The New Principal Ch. 21

The only main place left that I planned to check tonight was the big one. I knew there was a camera in the nurse's office, and now that I had seen Mr. Grant in action, I worried what I would find there. Hopefully I would be able to learn more about what the hell was going on.

I scrubbed back to the morning and waited for him to arrive. When he didn't show up for a few hours, I checked the other cameras to see if I could find him elsewhere.

There he was. He did show up spot on at eight in the morning, but he went directly to the administration building. No cameras in there, so I just had to wait for him to come out.

Finally, he did. Based on the time hack, I knew he would head over to the library to creep on Veronica, and he did exactly that. When he left there, I clicked over to the camera in his office, and in a moment, he walked right in.

He closed the door and then kicked the metal trashcan hard. I heard him scream though gritted teeth and then he actually punched the wall. The drywall gave way and it took him a bit to get his hand out of the hole. It would have been comic if he weren't showing a violent side that I didn't know he had. I thought he was just an administrative bully, but this put a new wrinkle in things.

He threw himself down on the chair in front of his desk like a petulant child.

He was crumpled down in his chair, and I heard him mumbling to himself. I couldn't make anything out, and he didn't seem to have any intention of doing anything, so I scrubbed forward a bit.

Eventually, he did get up and walk to a standing cabinet on the other side of the office. He opened it up, revealing a store of first aid supplies, bandages, splints and the like. There was also a basic collection of aspirins and other over-the-counter stuff. Then he opened a small refrigerated compartment.

Among the cold packs was a small white case. He took it out and laid it on his desk. He fiddled with the clasp for a bit, and I realized there was a combination lock. I paused to zoom in and slowmo through his opening it so I could figure out the code. Maybe that would become handy later on.

I zoomed out and hit play to get out of slowmo, more curious than even about what was in the box. If I hadn't been so tired, or if I just thought about it for a moment, I probably would have figured it out sooner, but all I saw were a few vials of reddish liquid and a compartment of syringes.

He took out a vial and tapped it on the desk for a moment, as if he was making a decision. Then, the decision apparently made, he took out a syringe and filled it from the vial.

I watched enthralled as he went though the process of injecting himself with whatever was in the vial.

It seemed to be quite painful. As soon as he pressed the plunger, he whole body tensed. I thought he was going to break the needle off in his arm, but he pulled it out right before tossing it aside and crumpling into a fetal ball. He fell off the chair and I heard him groaning in obvious agony. His fist struck out and he pounded the tile floor a few times.

After a little while, he did get up slowly, straightened out his clothes, and started pacing, back and forth across the office. Then he walked over to another cabinet. He took off his sportscoat and hunt it up in the cabinet, taking out and putting on a long white doctor's coat. He looked at the clock on the wall, and being agitated by what he saw, he rushed to clean up the white box and the rest of the office.

As he was finishing this, there was a soft regular rapping at the door.

He sat down at his chair, turned himself carefully toward the door, and said in an almost absurdly low voice. "Enter!"

Three students walked into the room, walking in that same weird way I had seen them walk across the quad. There was something different about them, though. Two seemed very ill at ease, but one, the one who had come in first, smiling nervously.

"Very well. Lynn, why are you here today?"

The first girl spoke. Even though she tried to answer in the same regimented fashion Mr. Grant had used, her voice was low and dreamy. I recognized that voice. It sounded almost exactly like a women under the influence of the trick. But there was something else, too. It was a combination of sexual arousal and adoration. There was a confusion there, too, though. I couldn't see in her mind, obviously, but it didn't sound like she was entirely in control.

So this must be the strangeness. And it was coming out of a vial?

"Mr. Grant... I brought these girls to you for their checkup."

"Good. Why did you bring these two?"

"You... you said..." The girl he called Lynn was nearly swaying back and forth like she was going to pass out.

Mr. Grant stood up and grabbed her by the wrists.

"Lynn. Why did you bring these two girls to me?"

The two other girls were starting to shift nervously, clearly not comfortable with whatever was going on here.

"You said to bring you... bring you pretty girls... Everyone needs to have a checkup." She looked up into his face with a look of deep worry. "Did I... Did I mess up? Are they not pretty enough? I don't really know..."

"You did fine, Lynn, just fine. Now why don't you sit down in this chair while I talk to them, okay?"

Lynn stumbled over to the chair and slumped into it. I think she actually passed out, but Mr. Grant didn't pay any attention.

He turned to the two trembling students.

"Hello, I think I have seen you on campus. I'm Mr. Grant. I'm the nurse here on campus, and Lynn has just brought you over here to finish off your enrollment physical."

He carefully looked both girls in the eyes as he spoke. I tried to see if I could see a sparkle in anyone's eyes, but didn't see anything.

Both girls noticeably calmed a little bit, no longer shaking.

"Why don't the both of you hop up on the examination table. We've got almost all the physical data from you, but I just need to ask you a few questions, and we'll get you on your way. Just let me see your ID cards, please."

They both handed them over and Mr. Grant punched them up on a tablet.

"Ok, let's start with Maria. Which of you is Maria?"

The girl on the left raised her hand and squeaked out, "I'm Maria, sir."

