Chapter 9

Michelle Hsi couldn’t believe what she was seeing, and couldn’t decide what was more improbable. Finding Mr. Messina lying naked on the floor of his lab, or finding Endora Hardin lying naked beside him. As the other six girls stacked up behind Michelle, they reacted in similar fashion. Pulling up short and gaping at what they saw.

“What the fuck...,” Olivia breathed, gripping her hair and shaking her head in horror and disbelief. “Oh my god. Oh my fucking god.”

That sentiment perfectly summed up Michelle’s thoughts on the matter as well. Then she noticed the yellow flight case sitting open on the floor beside Endora, which immediately drew her attention to Mr. Messina’s massive erection, and his stuporous, semi-conscious state. It was now abundantly clear what Endora meant when she said the plan was in motion.

Endora sat up and yawned. “You’re here!” she said with a groggy smile, as if welcoming old friends into her bedroom.

Of all the shocking elements for her to process, and there were several to choose from, the most remarkable to Michelle at that moment was Endora’s apparent disregard for her own nakedness. Michelle had known the troubled sixteen-year old for years, since her very first day at Scirewood, and she could still vividly recall her screaming meltdown when they tried to force her to wear shorts and a t-shirt in Ms. Rosen’s class, until the school administrator stepped in to intervene, giving her the option to wear long sleeves and sweat pants if she would just stop screaming.

Michelle had rarely seen Endora uncovered below her neck or above her ankles until that moment, and yet for all her varied neuroses and compulsions about hiding her body, Michelle was struck by just how normal she appeared. A slightly curvy figure with smooth, alabaster skin and fantastic, nearly perfect breasts. One might even call her attractive, if Michelle were inclined to evaluate her odd friend in that way, which she wasn’t.

While the others stood dumbfounded, entranced by the disturbingly hedonic tableau Endora had prepared for them, Mia shoved past them all to reach Mr. Messina. She knelt down beside him, first to check his pulse and then his breathing. She pulled back his eyelids to check his pupillary response. Actions and procedures that all of them had trained for and practiced extensively, but which she alone took seriously enough to set aside her initial shock in order to verify the health and safety of the ... Was patient the right word, Michelle wondered?

That Mia came from a family of psychiatrists and medical doctors with their own private practice might have instilled in her a certain aptitude and conscientiousness for prioritizing the wellbeing of others. In fact, it was by surreptitiously leveraging her family’s medical licensure and professional contacts that the Robotics Club was able to gain access to the highly-restricted pharmaceuticals in the yellow case, which otherwise would have remained entirely out of their reach.

“He’s fine,” Endora said with a satisfied smile. “Better than fine.”

Mia stood and backed away, the apprehension and uncertainty she felt plain on her pale face. Michelle finally managed to gather her wits and stepped forward to take control of this clusterfuck of a situation.

“What the fuck is this?” she asked Endora, gesturing to Mr. Messina.

Endora looked at him and then at her. “The plan.”

“The plan? This isn’t the fucking plan, Endora! The plan was to do this at the hotel, with all of us. And not to, you know, fucking knock him out completely!” A sudden realization caused her to falter. “Oh my god, did you ... did you have sex with him like this?”

Endora traced a figure eight on Mr. Messina’s chest with her fingertip, then cast her eyes down and grinned, nodding her head.

“Oh my god, Endora. Y-you fucking raped him!”

“So what!” Endora snarled, her demeanor shifting in a flash. She pushed herself up and stepped over Mr. Messina’s prone body to stand in front of Michelle, and the fact she did it naked made it all the more intimidating. “This was your plan, Michelle. Sedated or not, your plan was to drug him.”

“So we could seduce him!” Michelle yelled, shocked beyond all belief by her friend’s complete lack of morals. “To loosen him up! Not to knock him out!”

“Potato, potahto,” Endora said. “Drugs, coercion. It’s all the same. This way is more...,” she glanced back over her shoulder, “expedient.”

Michelle sidestepped her naked friend and paced away. “We have to get him out of here. Now! No more fucking around. Where are his clothes?”

“He’s not going anywhere,” Endora said, her voice low and menacing. “He’s staying right here, and so are you. So are all of you.”

“Endora, stop it!” Sophia said, but there was no strength behind the words, and they came out sounding like a plea.

