The Ivy Academy [COMPLETED]

Chapter 25

Dane was pointing a gun at me.

My throat closed up. No words threatened to leave my mouth. My whole body was in shock. My brain couldn't think. My fingers couldn't twitch, despite the cold weather.

I gulped. What was happening couldn't have been happening. It didn't make sense. I shifted my foot.

"Don't move, bitch." His voice was cruel and hard, like ice. Never had a word bothered me so much. I could never picture Dane saying those words to another person. He was too nice. But clearly, he wasn't too nice. He was threatening to kill me.

I could feel tears well in my eyes, hot and stinging with betrayal.

"Dane?" I breathed, my throat clogged with tears.

"God, you're so clueless." He smirked, something so unnerving to see on such a kind face. As he chuckled to himself, I could see that this was his real smile, a cool grin, his teeth bared. All of those times that he smiled or laughed with me, that was fake.

I looked up at the trees around me. A guard would see him threatening to kill me. Sure, they would bring me back to the school, but at least I would be safe, warm. I wished I could be back inside of the academy, the very place I just escaped.

"Oh," He began to laugh, doubling over. "You're looking for guards to help you." I didn't understand why he was laughing at me, what was so funny. The air suddenly got much colder.

"What," I spat, going for an angrier approach rather than betrayed.

"There aren't any guards in the trees." He pushed the gun further into my stomach. It didn't hurt, but it was painful with disloyalty. "How many did I say there were? 90? 94? You actually thought that there were a hundred guards just sitting in trees all the time?" His laugh echoed throughout the woods. I prayed someone would hear us from the academy, but it was too far.

"You're so stupid," He sounded angry almost, as though I was the one who had just betrayed him. "I just said that so that you would be too scared to escape. Didn't work, I guess."

So, he had lied about how hard it was to leave this place in order to trap me here. That didn't stop me.

"You fell for a lot," he continued. "Phone destruction form? That's got to be one of the dumber things I've ever made up. But you fell for it."

It dawned on me that Dane must have been the shadow. The mysterious figure who had been watching me and accidentally dropped my phone.

"What are you going to do with me?" I made sure that I sounded strong, but the gun pointed at my stomach made that a bit difficult.

"Ah, your first good question of the night." He was amused. "Well, I wish we could have kept you, but unfortunately, you're too........high risk."

"Kept me where?"

He pushed in the gun harder. "At the academy. If only you were behaved enough to finish your exam."

My ears perked up. He knew about the exam all along.

"Now, on the other hand, Beck, is a great student," Dane said. "He's just as smart as you, and he hasn't tried to escape yet. He has a temper, but at least he follows the rules."

None of this was making sense to me. He was comparing me to Beck in some way. We were the two top students, is what I learned.

"You're confused, aren't you?" Dane rolled his eyes.

"Yeah, of course I am, you idiot," I retorted, as dry as ever.

"Every student at the Ivy Academy was the top student at their high school. Before we took them, at least. The top students at the Ivy Academy are the smartest students nationwide. You and Beck tested high in physical ability and mental ability. Congrats."