Beyond by Katie May

1

Bianaca

“Purgatory?” I stared into Heath’s arresting face as he continued offering me that pretty boy, manic smile.

A semi-hysterical laugh escaped me, entirely unbidden, as something twisted inside my stomach. It felt cold and slimy, coiling around my organs until even breathing was a chore. My heart hammered in tandem to my racing thoughts.

What the fuck did Heath mean?

Did he truly believe that we were in Purgatory?

I knew something strange was happening, felt it in every fiber of my being, but this?

No. I couldn’t believe it.

Wouldn’tbelieve it.

“It’s different than what you believe,” Heath continued, gently brushing back a strand of his immaculately straight brown hair. He was so beautiful, so handsome, that it physically hurt me to stare directly at him. I imagined it would be similar to staring at the sun—you had to shield your eyes against the blistering rays or risk going blind.

We sat facing each other on the comfortable couch in Heath’s dorm room. I won one secret from him in a game of poker, so I used the opportunity to ask him about the mysteries surrounding this school. Since Heath was the student body president appointed by the professors, Aiden and the others had assumed he would know something, anything, that would help aid us with our escape.

And as they’d hoped, Heath sang like a canary, but with the stipulation that we take him with us when we left.

Though…

I couldn’t help but wonder if he had a few screws loose.

“Don’t look at me like that, doll.” He flashed another disarming grin, one that didn’t quite reach his icy eyes. I couldn’t help but think they were the eyes of a sociopath, though it did the exact opposite of scare me away.

Heat unfurled in my lower stomach as I held his stare.

“Look at you like what?” I whispered.

“Like I’m crazy.” He shrugged his broad shoulders, the movement drawing attention to the way his golden skin bulged beneath his thin gray T-shirt. “Because I’m not. I’m actually the only sane one here.”

“Heath…” I scratched at my wrist absently, not even caring when my nails dug in hard enough to break skin. “What you’re saying…”

“Is insane, I know.” Another smile. Another sweep of hair that had fallen into his eyes. Another wave of heat in my stomach. “But I’m telling you the truth.” The smile faded as quickly as it appeared, leaving me feeling oddly bereft, as if I were empty without his signature grin directed my way. “As I said before, Purgatory isn’t what you think. Time stops here. A student could be here for years, but in real life, it’s mere seconds. Purgatory also doesn’t mean you’re dead. Actually, you’re still alive, hanging on to a tiny sliver of life. I know—”

“Stop.” I shook my head from side to side rapidly, unsure if I should believe the words spewing from his mouth. He spoke matter-of-factly, like he was telling me the sky was blue and the grass was green, but his words were ludicrous. Absolutely insane.

“Bianaca.” He gave me a look I would almost describe as…disapproving? What the hell?

“Heath, you have to know that this is completely insane,” I reiterated. My nails dug into another section of skin on my wrist, and more blood welled. His eyes traveled to my butchered wrist, and something akin to fascination entered his eyes. He stared at my blood as if he’d never seen anything like that before, as if he didn’t know what to do with it or me.

“You don’t believe me. I understand that, and I’m not going to force you to listen.” He reclined back on the couch, the posture somehow abating the tension thrumming through the air. It felt like I could finally breathe, finally swallow mouthfuls of air. “But if you ever want the truth…” He trailed off with a pointed look in my direction, and a part of me wanted to beg him to tell me everything he knew.

Another part wanted to run as fast and as far as my legs could take me.

But most of all, I wanted to scream and cry, because his words resonated within me with a sort of finality that had my head reeling.

Purgatory.

Purgatory.

Purgatory.

I met his eyes, so empty and lifeless, and tightened my hand into a fist on my thigh. Determination coursed through me.

He could be completely insane, but if that were the case, I would want to know that too.

I wanted to know everything.

The facts of the case were simple—we’d all arrived at a mysterious boarding school that never had class, the teachers wore masks and didn’t speak, students were being sacrificed to a monster in the basement, and there were tunnels beneath the school that we believed led to an exit.

