Chapter 8

I felt relaxed, finally, holding Scott close in bed, the sweat from our lovemaking mixing together. As soon as I walked in, I’d peeled him out of his clothes and attacked him with my mouth. I’d waved him off when he wanted to lick me. Then we’d talked and kissed, cuddled and tickled, for over an hour until he was ready again. He’d spent a while kissing various parts of me, making sure I was ready. It wasn’t necessary, I’d been ready since I walked in the door, but it made both of us feel good. Then I’d spread my legs, inviting him to take me. He did, long, deep, and slow, holding off the faster strokes that would get both of us where we wanted to be, until I begged him to give me the release I needed. When he finally did, it left me completely drained. Now, enjoying the afterglow, his eyes looked so big, so close. I smiled and kissed him. “So you know this is our last time, right?”

He returned my kiss. “I know. This has been really, really nice. I just feel lucky we could meet and have this time together we could remember.”

I sighed. “I’m lucky too. And I’d give anything to stay here all day, or just another hour. But I have to go.” I looked at him with a sad face.

He reached out with fingers from both hands and pulled both corners of my mouth upward, making me giggle. “Don’t give me that frown. The reason you have to go is... you’re in the Academy!”

I pumped my arms in delight. “I know!!” I kissed him again, and stood up to round up my clothes.

He watched me from the bed, his head propped on his elbow-supported hand. “I know you can’t even call me, because you can’t talk to anybody on the outside. But I’ll be imagining what you’re doing while you’re there, making new friends and practicing hanging ... just being happy. I’m so glad you got that chance!”

I bent down and kissed him one more time. “And I’ll always imagine you’ve found a way to be as happy as I am right now. I hope you do!” I straightened up, reaching behind me to open the door. I gestured with one hand. “Turn around and face the other way, okay?” I hurriedly brushed at my eye.

He did. I left before he turned back.

I drove to the offices of Cameron Industries, and rushed up to the main office. A few minutes later I was in Father’s office.

I ran around his desk and wrapped my arms around him. “I got in, Daddy!”

Father beamed at me. “That’s great, Amy! I’m proud of you.”

I had never before heard Father say that to me.

“I’m leaving to go there now, Dad.”

He looked surprised. “I’d had the impression you didn’t start there until September. Am I remembering that right?”

I nodded. “I know, Dad. But there isn’t anything in my life more important to me than being there, and there’s nothing left that I have to do here. I’m sorry to cut a month off the end of the time I could spend with you, but you understand, don’t you? Don’t you?”

He looked steadily at me, saw the look in my eyes. “I do now, I think.”

“Dad, thank you for everything you’ve ever done for me, you and Mom both. And...” I grinned at him. “See you one more time in about three years. Okay?”

He returned my smile. “Looking forward to it, sweetheart.”

I gave him a kiss on the cheek. “Bye, Daddy. Wish me luck!” I turned and ran out the door, turning to blow him a kiss. “Luck!” he called out as I went out the front door into the hallway.

I drove at excess speed to the bank, walking out with five thousand dollars in cash. Speeding home, I ran up to my room. I grabbed the Academy letter and envelope, and ran downstairs to use Dad’s shredder. I nearly fed the envelope into the shredder as well, but stopped myself, giggling. No, I’ve got a place for this.

I took it back up to my room, filled my tote bag with the few possessions I was taking, and a large box containing my most important possession of all. The other boxes, with the names, were already gone. Melville had no doubt moved them downstairs.

In the hallway, I put my things down on the floor for a moment, and went into Andrew’s room. I tossed the slave collar onto the bed. Then I arranged the fifty crisp hundred-dollar bills from the bank in a sunburst pattern around the envelope, with its Hanging Academy return address, my name prominently displayed. I was so glad Andrew wasn’t home, though that was normal this week—he was avoiding contact with me as much as possible in the interests of keeping a deal from which he had a lot to gain. I wished I could see his face when he saw this, but I needed to be safely away. I picked up my possessions again, and walked back up the hall, taking one last look at my bedroom. It had been the one corner of the world that belonged to me, for as long as I could remember.

I sighed and went down the stairs and took a last look at the house as well. Then I put my things in the car and sped down the drive towards the street. Heading for the Academy.

I wasn’t supposed to report to the Academy for a month. Andrew would be anticipating that I would remain at home that month.

I knew, with absolute certainty, that if I did wait, if I gathered all my things and said all my goodbyes and drove to the Academy in September, I would never get there. That month would give Andrew all the time he needed to make his plans for intercepting me, or to have someone else do it.

Andrew’s style, I felt certain, would be to knock me out with a drug, most likely administered by a dart. I would wake up in the dark, in that tiny underground closet, in chains. In a slave collar. All hope lost. Even Father wouldn’t know I was missing. He would assume I was at the Academy, and I couldn’t contact him from there. He would never guess I was Andrew’s badly-treated sex toy, secured underground where no sound I made could escape, where no one who didn’t know exactly where I was could possibly find me.

There was only one way to avoid that ghastly future.

I drove into the Academy parking lot, looking at my watch. I had made it in time.

Out of breath, I entered the Admissions office, startling Sheila with the sight of a slightly bedraggled girl carrying a huge box under one arm and a tote bag over my shoulder. “Sheila, is Ms. Bennett still in?”

Sheila, looking as if she wondered what sort of emergency this could possibly be, picked up her phone and buzzed Ms. Bennett’s office. A moment later, Ms. Bennett came out. “Oh, Amy, you made it. Is...” She stopped, puzzled. She hadn’t expected me to be quite so encumbered.

“Hi, Ms. Bennett. Could we go into your office a minute?”

Ms. Bennett nodded. “Of course, Amy.” She gestured for me to follow her.

I sank down into the chair in front of the desk in the office, relieved that I could stop moving at last. I reached into the tote bag and pulled out a folded sheet of paper. Excitement bubbled inside me. The paper completed my access to my dream. “Here’s my parental permission form.” I put it on the desk in front of Ms. Bennett.

Ms. Bennett picked up the form, looked over it and nodded. “I’ll put this in your folder, Amy, and your admission is complete as of now.” She looked at me with a puzzled expression. “I know this can’t be the reason you’re here.” She looked at my tote bag and the larger box on the floor.

“Ms. Bennett—I really, really hope this is possible. Could I stay here, at the Academy, until classes start?”

Ms. Bennett’s eyes shot open wide. “Why, Amy?”

I had resolved to tell as much of the truth as I could. “It’s really a long story, and I’ll tell you everything, if you need me to do that. The short version is, I think my brother is a danger to me.”

Ms. Bennett’s eyes narrowed now. “Why would he be a danger?”

I sought for a way to say it. “He had ... other plans for me, instead of being here.”

Ms. Bennett looked at me, and slowly nodded. “I understand. I think. We haven’t really done anything like this before. I’d certainly have to consult with Dean Porter on what our policies would be.”

“I understand that completely, ma’am. If this helps, could you tell him that I have over twenty ... no, I’m sorry, over fifteen thousand dollars in my savings, and I’ll give that to the Academy? Here’s my debit card...” I put it on the desk, “ ... and I’ll write down the PIN number. And my car is out in front. Here are the keys ... and I’ll sign my ownership over to the Academy too. And if there’s a job you want me to do, like ... well, I’m sure you have your own cafeteria, obviously, and there must be people working there. But any job, really. I’ll do it.”