Chapter 6: Pulled from the Hallway

I violently jerked my head back, stepping away from Mason so fast his fingers dropped into thin air. "I have to go," I blurted out, my voice high and entirely frantic.

Mason blinked, his hand still hovering where my face had just been. "Ivy? Wait, what about lunch? Are you okay?"

"I can't. I forgot I have a quiz in my next class," I lied, my eyes darting past his shoulder.

Leo was already moving, his heavy boots making a sharp, threatening sound against the floor tiles as he strode away from the dented locker, not looking back once. Jax scrambled to pick up the bouncing basketball, jogging to keep up with him. The sheer, explosive tension left behind in the corridor felt like heavy static.

"Ivy, hold on—" Mason reached out again, but I was already backing up, my sneakers hitting the concrete.

"I'll talk to you later, Mason. Thanks anyway!" I turned and bolted down the opposite corridor, the thick fabric of Leo’s black hoodie heavy against my skin, shielding the cold coffee stain and the dark bruise beneath.

The rest of the afternoon passed in a complete, agonizing blur. I sat in the very back row of the lecture hall, my textbook open on my desk, but I couldn't process a single sentence. The professor's voice sounded like static, washing right over my head. My chest felt permanently tight, my heart knocking rhythmically against my ribs every time someone shifted in their seat or opened a door.

Buzz.

I jumped, my hands flying down to my lap where my phone sat face-up on my denim jeans. The screen lit up with a message from an unlisted number.

Who told him he could touch you?

My throat dried up instantly. I stared at the glowing text, my fingers locking up over the screen. Before I could even think about typing a response, the phone vibrated in my palm again.

Answer me, Ivy.

I shoved the phone under my thigh, trying to look straight ahead at the whiteboard. My face was burning hot. The sheer audacity of it made me want to scream, but the absolute terror of what he might do next kept me completely frozen in my seat. He had been standing right there. He had seen Mason tuck that hair behind my ear, and now he was hounding me from across campus while sitting in a completely different building.

Buzz.

I pulled the phone out again, my thumb shaking as I unlocked the screen.

Get to the library basement archives. Right now.

"Never," I whispered under my breath, my jaw tightening. I flipped the phone completely face down on the wooden desk, refusing to look at it for the remaining forty minutes of the lecture. He didn't own me. He didn't get to treat me like a piece of absolute trash in the courtyard in front of his girlfriend and his friends, and then order me around like a dog the second we were behind closed doors. The humiliation from this morning was still fresh, still stinging my pride. I wasn't going to crawl to him just because he snapped his fingers.

When the professor finally dismissed the class, the loud scraping of chairs and chatter broke the silence. I packed my notebook into my bag with aggressive, jerky movements. I zipped the backpack closed, threw it over my shoulders, and waited until the majority of the students had crowded through the main double doors.

I deliberately chose the side exit of a long, narrow service corridor that bypassed the main campus square entirely. It was a quiet shortcut that led directly toward the freshman dorms, usually completely deserted around this time of day. The walls were plain concrete, illuminated by a few buzzing fluorescent lights overhead.

My sneakers clicked softly against the floor as I walked fast, my hands buried deep inside the front pocket of the oversized hoodie. The smell of winter air and tobacco was still trapped in the threads, filling my nose with every breath I took.

"Just get back to the room," I muttered to myself, increasing my pace. "Just lock the door and stay inside."

I passed the old biology labs, the doors locked and dark. The hallway turned a sharp corner, narrowing significantly. The quiet was almost absolute, save for the distant hum of the building's ventilation system.

Suddenly, a heavy shadow stepped out from the recess of a recessed doorway directly ahead of me.

Before a single gasp could even leave my throat, a large, calloused hand shot out through the dim light. His fingers wrapped around my wrist like a band of solid iron, the grip unyielding and completely ironclad.

"Hey! Let go of—"

I didn't even get to finish the sentence. With a sudden, violent yank, he hoisted me completely off my feet, pulling me straight into a dark, narrow opening on the right side of the wall.

The heavy metal door of the janitor's closet slammed shut behind us with a loud, echoing bang, the lock clicking into place instantly, plunging us into absolute, suffocating darkness.