But fuck, saying that in my head made me think I was insane.

I was probably going to need at least five therapists, at the minimum, once this was all over.

Clenching my jaw tight enough to break, I ground out, “Tell me.”

“Everything?” He quirked a manicured brow, and something entered his eyes, something besides the usual impassiveness I was so used to seeing from him. Excitement. Maybe even amusement.

“Everything,” I agreed…praying that I didn’t come to regret that decision.

He steepled his hands together on top of his chest and leaned forward, a contemplative expression on his artfully handsome face.

“Very well.” He tilted his head to the side. “I don’t know why I’m telling you all of this, doll. I’ve met thousands and thousands of students, and a handful of them have asked me to divulge my secrets. I always tell them no, but now…” Another curious gaze speared me. “For some reason, I want to tell you everything. Maybe I believe you actually have a chance of escaping.”

His eyes twinkled as if he was reining in laughter, but I kept my lips compressed in a straight line.

“So…?”

“So.” He tapped his long fingers against his thigh before abruptly standing up, his sudden movement startling me so much, I fell further into the couch. “Come. Let me make you dinner”

“Dinner?” I asked, my tone betraying my incredulity.

He smirked at me, the smile not quite reaching his eyes, and gestured towards the table we’d just played poker at. “You do like to eat, don’t you?” He bent forward to rummage through his minifridge—the only student in this school who had one—and I wasn’t going to lie. My eyes totally remained glued to his firm, muscular ass until he straightened up.

Sue me. He might have been batshit crazy, but he was also fine as hell.

His grin widened, and this time, I was pretty sure it was genuine. The man knew how attractive I found him and reveled in the knowledge.

When he slammed the fridge door shut, he had a loaf of bread in one hand and packages of turkey and cheese in the other.

“Sandwiches okay?” He didn’t wait for me to respond as he traveled to a tiny counter just to the left of his fridge and began to toss meat and cheese onto the bread slices. I stood from the couch and moved to stand in front of him, watching each of his movements carefully. Cautiously. Heath was a cobra I was terrified would strike at the slightest provocation.

“I’m not really hungry,” I responded, but the look he gave me told me that wasn’t an option.

When I continued to eye the food as if it were poison—which wasn’t out of the realm of possibility, knowing what I did about this school—he sighed, forking his fingers through his brown hair. His icy eyes speared me in place as he held his own sandwich to his lips and took a bite. “It doesn’t have the drug in it,” he told me, easily able to read the expression on my face. “You won’t forget.”

The food in the cafeteria all contained a strange, unidentifiable drug that made the students completely oblivious to the horrors directly under their noses. As such, the guys and I had chosen to only eat food from sealed containers. If we were forced to eat any of the cafeteria food, Aiden had a second drug that was supposed to reverse the effects of whatever the professors gave us.

Sighing, I accepted the sandwich Heath handed me and took a tentative bite. The bread was slightly stale, but at least the meat and cheese were fresh.

And better than that, my mind remained sharp and coherent, not at all clouded over by the drugs I had when I first arrived.

“Sit. Sit.” He moved back towards the poker table and held his sandwich in one hand. With his other, he pulled back one of the seats and nodded for me to sit. I practically rolled my eyes at his chivalrous display. I had a feeling that Heath was anything and everything but gentlemanly.

When he finally sat opposite me, his sandwich already three-quarters of the way done, I worked to get the conversation back on track.

“So…you claim we’re in Purgatory.” I couldn’t even begin to wrap my head around this. On one hand, his words sounded ludicrous, absolutely insane. But on the other…

They felt right. It was a stain on my soul that I couldn’t remove, no matter how hard I scrubbed. Nothing I did, no amount of soap, could eradicate it.

Purgatory.

The word tasted bitter and caustic on my tongue, almost acidic in nature, and I desperately wanted to spit the word onto the ground.

Purgatory.

Purgatory.

“And you said we’re not…” I didn’t allow myself to say that final word. Couldn’t say it.

Heath flashed that uncanny smile, the one that sent goosebumps skittering across my skin like an army of angry fire ants.