“No one leaves!” Endora shouted, silencing them all. She swung her pointed finger at all of them. “Or I burn it all to the ground. I’ll tell everyone what we did, and we’ll all go to jail.”

“Please, Endora,” Mia begged, her voice trembling. “Don’t do this.”

“Shut the fuck up, Mia! Do you want to see your family lose their medical licenses? Because I’ll make sure it happens.”

Mia cried and shook her head. “Oh god, no..., please don’t...”

Olivia raised her hands. “Endora, this is fucking insane.” She gestured to Mr. Messina and said, “We can’t do this to him. It’s wrong.”

“I guess you should have thought about that before you planned to blackmail him then,” Endora said, then turned to address the others. “Listen up! This is the only chance we’ll ever get. He’s getting fired! Don’t you understand that?” She turned to glare at Michelle.

“Everyone knows about those fucking videos, thanks to you, idiot. Everyone. It’s all over school. Girls are already starting to brag about having sex with him. He’s suing the school, or maybe they’re suing him. Who fucking knows, but whatever it is, lawyers are involved now. And he had a moving truck here earlier. It’s fucking over, Michelle. Don’t you get it? Over!”

“I don’t care. I won’t do this. It’s wrong.”

“Fuck this,” Sophia said, finally summoning the courage to speak out. “You’re fucking sick, Endora. I don’t know about the rest of you, but I’m getting the fuck out of here before someone finds us. Who’s with me?”

Endora moved so swiftly that Michelle never saw it coming. She stepped forward and brought her hand down in one swift motion, jabbing the syringe concealed behind her wrist into Sophia’s neck and depressing the plunger. Sophia hardly reacted. She just stared at Endora with wide, shocked eyes.

“You stabbed me,” she said quietly, too astonished to react any other way.

Endora backed away from her and brandished a second syringe. “Don’t even think about it,” she said to Madison, who had been preparing to join Sophia in making their escape.

Madison froze in her tracks. Sophia stumbled sideways, holding her neck. She acted drunk. She leaned against one of the large machines for support, but consciousness was quickly fading away.

“You better help her before she falls and cracks her head open,” Endora said with a morbid chuckle.

Olivia was closest to her and did just that, catching her friend just as her knees buckled, and eased her to the floor.

“So,” Endora said cheerfully, as if none of that had just happened. “Who wants to go first?”

Something was definitely going on. She could sense it.

From her perch in the glass-walled sunroom, Linda Bryson had seen the students from Overton’s fourth floor buzzing around Mike Messina’s basement workshop all day. First that strange girl, Endora, prowling around Leavitt Hall, then Michelle Hsi and all her little minions in that so-called Robotics Club of theirs. One by one, they had disappeared behind the building, and she hadn’t seen a single one since.

Something was most definitely going on. She picked up the walkie talkie all faculty members were required to carry and pressed the button.

“Rachel.”

There was a long, irritating delay before she responded. “Yeah, go ahead.”

“Have you seen any of the girls from the fourth floor recently?”

Another long pause. “Michelle, Olivia, and Mia were with me at the equestrian pen earlier. Why, what’s up?”

“When was that?”

“I don’t know. A couple hours ago. Why?”

“Where are they now?”

“They went back to the dorm. Why? Is everything okay?”

“Would you please go check on them,” Linda said, frustrated by Rachel’s incessant questioning, but forcing herself to remain calm and pleasant.

“Now?”

Linda sighed. “Yes, now.”

“Okay ... but I’m a little busy at the moment. Can it wait?”

Linda stood up. “Just do it, Rachel. Get over there and tell me if you find them. Copy?”

After far too long a pause, her response came back. “Copy that.”

Linda closed her eyes and blew out a calming breath. This was it. Mike Messina had fucked up. Those girls were in there with him. She was certain of it. All she had to do now was catch him in the act, and she’d have him.

Waiting for Rachel to report back left her on tenterhooks. If it were up to Linda, someone would be stationed at Overton House at all times. She’d been lobbying the Board for years to increase supervision, especially on weekends and holidays, but her requests were always denied.

Not enough room in the budget, they said. Besides, they already had two staff members plus a nurse on campus at all times, they reasoned. But that included Linda. Surely they didn’t expect her, the Administrative Director, to be personally responsible for babysitting students. It was an absurd waste of her time. She suggested hiring grad students from the university’s teaching program to fill the gaps, but this idea was shot down too. You have plenty of staff, they said. Bullshit.