Page 105 of Eat. Prey. Love.
Renard nods, the uncertainty wiped from his face by the reminder. “Good point. Ensure that he’s too entangled in his own mess to ever think of crossing us again, and get the revenge you crave, Fitzgerald. I understand completely.”
When I’m done with the laptop, I put it back and rub my hands together. “On to more trouble for the dickface.”
Together we lay traps both cunning and cruel—ink cartridges filled with permanent dye, shoes lined with substances that’ll make every step a sticky nightmare, food containers altered to allow them to go bad without being noticed. We sabotage every semblance of normalcy, ensuring his day-to-day becomes a labyrinth of frustration. Some of the tricks might be overkill and slightly dangerous, but I don’t give a hairy rat’s ass. If Asani gets sick or injured? More’s the better as payment for his sins.
It’s not enough, but it will do for now.
“Rockland’s next,” I say, a dark anticipation coiling within me.
We’ve saved the best—or rather, the worst—for last. After locking up Asani’s lair, we slip down the hallway and out of that building. I know where the nasty corpse sucking bitch’s place is as well, so the path we take is quick and efficient.
The air shifts as we approach her door, charged with the promise of retribution. Rockland, whose venom has seeped deep into Dolly’s psyche, needs a taste of her own medicine. I won’t be content with mere inconvenience; I crave to see her undone.
“Remember how she treats Chessie and how close she comes to breaking what’s ours. Every week, she tries to do what thosebitches and her mother failed to do,” I remind Renard, my voice barely above a growl. We’re not just avenging Dolly now; we’re protecting the future prey from Rockland’s twisted games.
“We will wreck her world,” Renard agrees, fury mirrored in his eyes. “I do not want to seema petitecome back from another one of those sessions looking so angry and upset.”
We enter, and immediately set about turning her sanctuary into a trap-laden hell. I rig her personal devices to malfunction at critical moments, weave tripwires that blend seamlessly with her extravagant carpets, and tamper with her beauty products, mixing in compounds that will leave her skin itching for days. Ren works on spoiling food, staining things, and making sure her appliances are set to fail or break with use.
Like Asani, this isn’t enough for me, but it will sate my cat for a small time.
“She needs to feel a fraction of the pain she inflicted,” I whisper, satisfaction curling in my chest like a contented beast. I sit at her desk, hacking into her desktop computer with a dark grin. Sending as many of her files as I can to my own servers for examination, I chuckle, then get to work on finanaces, identity documents, and putting her life up for sale on the dark web. Once that’s done, I move to destroying any connections she might have by sending malicious malware to them from her.
“Done,” Renard says, a finality in his tone as he comes in from the other rooms..
I nod, taking a few more minutes to set Rockland up for as many horrible online experiences as I can before I push back from her equipment. “Okay.”
Stepping out into the daylight, I look around carefully. The chill in the air seems to dance mockingly on my skin, pairing with the satisfaction that twines through my veins after our little caper. We move with stealth as we retreat from Rockland’s quarters, a minefield of carefully orchestrated chaos left in our wake.
“Think she’ll ever suspect it was us?” Renard muses, his voice low and laced with mischief. His eyes are bright with the thrill of our covert operation. I doubt he’s going to get over doing this for quite a bit; in fact, he’ll probably want to get a hit of the excitement again later.
I can live with that.
Shaking my head, I smirk. “Not a chance. We were careful to be ghosts—unseen but felt.”
As we leave the tunnel, the main campus is quiet, a stark contrast to the tempest we’ve just unleashed behind closed doors. Our footsteps are muffled by the grass as we make our way back to the library. The air feels charged with the energy of our deeds, a silent acknowledgment of the balance we’ve tipped in Dolly’s favor.
“Today, we struck back and that feels good,” I state, my tone resolute. Renard nods, the grim satisfaction evident on his face.
“We did it without spilling a drop of blood,” he adds. “Which means we’ve followed Felix and Dolly’s requests not to make things worse before we know who is pulling all the strings. They wouldn’t have thought we’d get this creative, Fitzgerald, but we did it.”
“Desperation breeds innovation,” I reply, feeling the weight of our actions settle comfortably within me. “For Dolly, I happily rewrote my usual rules of engagement.”
Renard claps me on the shoulder, a silent signal of a job well done. “Me, too,mon ami. I feel a modicum less rage at her treatment now that we have served them some well earned punishment.”
Hopefully, it will hold our beasts in check until we can mete out therealjustice in the future.
IDid Something Bad
I pushthe office door open, leaving the cursed place with a spring in my step that wasn’t there when I walked in. Rockland’s absence is like an unexpected holiday, a reprieve from whatever abusive nonsense she had planned for our meeting. My phone vibrates as I stride through the hallway, light pouring in from tall windows.
Today might actually be a good day—it’s a fucking miracle.
BabyGirl: Rockland was a no-show. Think your stuff cowed her,Fitzy?
Though I didn’t ask them to, my crazy tiger and my mischievous gargoyle went on a rampage of vengeful shenanigans last week. They were eager for revenge on the staff members who have been shitty to me since we returned from break to face the false accusations. Clearly, Midori and the other assholes spread shit around with the professors as Amity has with the students, and it’s made me a veritable pariah. I don’t much care about the students glaring and avoiding me—I’m used to that shit. The teachers aren’t new, either, but that comes with its own set of challenges. I have to be cautious of everything I do and say in their presence to keep people from adding to my administrative misery.
TigerWoody: Then our master plan worked, Baby Girl. The moping mythical and I managed to push those fuckers into a corner.