“Dead, doll? No. You’re not dead. At least not yet. But you could be…if you let the reapers get you.”

“Reapers?” My voice raised in pitch as Heath looked even more amused.

“The professors, silly girl,” he replied with a roll of his eyes. “They either feed you to Death himself…or you escape them. But escape…” He trailed off again, once more bringing a hand up to ruffle his immaculately pushed back hair as he seemed to weigh his next words. “Sometimes death is a better option,” he decided on at last, casting me a firm, unreadable stare.

I shook my head vehemently. “No. I refuse to believe that. I refuse to fucking die here.”

He held his hands up in a ‘what can you do’ gesture. “So you choose to escape.” It wasn’t a question, and amusement danced like balls of flames in his dark eyes. I didn’t understand what he found so fucking amusing in me, but I hated it. I half wanted to reach across the table and punch his smug ass face, but the rest of me knew to remain seated. My sandwich fell to the table, only one bite taken out, and I leveled him with a penetrating stare. I wanted to see his soul, his heart, every facet inside that psychopathic head of his. I wanted to know what made him tick and what set him off. There was something inside of him, something that entered and rushed through me like the breath of winter itself…

“I choose not to die,” I countered.

He reclined back in his seat, his sandwich now entirely eaten, and settled his hands on his chest. He wasn’t as muscular as Beau or even Tanner, but every inch of him was slender, masculine perfection. I could clearly see the lines of his chest through his gray shirt.

“Good.” He gave me a nod that had radioactive butterflies taking flight in my stomach.

What the hell?

Where did those fuckers come from?

“Good?”

“Because you’re not dead, doll. At least not yet. You’re in a place that’s halfway between the land of the dead and the land of the living. You—”

“Between,” I whispered, a bolt of ice shooting through my bloodstream. Shock splayed itself across his face before he licked his upper lip and nodded.

“Yes, between. Between life and death.”

Oh. My. God.

The sheer rightness of his words had my heart pounding and my head spinning. I was seconds away from toppling over and hitting the ground. How could this be…? How could this—

My thoughts cut off as snippets of memories bombarded me.

The car.

The alcohol.

The pain…

So. Much. Pain.

Finally, my world had been shrouded in darkness, and then I’d found myself here, with only vague memories of my mother pushing me into a taxi and waving goodbye.

Was that car accident…?

Was that when I died? Or almost died?

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.

My head spun, and try as I might, I couldn’t get it to stop. Fear and panic consumed me as I stared into Heath’s dark, dark eyes—so dark, they reminded me of staring up at a night sky devoid of any stars or moon.

“And the monster is…Death?” I clarified, and something about what I’d said amused him. His smile grew, still not reaching his eyes, as his fingers began to tap, tap, tap against his muscular chest.

“Now you’re catching on, dove. Now you’re catching on.”

“And the students who are taken by the professors—I mean, reapers, are brought to the monster and…killed?” My heart hurt, remembering the woman, Ali, who was devoured by that beast.

Josie.

Oh, Josie.

What would Aiden do when he discovered the truth about his beloved little sister?

Heath bit down on his lower lip and gave me a look I would almost describe as salacious. It made no sense in relation to the topic of conversation, but I didn’t dare call him out on it. Even if he was telling the truth about where we were, he still was batshit crazy. Icy. Cold. A psychopath with dead eyes.

“And to leave…?”

“The tools have been available to every student,” Heath explained with a nonchalance I didn’t understand. “That’s the thing about Death, doll—he always gives you a chance to escape.” He winked at me, even as my mind reeled at information being thrown at me.

“So the tunnels were put there…on purpose?” My tone betrayed my incredulity.

He snapped his fingers together. “Bingo.” Once more, his tongue poked at his upper lip as he moved his gaze to the ceiling, seemingly lost in thought. I let him be for a moment, my own mind struggling to play catch up, before he lowered his gaze and pinned me in place. “Most of the students who arrive here never choose to leave. Either fear stops them, the professors do, or Death himself. But the ones that do… Well, leaving the school is only one of many problems.”

