Bleeding Heart Ch. 01

Jeremy Drace was casually sprawled out in his seat with his feet propped up on the basket of the desk in front of his. He was about 6' 1" with brown laughing eyes and dirty blonde hair that was almost more dirt than blonde. He was notorious for getting in trouble and everyone expected it from him, in fact when he was in tenth grade he had missed a good part of the year and had to take it all over again, rumors had immediately spread around that he had done something really bad and been sent to the correctional school in the city. When he had in fact been home with a bad case of mono, but Jeremy didn't feel any need to correct anyone and actually encouraged the rumor a little bit. In his opinion doing some badass, probably cool as hell thing and being sent to correction school was much more exciting than staying home for months with mono, so he had let the rumor stay. Because he had had to stay back a year he was now 19 while almost everyone else in his grade was either 18 or 17.

Today he was wearing what at first glance looked like a letter jacket but on closer inspection on the back, where his last name should have been it said Smartass with a big one overtop of it, or at least it would have said Smartass if a teacher had not taped a piece of paper over the ass part earlier that day.

His history teacher was at the front of the room droning on about some war while most of the class passed notes or texted or whispered quietly to each other when their teacher's back was turned. Jeremy was leaning over to tell his best friend Mike about his plans for that night when he saw something black move out of the corner of his eye. He turned and looked out of the one window in the room which looked into the hallway and grinned. He had already started to gather his things when there was a quiet knock on the door, the knocker did not wait to be let in but instead strode into the room, said something quietly to the teacher, and handed him a note. The knocker was an office aid who for some seemed like the embodiment of death and today she certainly looked the part, dressed in a black top and long black skirt she eerily resembled the grim reaper, Jeremy grinned at that thought. By that time Jeremy had stood up, the teacher looked at him, confirming his suspicions.

"Well everybody this is where I get off maybe I'll see some of you again, maybe I won't" Jeremy announced melodramatically to the class. Right on que the teacher said "Jeremy the principal would like to see you in his office, now." Most of the class "uhhhhed" and his friends snickered. This was no surprise for Jeremy as he was always being sent to the office for some reason or other. He walked to the door and with a last wink for everyone followed the gothic girl in front of him out of the room.

"So long time no see Holly, how have you been?" Holly turned to him and did her best to give him a stern frown before giving up and smiling, no one could keep a straight face with Jeremy grinning at them like that, Holly thought that it was probably actually physically impossible. "I saw you two days ago you doof, when you got in trouble for throwing those water balloons at the juniors, which was pretty funny, but stupid, I mean you had to know that you would get caught and sent to the principal again. You know you should really stop getting in trouble so often." Jeremy grinned and put on a face that would have made a lifelong suck-up proud "but then I wouldn't get to see you every other day and I don't think that I could bear that, it would just break my heart." Holly scoffed and cuffed his shoulder "break your heart my ass." He looked her up and down, appreciating her curvy figure, thin waist, and unusually long, slightly wavy brown hair. With Holly he looked occasionally and he flirted with her but they both knew that he didn't actually mean anything by it, they were just friends.

He had first talked to Holly on the second day of senior year when she had come to collect him and bring him to the principal's office for skipping English class. Thinking back he realized that behind the bushes next to the gym entrance probably wasn't the best place to be making out with a girl as anyone coming or going could easily see them. When Holly was leading him to the office that second day of senior year he had tried over and over again to engage her in small talk until she had finally stopped, turned to him, and said "you just don't give up do you?" He had flashed her a grin and said "nope, I'm way to cocky for that." This in turn had her grinning back at him as she shook her head. Jeremy wasn't the type of person that Holly would normally be friends with but after that they where fast friends.

Just then they rounded the corner and stopped in front of the door leading into the front office. Holly held it open for him and he sauntered in, his eyes immediately picked out the new secretary, Ms. Shields. She had only been working at the school for two weeks now, she had gotten the job when the old office secretary had retired. She had long, straight brown hair, not as long as Holly's but it reached about mid-way down her back, she was slender with long legs and gently sloping hips. She had delicate features and piercing blue eyes. When she stood up and walked over to the filing cabinet to put away some papers he could tell that she was tall, about 5' 8", and graceful. He especially liked the way that her black pencil skirt and white heels showed off her tight ass and long legs. Jeremy was not sure exactly how old she was but she didn't look like she could be more than a few years older than himself.

As Jeremy sauntered in he wolf-whistled at the new secretary and asked her what such a fine thing was doing in a place like this, earning him only an icy glare from her before she went back to what she had been doing. Damn she was hot, but can you say cold bitch? Jeremy sat down with a huff at the rejection, which he had totally been expecting since that was what happened every time he had hit on her. Holly glanced at him, smirked slightly, then returned to her normal, rather stoic attitude and started answering phone calls as she had undoubtedly been doing before she was sent to find him.

Jeremy heard the principal, Mr. Ashworth call Ms. Shields into his office. The principal was a good principal, as far as principals go, he was middle-aged, usually fairly nice, and he had a calm air about him. Ms. Shields returned a moment later seeming even colder if that was possible. "Mr. Ashworth is ready for you now." She told Jeremy with a dead pan voice. Jeremy walked back behind the front desk and into the principal's office.

