Where Monsters Hide (The Monster Within 1)

Okay, that was a setback, but it didn’t slow me down too much. Owen’s halfway up a set of three climbing ropes ahead. I go to grab the one to his right, but he reaches out and smacks it so it swings up and out of reach. Piers, who started just before Owen, glances down from the top where he was apparently waiting. He grabs the rope to Owen’s other side and pulls it up of my reach again, winding it tightly around a branch before leaving us behind.

The first rope swings back toward me and I reach out to catch it, but Owen smacks it away again. Snarling, I grab the rope Owen’s climbing and start going up after him.

“Hey!” he yells, scrambling away from me. Mud falls from his shoes, sprinkling my hair and shoulders, but I press on. He might be stronger than me, but his footing is all wrong, and I catch up to him before he reaches the branches overhead. He kicks out, and I dodge his foot and grab him by the ankle, ripping his shoe off. It falls to the forest floor below where it disappears into the thick underbrush.

“Hands off, bitch!” he snaps, kicking his foot out, trying to wrench it from my grasp.

I let him get away. He jumps to the next branch and I climb up unhindered. He’s a few branches ahead of me now, so I go ahead and make my first jump, traveling sure-footed over the thicker branches, ducking under the thinner ones overhead.

Smack. A whip-like branch catches the side of my face. I yelp and grab onto the branch below me just before I lose my balance. My cheek stings with a trickle of blood. I look around wildly and make eye contact with Pierce, who is scurrying away out of reach and up ahead. He must have whipped the branch at me.

The rest of the course goes much the same. Piers and Owen do everything they can to hinder me while we’re out of sight of the professor, but eventually I pass them anyway. I’m in the clear until I catch up to Bennett. All he has to do is shove my shoulder and I almost fall off the net I’m supposed to be climbing down. They’re slowing me down, costing me time, but I still manage to pull ahead and overlap most of the students that started before me.

From the sounds of the labored breathing all around, Erin isn’t the only one still struggling to get used to the altitude. I’ve never been one to take long to adapt. I guess it’s just the first time I’ve seen myself in stark contrast to so many around me.

I suppose I have my genes to thank for that. I thought coming here to the academy would help me find answers about my parents, but all it’s done is give me more questions. I need to know who they were, especially if I’m constantly being judged against them.

I need to know what the expectations are if I intend to surpass them.

“Lookin’ clumsy, Black!” Professor Davies shouts to me when I pass by her to start my sixth run of the course. I grit my teeth. Of course I look clumsy; I’m covered in mud that’s been hurled and kicked at me, I’m bleeding from scratches from strategically-held branches, and I have one bruise blossoming over my bare arm from where Bennett grabbed and yanked me back. All that and I’m still nearly two full laps ahead of everyone else.

So, I say nothing. I have to concentrate.

I’m halfway up a climbing rope, dodging rocks—Owen’s upgraded his tactics—when I hear a long, shrill whistle from the clearing.

“This is it! Last run!” Davies shouts.

I could take it easy. I’m already way ahead of everyone else, despite the boys’ antics, but then my eyes meet Owen’s. He’s run out of rocks.

He dodges to the side, expecting me to lash back—but I just run past him, leaving him stumbling to catch back up.

One down; he’s behind me.

Piers is next. He’s waiting on the last branch. There’s no way around him. He’s holding one of those thin, whip-like branches, ready to hit me with it. I spot it in time, however, and manage to duck as he lets it go. It whips over my head and catches Owen instead. He cries out behind me, and Piers’ mouth drops open in surprise.

I pass him in their momentary shock, rushing over the narrow pole leading to the net sloping back down to the ground.

Of course Bennett is on the net again. He’s so goddamn wide that he takes up most of the room. There’s no way I can get out of his reach.

So, I jump.

He watches me fall past him with a shocked expression. Three for three, I think. I don’t fall all the way to the ground, but rather reach out and grasp onto the net as quickly as my flailing limbs will allow. My shoulders yank uncomfortably and my biceps scream in protest; but nothing’s broken. Strains will heal on their own. If I was in the field right now, there’d be no reason to stop, or even slow. These boys all think they’re trying to do something to make this all harder for me, but all they’re doing is making me better.

Or so I tell myself, at least, as I drop to the ground and hurry toward the final hurdles.

All three of them remain a safe distance behind me as I finish the rest of the course. I pass Sawyer again, too, but he just flashes me a friendly smile. At the end of it all, Professor Davies is standing amid a pile of fallen-over students gasping for breath. Most of them are just winded, but one glance and I can tell I’m not the only one with injuries. Mine, however, are more severe, as they were purposefully inflicted.

I’m not the only one to notice this.

“Take a few spills, Black?” Professor Davies asks as she glances at her stopwatch.

I don’t reply. I’m doubled over, hands on my knees, panting. The altitude has finally caught up to me, leaving my lungs heaving for oxygen while the rest of me stings from physical wounds. I can feel blood trickling down several small cuts on my face, arms, legs; wherever there is bare skin, basically, I’m bleeding. The rest of me is covered in mud and dirt.

“You made great time, though. One of the top performers in the class.” She glances at me. “Good work.”

Piers, Owen, and Bennett stumble up behind me.

“Dagher, Collier, Little.” Her eyes are on her stopwatch. “Decent time. Alman—decent time.”