Stay or Go

Chapter 44

I am back at the place I vowed that I would die before ever seeing again. My heart hammering in my chest as I look up at the huge mansion in front of me, the building that has been the main focus of my nightmares since before I left its clutches. The people inside haunted my mind while awake, never knowing whether I was safe or not. I suck in a breath and close my eyes, taking a moment before making myself into the person I was before I moved back to Hawkins. I climb up the stoned steps and push open the heavy wooden doors. The entrance hall is empty as I expect it to be, everyone should be in classes or down in the lab for testing now. I arrived just in time to go unnoticed as I make my way towards a familiar office.

I don't even bother knocking once I reach it, I just push open the door and there, sitting in a high-backed leather chair is the Headmaster. His dark brown eyes light up when he sees me standing in the doorway, he places a hand on his chin and a smirk falls across his face. "Well, if it isn't my favourite student risen from the dead." I roll my eyes and step further into the room "it's kind of hard when you send two of your students to kill me." The Headmaster shrugs and leans back in his chair "bought you back didn't it." I stay quiet so he asks "what happened to Rosemary?" I shrug innocently, copying his actions. "Ash in the forest of Hawkins." Is the only explanation I give which makes his smile widen "good girl."

A shiver runs up my spine at those two words but I choose to ignore it. Along with the warning in my brain to run as fast as I can away from this school and everything it symbolises. Instead I shove those feelings down and plaster a swaggering smirk on my face "what do you want?" I ask coming and sitting down in the leather arm chair on my side of the desk. Headmaster's eyes gleam mischievously "I missed you." He says.

I lounge back, as though this isn't the last place I want to be. I check my nails absently "No, you want your best solider back." I argue and he chuckles, taking a pen out and placing it on the desk in front of him. "You always understood me better then anyone Lorelei." He says and I finally drop my hand and dropping the pretence.

"I'm not killing anyone for you. I don't do that anymore." I say coldly, Headmaster chuckles again and lifts the pen back up. "You have always been so headstrong." He muses as though I never said anything at all "but I don't want you back here just to send you off on some mission." We lock eyes across the desk and the hairs on the back of my neck stand up "I want you to help teach."

I scoff and cross one leg over the other "you sent two of your top performing students after me, just for me to come and teach?" He waves his hands in a nonchalant way. Then he goes completely serious and says "you are the best pupil we've ever had at the Academy. In the complete 20 years the school has been open I have never once seen anyone who adapted and embraced the powers blessed on you and learn so quickly the skills that are taught here."

He clears his throat and leans across the table menacingly "I have been willingly lenient with you this past year Lorelei." He says, his voice deep and full of threat "but you know what happens if you break the contract you signed in your first year. And I refuse to loose my star over something petty like that." I bite the inside of my cheek. Remembering when I signed the contract.

I remember it like it was yesterday because it's the day my life truly changed. I remember walking in, the two adults walking behind us making sure we can't escape. I remember we were taken to a room where a man sat at a table, much like a desk and held out two pens. One for each of us. "What is this?" Richard asked when we looked down at the paperwork in front of us.

He was the only one to question it, I didn't think it was anything bad. I just got into my dream school, how could anything go wrong? And that's where it started.

The Headmaster clears his throat snapping me back to reality. He clasps his hands tightly and places them on the desk "you know as well as I that it's either you work for us for a year or you die. I think we both know which option you will choose." He's right of course, even if I hadn't planned to take them down no one chooses death. Ever. But then they end up extending your contract until you are stuck here. It's how they make sure you don't rat them out.

I sigh heavily and go back to admiring my nails. "Are you going to sit there and do nothing or are you going to get me that contract?" I ask and he chuckles darkly making my blood run cold.