Food Fight Detention: Bonnie

"Miss Bonnie. That food fight you had in Outcast Academy's cafeteria created a lot of extra work for me. This is your fair warning."

Paranoia set in almost instantly at the janitor's ominous words. Fair warning? Fair warning for what? Did that mean she hadn't gotten detention this time, or…. Did it mean that something dreadful was just around the corner?

It had all been in good fun, really. No one had been hurt. In all honesty, Bonnie wasn't certain how she had become a part of the food fight in the first place. Looking back, she couldn't say. Likely, she just got caught in the cross-fire and that strange magic Koni tends to have over her kicked in and she started to enjoy herself a little too much and had gone overboard with the other two. She knew she deserved to get in trouble of course, but she was still surprised to have been caught. They had been careful to flee the scene and clean themselves up before much of anyone saw them, and they had promised each other to tell no one.

For that matter, how had Eid found out who did it? Okay, so Koni was obvious… and Cilona was often on his right side, and Bonnie wasn't the only one who knew them to push each other into deeper and deeper tomfoolery… but Bonnie had thought that she was so quiet and so shy and so simply unassuming that no one would ever have suspected her. So how did Eid know? Did someone else find out, and tattle? Or… or had the janitor been watching from the shadows the entire time and seen the whole event?

The young Succubus shuddered at the very idea.

In the days following Eid's "fair warning" Bonnie watched her back obsessively, both afraid to go out and afraid to be caught by him alone. He wasn't… Eid wouldn't be allowed to injure a student… would he? Considering Headmaster Katran's low tolerance for immature behavior, Bonnie found herself unable to say that for certain. What if he whipped out of a shadow, out of nowhere, and slit her throat? Or… dragged her off into the darkness for hours of medieval-style torment?

….Perhaps Bonnie had seen one too many human horror films. Yes. That was it, surely. She was being silly. The warning was just that: a warning. So long as Bonnie was careful not to get caught misbehaving again, everything would be fine. Yes. That must be the case. She tried hard, after a few days, to relax and stop worrying about it. Nothing unpleasant had seemed to happen to Koni or Cilona either, so… all must have been well.

Bonnie was a fool to let her guard down.

She was in the back of the library, looking for something in English to read (all of these multi-lingual people around here… they made her feel stupid for only speaking one language) and hoping that the snakes Koni had let into the room some time ago had managed to find their ways back outside when her punishment finally hit her. She had stopped avoiding shadows like the black plague only the evening of the day before, and perhaps that was what Eid had been waiting for. Bonnie stood before the tall bookshelf, unconcerned by the shadow she was standing in, looking through the thick lenses of her glasses at the leather-bound volumes.

It happened suddenly.

Bonnie shrieked in shock and fear when the Janitor grabbed her by the ankle and yanked her further into the shadow, partway into the depths of a world Bonnie could never step foot into on her own, not stopping until everything below her naval was under the wooden floor, and most of her right arm was lodged into the shadowy bookcase. Bonnie struggled, panicking, letting out a high-pitched scream. It was no use. She couldn't move her arm or legs at all. She was trapped.

The janitor moved to hover above her, looking down into her face. He didn't speak; merely stared. Bonnie found herself unable to hold his gaze. She would certainly have nightmares about this.

"I-I'm sorry--p-please, I--" She stuttered herself into silence quickly, feeling panic-stricken tears springing to her eyes. Eid didn't seem to care. He merely watched her unsympathetically for a long moment, and then turned and left her there, alone. Bonnie quickly fell into hysteria.

This trapped sensation was suffocating to her, into her very core, and in some ways it was even worse than feeling Thirsty… even worse than the guilt that came from her actions when sating her Thirst… almost as bad as her mother turning on her and making it clear that she was not to follow anymore. Somewhere deep within Bonnie's Succubus core was a need for freedom. She hadn't realized it before, but she could certainly feel it now. Being tied down in such a horrifying, literal way drove the point home. She understood why her mother and most others of her kind preferred to wander. Being able to come or go as one pleased was in the Succubus soul. Forced away from it was maddening in a way Bonnie could never have imagined, and her heart never ceased racing in her chest, even when she had cried herself out. She wondered how she would get out of this…. No one would find her here for a long time, and even when they had, would it be possible for anyone but Eid to get her out of this? Somehow, she didn't think so.

Bonnie grew sore and tired, still panic-stricken in her core, but spent outwardly, as minutes turned to hours. She missed classes. She missed dinner. She missed curfew. In fact, it was nearly morning when the janitor finally returned to her, looking down at her blandly, as if waiting for something. Bonnie looked up at him, biting her lower lip, tensed just at his presence.

Eid tilted his head to one side and words floated around him. Bonnie knew this was his way of speaking, and so she read them quickly and carefully. "Have you learned your lesson Miss Bonnie?"

Bonnie nodded desperately, eyes a little wide. Eid almost seemed amused as he reached into the shadows, tugging her out and dropping her unceremoniously to the floor. Bonnie gasped for air, trembling, glasses slightly skewed, dress wrinkled, her hair all a mess. The janitor gave her little more than another glance before seeping back into the shadows and disappearing.

Bonnie had most certainly learned her lesson: Eid was always watching, and she would have to be much more careful in the future to not get into any of Koni's pranks when they involved making a mess that the janitor would have to clean up. Perhaps the other two had been a bad influence on her… but she still worried for them, hoping that whatever Eid's revenge for them would be… that they would both come out of it unscarred on the other side.