Black Academy

Chapter 21 - Part 6

Uncomfortably she fiddled with her corsage. Rapunzel had chosen the stunning white orchid, plucked from the plant Flynn had given her. She mustn't spoilt it. She nibbled on a nail instead, then clasped her fingers. "Go on," she said at last. "We're not all evil, Elsa. You've met the worst of us. You need to come back so that you can meet the best." Her lip curled. "I don't want anything to do with any of you." "That's not an option, believe me. I'm sorry. I should have taken Bonnie's little fantasies more seriously, but I never thought she'd have the nerve to defy me. It's a stubborn spirit you have inside you, Elsa. Stubborn and malevolent." "Half," Elsa corrected him. "Half a stubborn, malevolent spirit."

Sir Pitch hesitated, took a deep  breath. "And one that still needs to be fed." With a small moan, Elsa put her face in her hands. "You must have suspected it. Now do you see, Elsa? You have to return to the Black Academy." She didn't speak, refused even to look at him. "By the time you come back in the New Year, you'll be desperate to feed. The spirit will have begun to grow, to create the home it needs. That takes a lot of life force, Elsa, believe me." "So what if I starve it?" she growled. "Believe me, Elsa, you'll feed." He sounded sad. "You don't know how, yet - not without causing harm. It's my job to teach you." "I'd never hurt anyone!" she said fiercely. "But you will, when you grow hungry enough. When the spirit does, that is. You'll feed because you can't help yourself, and you could kill someone. Is that what you want?" Slowly, Elsa shook her head. "You'll feed. You'll have to feed your whole life; you'll feed on strangers, on people you know, on people you love." "No," said Elsa desperately. 

"Yes. Your spirit gives you beauty, strength and power. Do you think you get that for nothing?" Now his voice held an aching melancholy, as if his head was bursting with memories. Elsa found she was trembling. "It sucks the very life out of you, Elsa. That's why you have to suck it out of other people." "Oh." Remembering Meredith, she shut her eyes tight. "Oh, God." "If you don't feed, the spirit inside you dies, and so do you. But it won't come to that. Before then, you will kill. You won't be able to stop yourself. I will teach you to feed without killing." "You'll teach me? So how are you going to do that? Lab rats? My friends?"

For the first time, he couldn't meet her gaze. His voice, when he spoke, was clipped and emotionless. "That's the price our students pay, Elsa. It's the price they pay for being here." His mouth twitched, humorlessly. "For the . . . privilege." She couldn't repress a sound of revulsion as she backed away, but he gripped her arm suddenly, turned her to face them. "So, Miss Song. Will you die, or will you kill? Or will will you do what's right, and come back?" Elsa glared at him, determined to brazen it out, but his eyes terrified her. She thought she'd felt scared before: well, not like this. She nodded. 

He breathed a satisfied sigh. "Good. Good. I'm sorry it's necessary, Elsa, but it is." His voice grew level again. "Is there anything else I can tell you?" Surveying the dance floor, touching Elizabeth's cold marble arm for comfort, Elsa nodded. But she waited till her voice was as cool as his. 

"Where's Jack?"