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Stephanie

The manor was not the oldest structure Stephanie had ever found herself exploring but it was one of the biggest. As an art student, her eye began to recognize and categorize every picture, carving, and statue into a time, a style, and whether she found it pleasing to look upon. This was what she did to distract herself from the animalistic excitement she felt from all of the bestial art this place had. Sleek jungle cats and muscular gargoyles stared at them from every corner and sometimes even from the middle of a hallway. Fearsome guardians... powerful... noble... savage... the artist's imagination could flare to life in a place like this and already she had imagined a particularly powerful looking demon-statue coming to life and tearing her clothes off.

"Ave Maria," Sophia said in the Hispanic accent Stephanie found endearing. "Look at this." Stephanie gave a slight whistle as they entered the chapel. Two rows of three pews were surrounded by paintings and cherub statues the size of a house cat. Sophia stepped past all of these decorations to the front pew where she put down the knee-rest to pray.

Stephanie's eyes went past her friend to the alter where she stared up at an angel statue which was behind the crucifix. Its wings wrapped around the savior, protecting him, sheltering him from the Romans who had crucified him. The marvel of artistic skill held her gaze for a long time as her eyes traced the fine lines. But as she studied, she realized something was not right. It took a closer examination for her to determine what was wrong... the artist had chosen to give the angel a devil's face. Where she expected to see a protector or a work of beauty, instead there were sharp edges and a hint of fangs. It was an interesting artistic choice.

"Stephanie," Cindy's mono-tone voice startled her out of her reverie. "Is everything alright?"

"Uh... yeah," she said as she tried not to look into Cindy's thick square frames. While the girl, herself, was a tiny wisp of a thing, the magnification of her eyes bothered Stephanie in a way she could not seem to fight, so she did her best not to look. A moment later they were back in the hall, passing gothic-armor sets and greek-nudes until they reached a library which appeared to carry a thousand old books on a dozen shelves.

"Hey, Cindy, this looks like your kind of place."

"Mmm," Cindy nodded as she scanned the shelves until her eyes lit up. "Eighteenth-century theoretical biology..." Stephanie wanted to comment about how nerdy that sounded, but it was obvious to her that her companions was lost in the possibilities of what might be inside of the pages.

"Stephie," Sophia said quietly as they left the nerdy girl to her reading. "Is this strange? Is this place strange to you?"

"Oh, yeah," Stephanie said as she noted a stuffed tiger which was suspiciously free of dust. "It's all strange... but then again, rich eccentricity are like that."

"What you think will happen?"

"Tonight? I don't know. That's what's fun about it."

No sooner had she uttered this phrase the sound of something metal began scraping the walls in the hall. Both girls looked first to each other then back past their companion into the hall. What in the hell? It... who is it? The sound grew closer, until a strange growl emitted and an object flung itself into the room.

Throwing her hands out in front of her, caused Stephanie to catch an object which stared her in the face. A panicked scream welled up in her throat and projected into the hall as she tossed the severed tiger's head into the air. This brought Cindy out of her reading just enough for her to step to one side and catch the object.

As Stephanie allowed herself to breathe normally, she realized the tiger's head was stuffed with a wall mount on one end. What she did not expect was the loud splash and the burst of noise which followed. Cindy flopped forward and protected the book in her arms with her body. A torrent of water ran down her back and soaked her light brown hair. Standing over her with now empty buckets, were Gina and Rachel, the two least pleasant girls in the Sorority. Their laughter caused Stephanie's cheek to burn and her fists to clench.

"No!" Cindy shouted, and without hesitating she pulled off her plain green sweater and began patting the book down.

"Oh, wow!" Gina said as she laughed and pointed at the girl's underdeveloped frame. "She looks like a boy!"

"I think it is a boy!" Rachel laughed. "We should make sure. Can't have some cross-dressing peeping-tom watching us undress!"

Stephanie was frozen in place as she watched the scene unfold. Poor Cindy was either a late-bloomer or just unnaturally thin. Under the sweater was a sports-bra which did not appear to be covering any features. But the dedication in the girl's eyes allowed Cindy to ignore her tormentors as she carefully blotted dry the pages which had been touched with moisture.

"Hey! Boy!" Gina shouted as she moved forward and made a move like she was going to grab a handful of Cindy's hair.

"Stop!" Stephanie heard herself yell and the two malicious girls stopped to give her dirty looks.

"What?" Gina said as if nothing was wrong. "We're just having some fun. Ain't that right, Little Peeping Tom?"

A sickening gurgling of bile swirled in Stephanie's stomach as she watched these two girls with their cruel ways. She had thought that this kind of nonsense had been left back in high school, but here they were, with violence and names. Mean spirited predators in search of a fragile girl to shred with emotional claws.

"Piss off, you two," Stephanie said as she moved toward them.

"Ooohhh... not nice," Rachel said as she began to move away.

"Don't worry, Steph," Gina said with a savage grin, "we're just hassling your boyfriend. Maybe you two should find a bathroom, get it on a little, then reapply that disguise."

The wicked laughter continued as they rushed off. Cindy finally leaned backward and stared at the book on the floor. "It's alright," Stephanie said as she approached. "They're just..." she never finished her sentence, for upon the quiet girl's face was the most murderous look she had ever seen on a person. Carefully, the nerdy girl's trembling hands lifted the old book and then placed it onto a table.

"Excuse me," she said quietly as she moved toward the nearest bathroom.

"Stephie," Sophia said quietly. "Did you see her face?"

"Yeah."

"That was... scary..."

"I know," Stephanie nodded. "I think some day those two might suddenly have their grades hacked... or maybe Cindy will just snap and knife them."

"I hope not," Sophia whispered, "Cindy's a nice girl... never hurt anyone."

"I know," Stephanie said with a nod. "Let's hope it doesn't come to that."