“What the fuck do you mean by that?” I demanded, an angry flush erupting on my chest and cheeks.

“You have to get through Dante’s Nine Circles of Hell in order to return to the land of the living. They’re designed to destroy you. Break you. Ruin you.” A wicked glint appeared in his eyes, and he cocked his head to the side. “But I need to know one thing, doll, before I can tell you anymore.” He paused for dramatic effect, that asshole, before continuing. “What are you willing to give up in order to survive?”

My heart hammered, raced, scattered in the wind in pieces so small, no one could ever hope to tape them back together again.

What would I give up to survive?

I didn’t know how to answer that. A normal person would scream, “Everything!” but I didn’t know if that applied to me. Would I give up Beau?

No, I didn’t think I would, despite how devastated I felt about him right then.

Confessing your love to a man who had a girl in his bedroom would do that to a person.

Heath clasped his hands together, adopting a position of careful indifference and impassivity. His shrewd, cold eyes remained fixed on me as he flashed me another blinding smile.

“There are nine circles you have to travel through in order to find your way home,” he continued, not waiting for me to respond to his macabre question. “All of the circles will change themselves to reflect the people entering their territories.”

“That doesn’t make any sense.” I slowly shook my head from side to side as Heath sighed, as if I was severely disappointing him with my comments. He stood, moved to his desk, and returned with a piece of paper and a pen. He began to draw on the paper, starting with a small circle in the direct center and then branching outwards, with a slightly larger circle around the initial one and an even larger one around that. He ended with nine circles. Using the back end of the marker, he pointed to the very farthest one.

“This is where we are. The school is the First Circle of Hell…otherwise known as Limbo.”

“Limbo,” I repeated dumbly.

“Limbo.” He nodded his assent before moving his marker to the next circle. “Once we leave the academy through the tunnels, we’ll be in the Second Circle of Hell, Lust.”

“Lust.” God, why was I such an idiot? All I seemed capable of doing was repeating his words back to him like some kind of broken record.

His lips twitched in the beginnings of a smile before he forced it away, once again turning serious.

“Following Lust is Gluttony, Greed, Wrath, and—”

“Basically the seven deadly sins,” I said, interrupting his explanation, and he sighed heavily.

“Can you let me finish, doll? Or are you going to interrupt me again with your questions?” Feeling properly chastised, I clamped my mouth closed and nodded for him to continue. Smirking, he pointed to the sixth circle. “After Wrath, we have Heresy, then Violence, then Fraud, and finally, Treachery. Once we complete all nine circles, we’ll be able to travel to the land of the living.”

My body shook as my eyes flickered from him to the drawing and then back to his face. A splitting headache threatened to tear my skull in two, and I swore my right eye began to twitch.

“And these circles—”

“No one knows what to expect from them,” Heath said, cutting me off. “They change from person to person, group to group. What one person experiences may be completely different from someone else.” He once again tapped his pen against the piece of paper. “So I have to ask you once again, my perfect, beautiful doll, what you’ll be willing to give up to escape this place and return to the land of the living. The secrets that will be uncovered, the horrors and monsters that you’ll face… Is it worth it?” His eyes ensnared my own, reminding me eerily of a trap laid out beneath leaves and long grass, waiting for the unsuspecting prey to land smack dab in the middle. Captured. He made me feel captured. Suffocated.

“I don’t…” I swallowed, moving my gaze to the tiny minifridge. “I don’t know how to answer that question,” I responded honestly. Out of my periphery, I noted his curt nod.

“I understand. But I have to warn you, Bianaca…” His use of my real name had my eyes snapping back in his direction. “You and your men don’t have a lot of time. If you don’t leave by tomorrow night, you won’t get another chance.”

My mouth dropped open as curiosity, fear, and suspicion rampaged through me. My eyes narrowed, tightening. “How do you know all of this?”

“Because, doll” —he flashed another one of those disarming smiles, one that both unnerved me and piqued my curiosity— “people trust a man who has nothing and no one to live for.”