The Teacher's Pet

Chapter Seventeen

James Levine:
It wasn't that hard to get out of bed again, since I could feel my legs again. But I'm sure to be very careful when I walk around the society, if I have to trust what Dante told me, and I'll take my chances.
As I walk around, I make sure to keep my eyes everywhere around me. Multiple people in the society are staring at me, but no one does anything, and as long as they don't I am safe. The only mission I have right now is to find Kat before tomorrow 8 PM. My only mission has always been just to find Kat, that girl has become my whole world over these past couple of weeks.
Before taking off, I go into the kitchen to get something to eat, I don't know how much I ate while I was out, but it couldn't be much, not more than some feeding tubes. My stomach feels completely empty, so empty that the hungry feeling has faded. There is only a feeling of weakness and feeling very slow.
The long hallways seem to never end, the walk that usually took 30 seconds now takes me triple as long. Slowly my head falls onto the floor, it's too heavy to keep my head up and look around. If they want to kill me, kill me. I probably deserve it.
I grip the side of the doorframe to the kitchen for some support. Some groans leave my body, please don't let anyone be in this kitchen.
As luck would have it, 2 silhouettes are standing in the kitchen, preparing food together. Some weird love birds.
"Are you okay, sir?" The voice sounds like one of an older man. We don't have that many older men at the society, so I lift my head to inspect both the man and the woman.
My jaw drops to the floor, I have to grip the wall tighter to keep steady. "No..." My voice falters as I want to say more. I have to sit down. "This... this can't be."
Their face is imprinted in my mind forever now. Their shocked looks, her blonde hair, his green eyes, both around the same age, definitely older than 50.
"How can you... how..." My head spins in a circle, the world around me fades. If I don't sit down right now, I will pass out again. I got up way too quickly, my body is still recovering after what Silas did. What Silas did. The anger enters my body once again. Just as I thought I couldn't hold onto the doorframe tighter, I gripped it tighter, even breaking a piece off.
"What do we do?" This time the voice of the female says. The voice that once sounded like it cared for her daughter, pretends to care for me now. Her arms fold under my shoulders, attempting to lift me up, which she obviously fails in. I am definitely double her body weight if not more.
"Get your hands off me woman!"
As she does, I let myself fall onto the floor. Spreading my legs right in the doorway, my back leaning against the frame. A groan rolls off my body, after another. Tiredness takes over my vision, the fight against closing my eyes becomes unbearable.
Suddenly water splashes on my face, I start gasping for air. The tiredness fades out of my body. Colors restart themselves in my vision, the world isn't so black and white anymore, somewhere I wish my vision was still blurry. Now I have to look at their faces again and be reminded of the first time seeing them, and now they're here, betrayers, liars.
"You need to stay down son." The male voice says as I try to get back up right after, not the smartest move I agree. But I can't just stay down and show my weakness out in the open like this.
"I am not your goddamn son." Another groan escapes when I didn't mean for it to. If he wasn't part of the society I would've killed him right here, in front of my eyes. But I couldn't do that, not just to the society, not to Kat either.
"I believe we have to have a talk."
"No," I answer quickly, with the most neutral tone, now standing up and walking around the room. "I don't think we do."
"You have to let me explain this James."
The last thing I want to do right now is have a conversation with these people while I still feel weak and drugged up.
"Please." Begging people are the most pathetic people on this earth.
My arms cross over my chest, I make sure to show off my arm muscles and stand with my legs a bit wide, a lot more intimidating than I was just a few minutes ago. "Go on."
They stare at each other for a beat, hoping I would sit down in the meantime. But I won't, never. This will be just a quick conversation, there is nothing I have to say to these horrible human beings.
"Listen James,"
"Please call me sir Levine."
He rolls his eyes, I almost walk out right then and there. But deep down curiosity burns through every layer of my skin.
"Sir Levine, we didn't know you were a part of this society. If we knew, we would've never even thought of going here."
"Of course you didn't! It's a completely secret society, you don't know who is here until you get in and slowly meet everyone. It's not too late to leave." Again they make eye contact, as if they're mind reading each other.
"What do you think Kat would think about this? Her parents part of an illegal society that kills people?" A hint of fear pops up in their eyes.
"Please, please do not tell Kat, she will never forgive us."
"Leave then."