By the time Principal Ashworth had finished discussing with Jeremy the proper and improper uses of the multi-media room Jeremy had just enough time to swing by his history class and grab the rest of his stuff before for he had to go to his next class.

.......That Night.......

Jeremy, Mike, and three of their other friends watched from behind some bushes as one of the janitors propped open a door so that he could haul stuff into the back of his van. When he went back inside to get more stuff the five guys raced semi-stealthily through the door and into a nearby supply closet, they had just gotten the door closed when they heard the janitor coming back down the hall with more equipment. The guys had watched and made sure that he was the last janitor to leave. When they heard the janitor close and lock the door behind him they stepped out. Mike breathed a sigh of relief at not being caught "Okay guys so everyone understands what we're doing right? We're going to turn on all the sinks in the school that we can get to." Mike told everyone what part of the school they would be taking care of, Jeremy had all of the science classrooms. Everyone split up, Jeremy headed upstairs to the science hallways.

Right as he was about to go into the first classroom he heard a noise, he was about to split when he heard it again, this time it sounded almost like someone crying. He paused unsure of what to do, should he go and see what it was or should he hurry up and leave before someone found him here after hours. When he heard the noise again that decided it for him, it sounded like it was coming from one of the classrooms down the hall. He crept quietly down the hall until he stood in front of the room that he thought that the sound was coming from, the door was open slightly. He tried to see if he could find out what was making the sound without actually going into the room, but with only the dim light from the lights that the school left on in the hallways after hours, and only one fairly small window to look through he could not find the source of the sound. He sighed and opened the door as quietly as he could and stepped inside his foot came down on something with a crunch, he cursed inwardly, he hadn't even seen the glass on the floor. As he looked up he saw something move towards the back of the classroom, a form appeared to be on the floor huddled against one of the lab tables.

Jeremy went back to investigate, he figured that if it was a teacher then he would already have been in trouble. As he walked to that back of the room his eyes adjusted and he could tell that there was indeed a person huddled against one of the lab tables. It was a woman and she was shaking, she had her knees tightly drawn up against her body and her heard buried between her knees, her arms appeared to be behind her back. Jeremy rushed over and knelt in front of the shaking woman "miss?" Jeremy asked her. She looked up and Jeremy gasped, it was Ms. Shields and she had tears and mascara running down her face, there was also some blood from a split lip. Her clothes were rumpled and torn in a few places, including a tear up the side of her skirt. "Oh my god, what happened to you, are you alright, did you fall, did someone do this to you, do you need help getting up?" the words came tumbling out of Jeremy before he could stop and organize his confused thoughts.

Anna finally recognized the boy that always came into the office and hit on her. At first she thought 'thank god, I'm saved', but then she remembered something that made her even more afraid. "You have to leave now, he said that he was coming back he said that was only going to be gone for a couple of minutes, he said that if....."

"Shhhh," Jeremy had placed a finger over her lips "clam down and tell me who he is."

Anna breathed out deeply "He's..."

"He's who?" Jeremy asked but this time it was her turn to shoosh him. Then he heard what she must have been hearing, footsteps, and they were getting closer. Jeremy looked at Ms. Shields, she was panicked and crying even harder.

"Hide! You have to hide, if he finds you in here he'll kill you and probably me too!" Anna whispered frantically to him.

He started to shake his head but the way that she commanded him "Hide now!" got his attention. He told himself that it would be sensible for him to hide anyways because then he would have the element of surprise, he stared at the crying secretary then nodded and found a place to hide behind one of the other lab tables. Just as he crouched down he heard the footsteps stop outside of the door and he heard the crunching of glass under someone's feet. Jeremy peeked through the space between the two cabinets that made up the legs of the lab table and saw someone, a man, stop a few feet away from Ms. Shields.

"I thought that I heard someone talking, were you talking Anna?"

Jeremy was surprised, the voice sounded familiar and he hadn't known that her name was Anna.

The man took her chin in his hand roughly and jerked her head up. "Look at me when I speak to you bitch and answer me. Were you talking?" Still Anna said nothing and this time the man slapped her hard across the face. Jeremy bristled and was about to jump up and attack the man from behind when he saw the gun in the man's other hand. 'Shit!' Jeremy thought, 'if anything goes wrong he could end up shooting her. What the fuck am I going to do, I can't just sit here and watch this happen.'

Jeremy wondered why she wasn't even raising her arms to stop his blows and then he felt like an idiot for not realizing from the beginning that her arms must have been bound and tied to something behind her back, probably the base of the table or even one of the locked drawers.

"Answer me! Were you talking?" The man raised his hand to hit her again if she didn't answer.

"Yes, I was talking." Anna said, her voice barely more than a whisper.

"See that wasn't so hard now was it?" the man asked almost soothingly. Then he swung back his leg and kicked her hard. "I told you not to fucking make any noise bitch!"Just then the man turned into the light enough that Jeremy could see his face. He almost gasped in surprise before he stopped himself.