"Excellent. Now first I just want to confirm a bit about your eyes. Look right at my eyes if you could, Maria."

It was fascinating to see him go through this. Something was very different about the version of the trick that he had. It seemed like it wasn't working easily. I saw beads of sweat roll down the side of his face. He was clearly concentrating all his energy on her, but she wasn't really reacting much.

His voice was more ragged than before, almost exhausted.

"Ok, well done, Maria."

"Thank you, sir."

"Now one quick question to round things off. Are you a virgin?"

"What?" Maria's voice came out clear and unclouded. "What? Why would you need to know that? I don't think... I don't..."

Mr. Grant was back in front of her looking directly at her, but it was no good.

"I don't... think that's appropriate. I'm sorry, sir. I just..."

"Fine." Mr. Grant's voice was ice cold with barely controlled anger. "That will be twenty demerits for you Maria. You'll be working in the spa for the next month."

"Oh, Mr. Grant, but..."

"Maybe you'd rather work in the cafeteria? That's opening up for demerit work soon."

"No, sir."

"Are you a virgin?"

"I'm very sorry, but I don't think you need to know that information, sir."

"Fine, thirty demerits. Wait outside for your paperwork."

Maria was tearing up and it looked like she was trying to figure out what to say.

"OUT!"

Maria hopped off the examination table and rushed halfway to the door.

"What do you say, Maria?"

Through choked sobs, she sputtered out, "Thank you, sir." And then she was out of the room.

Mr. Grant, sighed, then turned to the other girl.

"So you would be Della?"

"Yes, sir."

Her voice was not as woozy as Lynn's, but it was not too far off, either.

"Good. Della, lets look at your eyes, too."

He looked in her eyes comparatively quickly before taking half a step back, clearly still exhausted, but much more pleased. He looked her up and down.

"You are a pretty girl. Lynn did well to bring you to me."

"Thank you, sir."

"Now, Della, can you tell me if you are a virgin or not?"

In a dazed voice, she replied, "No, sir. I'm not a virgin."

"Godammit! We've got too many fucking sluts here. Get the hell out of here, you skank."

Della seemed confused, then slowly got down from the examination table.

"Thank you, sir."

And then she left.

Mr. Grant was left in the room alone with Lynn, who was now clearly unconscious in a chair in the corner. He slammed his fist down on the padded table, then collected himself and walked over to Lynn.

He kicked the chair without much strength.

"Oh! Sir, I'm so sorry. Did I fall asleep again? I don't know what's wrong with me. I just... I'm so tired all the time."

"Lynn. Why did you bring me those girls?"

"You told me to, sir."

"But I told you what I wanted. What did I tell you I wanted, Lynn?"

"Pretty girls... You wanted pretty girls..."

"And..."

"Sir, you said you wanted virgins. Were they not okay? But I don't know! How do I find that out? I'm sorry. I'll get you more girls. I just don't know how to tell. How do I tell if they're... if they're..."

"Sluts. Skanks. Whores."

Lynn flinched at each word that was spat at her.

"I'll try harder, sir."

"Yes, you will. Bring me two more..." He wiped the sweat from his forehead and thought for a moment. "for Friday. Can you do that?"

"Yes, sir! I'll do my best... But, sir..." She looked up at him with a truly pathetic expression. Her voice became almost inaudible. "I'm still a virgin. Can't I help?"

Mr. Grant pulled her up out of the chair and hugged her tight, kissing her on the forehead. He brushed hair back over her ears.

"You are helping, Lynn. Oh, you are helping. And you are going to be perfect. You'll be our number one girl."

She smiled, but didn't lean into the hug.

He pulled back a little bit and looked at her in the eyes. Then he reached out and grabbed awkwardly at her breasts, squeezing hard.

She cringed, and her expression started to change, wavering between that anodyne nothingness and confusion.

Mr. Grant shoved her away and moved away, sitting down at his desk.

"You may leave, Lynn."

"Thank... Thank you, sir."

And Mr. Grant was left alone in his office. One hand was on the arm of his chair, and I could see his knuckles were white with the pressure of his grip.

"Goddammit."

I sat back again, only then realizing that every muscle in my body had been clenched.

So they had a serum? Some kind of liquid trick? But it didn't seem to work right. I mean, any time I came across someone who wasn't into me, or interested, they would either unconsciously kick me out of their head, or... or, anyway, I don't think I even had access to anything that could make them do something they didn't want to do. I mean, I never really tried though. Maybe I could?

But it seemed like what they were trying to do was to break people down and remove their ability to resist. But that one girl was able to resist him basically from the get-go. And then there was poor Lynn, I wondered what that was all about.

And he was looking for virgins? That was creepy as all hell. I had suspicions about what that meant, but I didn't even want to start thinking in that direction.

As I was caught in my reverie, I heard Mr. Grant start talking on his phone.

"Principal Sten... Yes ma'am. Yes... they just left. It was, let me check... batch number 62c3, sample 3. The level of pain was about the same... No, I can handle it. But if it's like last time, I'll need another day to recover."

