Bitter Kisses (It's Just High School #3) - Thandiwe Mpofu Page 0,11

the middle of the freezer.

Blinking furiously, I try to look away, the sudden light so intense for my eyes that had grown used to the dark.

“There she is,” the male voice purrs, standing in the doorway of the freezer, blocking the flood of light until he becomes a huge, intimidating shadow over me. I squint my eyes just to see him step forward slowly. “I thought you’d appreciate cooling off in your kind of environment, Ice Queen.”

The mockery and hate in the voice is clear.

Squinting some more, I try to see his face, but it’s cast in shadows, like the rest of his body.

He takes several steps into the freezer, just as another person, just as large, just as intimidating, steps in with him.

“Yeah, you’re nice and frozen, aren’t you?” the new guy says, a smug note in his voice. “From the day I met you, you’ve been nothing but a frozen bitch, thinking you’re above everyone else.”

Since the day I met him? Who is he?

“P…pleaseee.” The word comes out as a shiver, the voice sounding unfamiliar to my own ears, drowning out with the buzzing in the freezer. My teeth keep chattering. The throbbing pain in my head intensifies and all I can do is try to beg them to get me out of here. “Please.”

“Will you look at that,” one of them snickers, the mocking tone feels colder than the chilly breeze of the freezer. “The Ice Queen is begging.”

Through the slits of my eyes, I watch as the shadows become bigger, their threatening footsteps muffled by the pounding of my heart.

They’re coming toward me.

They’re going to touch me, to hurt me… I can feel the brazen intent of their eyes on me. It’s clear they’re the ones who did this to me. They hurt me and now, I’m naked, bleeding from somewhere, my body a glutton of pain and misery and completely at their mercy… and I’m pretty sure they have none.

“Yeah, she’s going to be begging louder soon enough,” the first guy says with a chuckle.

“W-why?” I croak, painfully aware of my nakedness but I can’t move to cover myself. “Why are you doing this?”

“Aww Mia,” one of them says, dropping down to peer over me. “Because we can.”

All the light is behind them, like the gates of hell are right behind them, but somehow, I can make out the evil glint on the eyes…

“Shane?” I gasp. What?

“The one and only baby,” he says, just before I see a flash of teeth.

“Why?” I whisper, the ominous feeling of danger and dread now nothing but a sense of impending disaster. My flight-fight response kicks in as he looks down at me, but I already know.

There is no way I’m getting out of this.

“Welcome to the land of the living,” he says. “We’ve been waiting for you!”

“Y-you won’t-t get away w-with this,” I stutter, my teeth chattering as another cold gust of air blows over me. I’m filled with so much shame and fear I’m sure he can smell it on me because his smirk is so sinister, so chilling and indifferent, I shover.

“Mia, the things I’m going to do to you…” he tsks. “Get the camera ready, that bastard Fitz has a package coming his way.”

No!

“What-t are you going to do to Julian?” I whisper, panic rising in me. Shane throws his head back and lets out a sinister, hyena laugh that makes my insides twist and knot up some more. He completely ignores my question. “Leave h-him alone.”

They laugh.

“This is going to be so much fun, bro, don’t you think?”

The other figure, who I’m pretty sure is Sean, steps forward slowly. He’s bigger, more menacing than his brother. I want to scoot back, get away from them both but I can’t move without an assault of excruciating agony slicing me eight ways into next week.

“After what this bitch did to me,” Sean says slowly. “She has more than earned everything.”

I have to fight.

I don’t have a choice. If I want to get out of this, I need to fight. It’s two—wait, there’s a girl out there—I’ll fight all of them if I have to.

The moment I feel Shane moving to touch me, I muster up all the strength I have and the pounding fear in me and jerk upright.

Agony rips me a new one, but I don’t wait to feel it, scrambling to get away from them. The door is right there. It’s open. If I can get to it before them, I can lock the