Principal Ashworth, how could it be Principal Ashworth, how could he do something like this? It just didn't seem to fit, Jeremy's friendly image of the Principal shattered and now this image, of him standing threateningly over a helpless woman, replaced it.

"Now unless I ask you something I don't want to hear another word from you. We wouldn't want to have to have a repeat of what just happened, now would we?" Anna shook her head. "Good."

Jeremy saw Principal Ashworth kneel down and although he couldn't see what was happening her Anna whimper and then cry out.

As Ashworth knelt down in front of her Anna tried to shrink back, further away from him, but since she was up against a table she couldn't. Ashworth put his hands on her legs and pulled them apart slightly, Anna tried to keep her legs closed and then whimpered when he dug his fingers into her muscles, forcing her to relax them. He quickly brought one of his hands down and rammed a finger into her dry sex, making her cry out in pain, he grinned as he did this and then his face got angry. "I told you to be quiet slut!" He hit her hard across the face again. Anna started to sob. Ashworth ripped her shirt down the front angrily, pushed her bra aside, and twisted her nipples cruelly, Anna cried out again.

Jeremy was trying to figure out where the gun was and if there was any chance of Anna getting shot if he jumped the bastard right now, when he heard Principal Ashworth hit Anna again. He could not allow this to go any further, he still didn't know where the gun was but at least he knew that Ashworth wasn't holding it for the moment.

Just then Jeremy heard footsteps and a male voice calling his name softly, shit it was Mike. He saw Principal Ashworth look towards the door and decided that this was his chance. Jeremy leapt across the table and threw himself at Principal Ashworth, knocking the older man over. Ashworth started yelling curses at him and trying to punch or kick him, anything that would get the younger man off of him.

Mike heard the commotion and came rushing into the room saying "What the hell have you gotten into now Jeremy?" Mike flipped on the switch for the classroom lights and stood stunned for a moment at what he saw. Jeremy and the Principal were fighting viciously and there was a battered looking woman tied to one of the lab tables.

"Don't just stand there staring," Jeremy grunted, "help me!"

Mike rushed over to join the fight slugging the principal in the stomach while Jeremy held his hands behind his back. The principal's breath whooshed out of him and he fell to his knees, he looked for his gun but couldn't find it. Then he felt something slam into the back of his head with what felt like the force of a train and everything went black.

The principal lay unmoving on the floor and both Jeremy and Mike just stood there for a moment, staring and panting. "Is he dead?" Mike finally asked. Jeremy bent down to check the man's pulse and shook his head no. Then he snapped his head to the side, as if coming out of a trance and suddenly remembering something very important, and rushed over to kneel in front of Anna. Mike sat down on a lab stool and watched, concern, worry, and a hint of curiosity played across his handsome face as he watched Jeremy reach out to the girl and touch her arm gently, almost hesitantly, as if she were made of glass.

"Anna? Anna, it's all right, look at me, it's all right Anna, he's out cold." Jeremy looked up at Mike. "Find me a pair of scissors or a knife or something." Mike nodded and went to search through the many drawers in the room.

"Anna, Mike is finding something so that I can cut the ropes from your hands and then we're going to get you out of here, ok?" Jeremy saw her tiny nod and felt slightly better, at least she was responding to him, and that was good, right? He looked at the blood slowly running from her split lip which had been made worse from being hit so hard and so many times. He wiped the blood off of her face with the edge of his shirt then reached down to fix her shirt as much as possible but she shrunk back from him and whimpered. He drew his hand back and placed it on her cheek. "I'm not going to hurt you Anna, you don't need to be afraid of me."

Mike walked up with a pair of scissors and handed them to Jeremy who went to work at cutting Anna free from the rope and table, which wasn't proving to be an easy feat with a pair of school scissors. Finally he had cut all of the way through the rope and was rubbing Anna's wrists gently, like he'd seen in movies, to help restore her blood circulation in her hands. Once he was satisfied he let go of her wrists and was surprised when she wrapped her arms around his neck, practically clinging to him. "Thank you" she whispered into his ear. Jeremy picked her up and sat down on a lab stool with her pressed against his chest, "where is your purse?" he asked.

"In the office," she said into his shoulder "but I don't want to go in there. Please?" Jeremy could feel Anna start to shake even harder against him. 'What had the fucking bastard done to her in there?'

Jeremy smoothed her hair down her back, comforting her, "It's all right, you don't have to." He looked up at Mike who had been staring at them, "Mike, would you mind going to the office and grabbing her purse?"

"Sure man." Mike replied.

"Oh and after that meet me at the car, where is everyone else?"

"They already left I told them to go ahead and that I would find you."

Jeremy nodded. "What should we do with him?" Jeremy asked, indication Principal Ashworth lying on the floor. "And where did his gun go? I know that he had had one but I didn't see or feel it on him."

Anna pointed to where she had been sitting, "I took it when you started fighting and sat on it so that he couldn't get to it." Anna volunteered quietly.

"Thanks for that, that still leaves us with what to do with him and his gun though."