“And so, when you add this equation…”

Leticia was trying extra hard not to doze off. Why couldn’t this man put more excitement into teaching math? Was that so hard?

The bell rang as though in relief, and in between the hustle and bustle of the class to hurry home and the cries of the teacher to not forget the important homework, someone dropped a note on her desk, and she didn’t see who. As she stood up to leave, she opened the letter and saw a short note scribbled in crabbed handwriting:

Why not meet me at the school orchard and let me show you how much I’m into you?     

Laters, baby.

P.S. You look so gorgeous with your red hair up.

Love, Richard

Leticia’s gray eyes scanned the note with half disbelief before she tore it into shreds. It was just one of the hundreds of unanswered love notes she had received from Richard during the course of the week. Quarterback guys like Richard, with their testosterone-fueled brains, didn’t know when to stop being assholes simply because the world around them had told them they were cute. 

Richard was six feet tall, curly-haired, hazel-eyed, and a broad-shouldered load of gorgeousness. Half of the girls in school were into him, but she was as uninterested in him as she was in a dead slug. He was boorish, overbearing, downright arrogant, and dumb as a rabbit. Why couldn’t boys just take the hint sometimes? What was she supposed to do? Write it on her forehead every morning to school that she didn’t give a shit about him? 

She walked home, feeling slightly exasperated and slightly angry. All this time, she had hoped that simply by ignoring him, he would get bored and leave her alone. It was as though he became bolder with her silence, or her indifference made him more insistent. She understood that guys like him had a self-indulgent overarching need to make girls like her a conquest. Yeah, in your dreams, Richie.

She was just a few blocks away from school when she heard the taunting voices of the infamous tyrannical bully girl group. Leticia rolled her eyes wearily. Could this afternoon get any worse? She turned around to face them. As always, the pathetic league was led by Lori Brock — Richard’s ex, who had taken to tormenting every girl he showed a slight interest in since he dumped her.

“Well, look who we have here. It’s Miss Smartypants,” Lori said mockingly.

“What on earth do you want, Lori? Don’t you have anything better to do than to bother decent human beings on the street?”

“Who says you’re decent? You lost every ounce of that the moment you started to throw yourself at Richard.”

Leticia snorted. “Throw myself at him? I think you must be high on the cheap lame-ass w*** you smoke if you think I’m after that loser.”

“Richard is anything but a loser, but you…” Lori smirked, looking Leticia over condescendingly, “We can’t say the same for you, bitch.” 

The other girls snickered as though it was actually funny.

“You need to get over yourself and move on from the community dick that dumped you, Lori,” Leticia said and attempted to move on.

Lori grabbed her arm, fingernails digging into Leticia’s flesh. “What was in that note he sent you? What was in it, you slut?”

“It’s none of your bloody business, Lori. Now let me go!”

“Not until you tell me!” Her eyes grew wider and more desperate, and her nails dug deeper.

“God, you’re insane! Let me go, you crazy psycho!” Leticia pushed her with all her strength, and Lori stumbled back. In a fit of rage, she flew back to Leticia and slapped her hard across the face. 

“I don’t know what he sees in you! You’re not his type, and you’ll never be up to half of me! Never! Not even if you tried.”

Leticia tackled her to the floor and lunged for her, dropping punch after punch on her face. The remaining three girls were on her in an instant, dragging her off from their queen bee. Leticia gained ground on her feet and slapped the first one she saw, slamming her against the wall. Before the remaining two came for her, Leticia used her remaining strength to flee.

“Get her! Don’t let her get away!” Lori screamed.

Crazy, stupid bitch was Leticia’s thought as she fled with the girls close on her heels. 

***

Leticia raced as though her life depended on it. She ran through the blocks, zigzagged through highways, and pretended to walk downtown, all the time with harried desperate steps. Once she made it home, she knew she would rather die than ever come back to this school. It was filled with psychotic morons. Everywhere she went, she could feel the steps of her chasers behind her. She turned into a dark alleyway and stayed, hoping she was safe. The long minutes turned into an hour and then two. Those lunatics couldn’t have actually waited out for two hours, no matter how loyal they were to Lori Brock. Consoled by this thought, she stepped out and was immediately face-to-face with one of them.

Leticia attempted to scream, but the girl punched her in the face. The other one came behind and slammed a plank in Leticia’s head. She blanked out.

***

By the time she opened her eyes, she was lying in a deep pit that was thousands of inches wide and deep, and the skies above were overcast and darkening. It was dusk, and soon it would be dark. She tried to stand, but she fell back immediately. There was a sharp twisting pain in her leg that she had never felt before. Her head was still bleeding, and Leticia knew that if she didn’t get out of there, she could die. 

“Help!” She screamed. “Somebody, help me, please!

Nothing. 

She screamed over and over again, but no help was forthcoming. 

Dusk came with the dark, and she was still stuck. The night wore on, and still, she remained stuck. By midnight, Leticia couldn’t take it anymore. Was she going to die because of that shameless man-whore Richard and his d****** ex, who was obviously still crazy and obsessed with him? Why did she have to be a victim of both of them?

“Somebody, help me, please!” She screamed at the top of her lungs over and over.

***

Jun had calmed down. The boys were still teasing him, of course, but now he was laughing along with their jokes and reminisces. They poked fun at Daichi and some of the other werewolf adults who thought they were better than others. Then, he heard it. A girl’s petrified scream. At first, he ignored it, believing it to be a fiction of his imagination, but then it became repetitive.

“Shush! Do you guys hear that? Can you hear it?” Jun asked with urgency.

“Hear what?”

“I said, shush!”

“Jeez, okay, man.”

It became more apparent and frantic in the silence. A perpetual hysterical scream that could only be emanating from someone in the face of death. At that moment, Jun went against everything he had ever been taught and raced toward the voice.

“Jun! Get back here! That’s human civilization,” Min warned.

“Someone is dying in there,” he threw over his shoulder.

“I think we’d better follow him,” one of his friends said.

“Are you crazy?” Asked another, “If anything happens to Jun, that’s on him.”

“No, if anything happens to him, it’s on all of us. He’s a tribal prince, remember? What on earth are we going to tell Takagi Aizen that will ever be justifiable? If anything happens to him, we’ll be roasted alive for sure,” Min argued.

Silence.

“Or stay here. It’s your call,” he said and began to move toward the sound of the screams.

“Jun! Wait up.”

Before Leticia blanked out again, the last vision she saw was a group of boys coming toward her with swords and spears.

Her eyes closed, and she slipped into silence. She heard one of them say, “Sweet Jesus!”