She did not want to be the only one with the weird feeling. She was already strange enough as it was.
"Molly." Taffy whispered.
"Yeah." Molly replied a bit too eagerly.
Taffy hesitated. "Uh...do you know where the bathroom is?"
Molly smiled into the darkness. "I don't, but we can look for it together." She suggested.
"Thanks."
Both girls slid out of their beds barefoot onto the cold stone floor. The school was so much like a castle that Molly would have felt like a princess if she hadn't been sent here to be a prisoner. None of the girls were allowed out of their rooms at night, but Molly assumed needing to use the bathroom would be an acceptable reason for wandering the halls in the dark.
She didn't know where the nearest bathroom was, but she knew all the girls had to share with each other based on room placement and floor level. If she remembered correctly from the map of the layout she'd barely been allowed to look at, each residence hall was supposed to have two bathrooms at either end.
Molly and Taffy tiptoed down the hall in search of the bathroom, shivering as the cold seeped through their feet. They turned right at the next corner.
"Here." Taffy said, gesturing to a dark opening the size of a door.
But Molly didn't stop. As if she were in a trance, Molly kept walking.
"Molly!" Taffy hissed as quietly as possible. Molly still didn't stop. Taffy glanced longingly at the opening to the bathroom, then back to Molly. She really had to pee, but if she let Molly continue down the hall on her own, she might get lost of caught by a night patrol or something.
Taffy tapped her foot, getting rather annoyed. "Oh, for the love of Pete!" She huffed, then hurried off after Molly after giving one last longing look at the bathroom.
The two wandered the halls for quite a while before Molly stopped suddenly in front of Taffy, causing Taffy to crash into her and yelp in surprise. Molly broke from her stupor as she stumbled forward.
"Careful." She warned. Molly looked around, her eyebrows knotting. "Are we at the bathroom yet?"
Taffy lightly jumped from left foot to right foot and over again. "No. We passed it about forty-five minutes ago. You just kept on walking so I followed you to make sure you were okay."
"Wait....what?"
"I have no idea where we are." Taffy explained. "I wasn't really able to focus on all the turns we made and you just stopped a second ago. Were you sleep walking?"
Molly thought a moment, then shook her head. "I've never slept walked in my life."
Taffy continued to shift uncomfortably. "Well, do you know where you were going?"
Molly opened her mouth and glanced around, but froze when her eyes rested on the door on the right of the corridor. It was a light mahogony with an elegant gold placard that read "Library." Without thinking and without a word, Molly stepped over to the door and opened it inward. She stepped inside.
Taffy peered worriedly down both ends of the hall before following Molly into the Library.
"What are we doing?" She whispered.
"I don't know, but I think this is where I was going." Molly replied, running her fingers lightly along the books lining the shelves.
Taffy closed the door, trying to be smart about their little midnight adventure. She finally focused on the entirety of the room and gaped at its size.
"This library is huge!"
Books lined every wall, reaching from floor to ceiling with a second level to reach the ones higher up. In the center of the room were more shelves, filled with yet more books. It was every reader's dream.
"This place is so cool." Molly whispered back.
"I agree, but why did you want to come here in the middle of the night....while I have to pee, I might add." Taffy asked.
"I don't know." Molly said, studying the shelves intensely. "It's like an urge; you know, that feeling you get when you have something you need to do, but you can't remember what it is."
"I know the feeling." Taffy thought back to all the times she'd been drunk or stoned out of her mind. Even then she'd known she needed to go home, but her brain didn't understand; it only felt an urgency to act in some way.
"I found it."
Taffy spun toward Molly. "Found what?"
"Whatever it is I'm looking for." Molly said, holding up a forest green book, that was thin and tall.
Taffy walked to her side. "You know, this is starting to feel a little strange. Are you sure you're okay?"
"I'm fine."
Both girls studied the book. There was nothing on the cover and no title on the binding.
"What do you think it is?" Taffy wondered.
"Hey!"
Taffy jumped and Molly's head snapped to the side at the sudden interruption. A bright light shone in both their eyes, blinding them.
"What are you two girls doing in here?" The voice was rough and chalky and most definitely angry.
Molly tucked the book beneath her nightshirt. Taffy brought a hand up to shield her eyes. They were in a lot of trouble.
"We got lost looking for the bathroom." Taffy explained.
The man lowered his flashlight from their faces. "Nice try. This floor is restricted at night. You're a long ways from any bathroom."
When the spots dissolved from Molly's eyes, she could make out his silhouette. He was tall, wearing a tan uniform, had dark hair and a pinched face. His face was smug as if he were unhappy to be awake this late, but his eyes glimmered with something close to excitement. She bet his job got pretty boring when nobody broke the rules. They'd just made his night.
"Let's go." He gestured to the door with his flashlight.