Kat's father takes a deep breath, he sounds like he is going to cry, way too weak to ever be part of the society truly. But if they are going to get kicked out, they have to be killed, I couldn't give that pain to Kat.
"How the hell did you guys even get in? You both are clearly not willing to give everything for the society!" Another silence, this one louder and longer. "See those people over there?" I say while pointing to the dinner table where Liam's parents are sitting. Liam's parents, who recently found out about the death of their child. They didn't even dare to get mad at me for it, those are the rules. They didn't put a 'do not kill' barrier on Liam, so nothing was stopping me. It's not that easy to get a 'do not kill' barrier. There are only 5 for now, one on Kat. I almost killed myself to get one for her. "They lost their son because of the society, they truly gave up everything."
The shocked look on their faces tells me enough, they're not ready to be part of the society. I don't blame them, not many people are. That's why our group isn't the largest.
"Please sir Levine, don't tell our daughter, it will distract her from her studies and she won't be able to handle this news." I scoff to stop them from saying any more horrible things about Kat.
If she knew how her parents spoke about her, she would be heartbroken. They have so little faith in her, and they go behind her back with secrets such as these.
"We just wanted to do some good for this world, and through a friend, we got here."
"You want to do some good for the world? Go rescue some fucking puppies and stay the hell away from the society! You guys don't belong here and you both know it. But now you are trapped here forever, if you leave, I'll have to kill you both. And that pain... Kat would never get over that, so I can't do that."
"We don't want to leave, we came here to help this world." Again I scoff and laugh at these stupid words coming out of their filthy mouths. 'Help the world.' That's how they see the society. They will not make it far here.
"You think that's what this is all about? Helping the world? If you want to help this world, go demonstrate with the climate activists. The society does dark shit. Shit you can't even begin to wrap your head around, we slaughter, kill, torture. That's not something either of you would be able to do if I look at you both." They don't say anything to my short speech. They both know it's the truth, but now there is no way out anymore. They will have to kill, until they get killed themselves, and try their best to hide this from their precious daughter.
"All we ask from you, is that you don't tell Kat, please, we beg you." This seems like a perfect opportunity to make myself known a bit, to show not to mess with me, having leverage over people is the best you can have in the society.
"On your knees, both." They don't do exactly as I ask, instead, I just get 2 confused looks. "I am not repeating myself." Slowly, with an embarrassed look on their face, they sink to the floor in sync. It gives me a feeling of dominance, two grown adults kneeling in front of me, begging me not to spill their biggest secret to their daughter, the love of my life.
"Give me one reason why I shouldn't tell her."
"Because you care about her, and she wouldn't take this well."
"Take what well?" I ask, but not expecting an answer, I give the answer myself. "That her parents are actually traitors? That they would betray her and her little sister in a heartbeat? Not giving a fuck about them, only caring about themselves."
"That's not the truth! We do care about them! We care about them and so much more! That's why we came here..."
"Quiet!" I stop her from speaking and step closer to her, until her head is against my leg. With my hand, I grab a hand full of her hair, and pull it so she looks at me. "Did I ask you to explain yourself?" She stays quiet out of fear. "Didn't think so."
"Levine!" An angry known voice sounds from behind me. "You have to stop doing shit like this! They're new, let them be!" I drop the hand full of hair and turn around to face Dante. With much less anger this time, still a few leftovers, from the fact that he keeps allowing useless people in our society.
"You hired these people?" I say, stepping closer to Dante now. His brown eyes keep fixated on mine, a dark steady pattern, showing no fear whatsoever.
"Hey! Lower your tone, James. Know who you're speaking to." His voice keeps steady in a fluent line. The only person who isn't truly terrified of me, and it annoying the shit out of me.
The dark tone in Dante's voice makes me reconsider what I was about to say to him and I take a large step back. He is not flattered by me.
"Lucy, David, please, get up." Now they obey Dante's orders. I want to tell them to stay down, low to the ground, closer to hell, where they belong. But Dante would have my head.
"What is all that noise I hear in here?" Silas's head pops out from the door opening. Great, now Silas is here too. Our future society leader. The one who injected me with this devil's poison.
"Father?" He asks when he doesn't get an answer.
Dante doesn't move an inch, doesn't bother looking at his own son. "Silas, go to your room, I got this." Before Silas passes by, he gives me one of the dirtiest looks. I give him a 'go to hell' look back.