Taffy and Molly exited the library, dreading what would happen next. Was he going to let them off with a warning?
As soon as he closed the door, Taffy said, "I really do have to use a bathroom though."
He showed no emotion. "Let's go!"
He guided them down the hall and a couple flights of stairs before stopping them outside a door. He knocked three times, the sound echoeing abnormally loud in the quiet tranquility of the night. Taffy flinched, wanting anything but to be standing here. Molly kept her arms crossed tightly across her stomach, holding the book firmly beneath her nightshirt. It's proximity gave her courage.
The door opened after a few minutes and a woman's face appeared, lighted by candle light. Her face was wrinkled, but that was the only feature that gave away her age. Her hair was a radiant golden blonde and her eyes a bright blue. Her fingers were lithe on the door and her robe covered a thin, but healthy frame.
"I'm sorry to disturb you so late sister, but I found these girls wandering where they shouldn't be." The guard said.
The sister's eyes shifted to Molly and Taffy. She didn't smile. If anything, her face seemed to harden.
"Thank you Oliver. I'll take it from here."
The guard, Oliver, nodded, gave Molly and Taffy one last stern look, then dissapeared.
"Come in girls." The sister opened the door wide.
Her tone wasn't inviting and set Molly's teeth on edge, but the two didn't really have a choice. Taffy entered first, followed by Molly. The room was circular with a desk at the far end and a closet closest to the door they had just come through. Taffy stopped just before the desk and Molly glanced to their right where a door stood ajar, leading into a room where she could barely see the edge of a cot.
"So you two have been wandering, have you?" The sister inquired, moving around them to the other side of the desk. "I take it you're new here."
Taffy glanced at Molly and they both nodded.
The sister smiled, but it was a wicked kind of smile. "I figured as much."
"So, what now? You give us a lecture?" Molly asked, having to hold back so she didn't sound snarky.
This woman was getting on her nerves. First the guard hadn't been very kind and the look in his eyes had made her uneasy. He was all too happy to turn them over into her care, which didn't make her feel any better about the woman.
She chuckled. "A lecture? Oh no no no. Words tend to fall on deaf ears; they never quite stick."
"What does that mean?" Taffy asked nervously.
"Well, let's just say I guarantee you won't be wandering the halls again when you aren't supposed to be." The sister explained as she walked over to the cabinet.
Taffy watched her with wide eyes, a thousand possible punishments running through her head. Molly's lips set in a frown. The sister opened the cabinet to reveal a bunch of dark hanging objects. Most were hard to make out in the small flickering light of the candle, but Molly saw clearly the item the sister removed from the cabinet.
A dark, thick cane. The sister pulled at one end to illustrate the cane's flexibility. Taffy's eyes widened further. Molly hugged the book to her chest tighter.
"That's barbaric!" She exclaimed.
The sister scoffed. "You'll find we do things a little old-school here at St. Ignatious." She paused. "Bend over. On the desk."
Taffy stared at her in horror.
"You can't be serious." Molly said.
"Oh, I am quite serious. Now bend over, the both of you." The sister ordered.
"Wait!" Molly cried. "Taffy had nothing to do with this. I was the one who dragged her out with me."
"And yet she seems to have gone willingly. Now bend over or I'll make you bend over." She replied dangerously.
Molly watched her finger the cane and a deep hatred burned inside her. This woman was a cold-hearted bitch. Worst of all, this whole mess was her fault. There was no way she was subjected herself or Taffy to this barbaric torture.
"No."
"No?" The sister laughed. "We'll just have to do this the hard way then."
The sister strode over to Molly, grasped her upper arm, and spun her towards the desk. She was stronger than she looked. Molly fell against the desk and the sister forced her down, holding her face against the cool wood. The cane cracked against her butt once, twice. It stung, even through the fabric of her nightpants.
Molly cried out at each strike. It continued eighteen more times. Then the sister released her and forced Taffy onto the desk as well. Molly didn't want to move. Her behind stung and her body was stiff. She forced her head up off the desk and turned to face Taffy as the first crack resounded. Taffy's face scrunched up in pain and she cried out, tears squeezing out of her eyes as the cane struck again. Molly gripped the table like a lifeline. When Taffy's eyes met hers, Molly apologized with her own.
Taffy glanced toward the floor, her face turning red. Molly followed her line of sight to the liquid pooling at Taffy's feet. She'd wet herself.
"Ugh! You filthy girl!" The sister cried out, noticing the urine after she finished the lashes.
She moved back to the cabinet to return the cane to its proper place. Molly slid her hand across the small space between her and Taffy and gripped Taffy's hand in hers. The bitch wouldn't get away with this.
....................
A/N That got dark really fast. I've been watching too much American Horror Story. Sometimes the strangest of things will inspire you.