"James." He begins, as soon as he senses that Silas's presence is gone. "Are we going to have a problem?" It doesn't matter that Dante is at the beginning of his sixties, he still acts like he's a strong 40-year-old man, he doesn't fail in acting that way. One of the only men that actually is stronger and more trained than me, the only man that I would ever get intimidated by.
"No sir."
"Good, that's what I thought." A silence hits a silence where I don't know what to do with my arms or legs other than just letting them hang there. "Apologize."
"What?" I ask, just to make sure I heard that right.
"You heard me James."
If Dante thinks for even a second that I am going to apologize to these low lives, he is less intelligent than I imagined him to be.
"Fuck no."
"Real mature." His voice turns bitter and sour at the same time, it doesn't suit his serious expression.
While rolling my eyes, I make my way past Dante, making sure to bump into him as I go. His hand wraps itself tightly around my arm, pulling my back. His mouth is right next to my ear, I can hear him breathe in it.
"James, a word please."
Without giving him a response, he pulls me into a room next door. Computers and screens are spread all across the room, this must be the room of a hacker, clearly.
"What is going on with you son? This is the second time now?"
"That's the same question I could be asking you sir, since when do you hire people like them and Diana?"
Dante sighs, the sigh lasts longer than a normal one, giving him more time to think about what he's going to say next. "Since when do you care so much about that?"
"I've always cared! Have you never noticed that? This society, is my only home, the only home I have ever known, the one place I feel like home, I'm not going to let it be ruined by some low lives. How do you know we can trust them? They're weak!"
"Do not raise your voice at me." Dante's voice sounds a lot stricter. His eyebrows fall in front of his eyes, giving him the strict look that matches his voice.
"We are hoping to train new people, and not just picking out the strongest and scariest people. That will work, but not long term, they won't get loyal to us. But people like Diana, people like Lucy and David are going to be loyal to us for the rest of their lives." Dante clearly has no idea who these Lucy and David people are. He invites people into our society without proper research, that's the thing making me most angry right now.
"Lucy and David..." I have to pause to swallow the breath trapped in my throat. "They're the parents of Kat."
Dante raises one of his eyebrows, letting me know how confused he is.
"Katherine Claire."
"Ah, the one on the do not kill list." He is starting to understand, but not my connection to Kat. "Well, good for them, their daughter is on the do not kill list. They're lucky, Liam's parents would be jealous." Everyone acts like it's a secret that I killed Liam, even Dante. While everyone knows I did it, and I am not ashamed, I have no regrets. He touched Kat.
"Dante, don't you understand?" I gave him so many hints, he must understand now. He lifts up his other eyebrow too, looking even more confused now. "Kat doesn't know her parents are part of this society, and it will hurt her so much if she finds out about the betrayal..."
"Why would you care James? You never do." The harsh truth hits me, but this is the one girl I do care about.
"I..." It's hard to say the words out loud to him, it feels like dropping my guard, my dominance. "I am in love with Kat." My cheeks run pink, please don't let him notice I'm blushing.
"You're... How? You're in love." He's just as surprised as Tyler was when he found out. "Does she know yet?"
"I made some mistakes with her... But I'm going to fix it, and I'm going to make her mine, she will be mine forever." The confused look on his face turns doubtful.
"Be careful, I don't want this to turn into an obsession."
I laugh, right in his face, I laugh at him, for saying such reckless words. "I don't just fall in love as you and many others know, I am already obsessed, that girl is mine, mine only."
Dante shakes his head, slight disappointment, but nothing is going to change, we both know it.
"She's just as obsessed." He simply nods, not knowing what else to say, not knowing if he should believe me. "The reason why I killed Liam... Is because he touched Kat." The first time speaking the truth about it, I don't know how Dante will react. He might scream, he might kick me out, he might understand me.
"Okay."
Now I am the one with the confused look on my face. Okay? That's it? He doesn't care? Or is it a disappointed okay?
"James, you have to stop this, your obsession is already taking it way too far. Kat is not worth it." His words make me angry, Dante has never even seen Kat and he dares to say such reckless words. Kat is worth every single moment of pain, every single kill, every breath I take, it's all hers.
My body, my soul, my heart, it's hers, she can have it and I don't ever want it back.