There was a long pause as he listened. His leg started rapidly jerking up and down, tapping his heel on the floor.

"Yes ma'am. I'll send the report along before I go home tonight... The gist? It's not as effective. I don't know, maybe it is me, but the effect isn't as strong. One girl outright denied to even answer questions. We've never had that before. The second one was just another fucking slut... No!... No, ma'am... I'm sorry. I just get so frustrated... Correct. She was not a virgin. Right. What really had me worried was Lynn... Right... I tried to touch her boobs and she nearly snapped out of it... I don't know... I don't know that either... Well, we need to get him back in the hospital then, don't we?... So, maybe we'll have to arrange something to get him there sooner."

At that, I shot up bolt straight in my chair.

Mr. Grant was getting more agitated by the moment. "You're the boss, but I don't think we can wait another few weeks. If we don't have them conditioned by graduation, things are going to get real ugly, and there's so much we still have to do... I don't know anything about that side of things, that's all you... I am... I'm doing the best I can, dammit!"

He abruptly stopped talking. I could tell he was trying to master his emotions as he held the phone a bit further from his ear.

He took a deep breath.

"Yes ma'am. I am sorry. I'm just... Yes... I know that's irrelevant. Yes. I just really... I'm really looking forward to this stage of the whole process being over."

Then his energy started to ebb. He sunk lower in the chair.

"Yes... Okay... I'll be back in on Thursday, I've got Lynn bringing two more in on Friday. Okay, we can try the new batch then. Yes, before I leave today... I may need to leave a bit early though. I, no. I'm going to need to go home. I'll get the report to you tonight... Okay... Thank you. Goodbye."

He hung up the phone and just wilted. If that was an effect of their version of the trick, that was very different, too. I was almost always energized after using it.

Then he stood up, replaced his doctor's coat and left.

That said, my weariness was only being held at bay by the horrific nature of the video I was watching. I stood up and heard every bone in my back crack as I let out a yawn worthy of any lion on the savannah.

Fortunately, there was only a little time before Kimberly would show up.

When she did, I tried to start to tell her everything I saw that night, but she shushed me and insisted I stay upstairs while she prepared breakfast.

But when she did bring things up for us, we sat down in the library to eat, and I laid everything out for her.

She wasn't as shocked as I thought she would be. We both agreed that we would need to get everyone together as soon as possible to make some decisions.

It was a fairly subdued breakfast. I was nearly nodding off and Kimberly looked like she had a lot of things on her mind.

As she was leaving, she said that she would get in touch with everyone, but things were so crazy on campus that she wasn't sure we could get everyone together until Friday.

We kissed and hugged a bit, neither one with the energy to do much more than that. And then she was gone, leaving another batch of things for me to eat that evening.

I slunk over to my bed and collapsed.

When I woke up, it was already getting dark. My inner clock was messed up so much that I couldn't tell if it was morning or evening. I thought the nurse Mrs. Agate would take a great report back to her higher ups if she saw me now. Dry mouth, confusion, and one look in the bathroom mirror convinced me I looked like hell too.

I shook off the drowsiness as well as I could. I figured that I would need my energy if I was going to make it through another night of voyeuristic agony.

I finished a shower and was drying my hair when I heard something downstairs. I mean, I think I heard something. I stopped and stood as still as I could, listening for what seemed like a minute or more. I would have sworn I had heard something, but then nothing. But then I still had a strong feeling that something was wrong. I figured it was paranoia and my creeping cabin-fever.

Then I remembered what Mr. Grant said about getting "him" back in the hospital.

There wasn't anything around that I could use as a weapon. I should have taken up golf instead of running. Then I remembered a spare bar to hang clothes on that was over in the closet.

As quiet as I could, I snuck over and opened up the closet. The bar was where I remembered it, but it was just a wooden stick, and not very long. Better than nothing, right?

I said I wasn't going to go downstairs in case someone was watching outside, but what did that matter if whoever was watching had come in to make sure I was readmitted to the hospital in a particularly kinetic way?

Maybe it was that older newly-minted trooper. I figured I might be able to take him, but if they were both there, I might not be able to, and if they drew their pistols, I'd be shit out of luck.

Still, better to go down swinging. If you're going to get the crap beaten out of you, you might as well get in a few swings on other guy.

I was thinking all this as I made my way to the stairs and then slowly, step by step down to the dark first floor. The sun wasn't entirely down when I woke up, but there wasn't any light out now.

I glanced into the kitchen and didn't see anything.

Maybe it was just a regular old burglar? I didn't really have anything to steal though, and they would have to be local. What local would decide to rob the Green House?

With catlike tread, I moved into the parlor room. It was pitch black, but I swore I felt that someone was in there. It was like there was a darker shade of blackness over on the lounge chair.

"Now, now, Ben. Do you have a license for that... stick?"

For a split second I was stunned. I knew that voice. It was a woman...

"Now don't tell me you think I'm a threat. Or has the whole situation here gotten to you a bit? I would turn on the light, but you've got someone outside watching your house, Ben. Why don't we go upstairs and have a little chat, huh?"

"TESS?!"

"Quiet down there, bucko. Don't want your friend out there getting curious. I would rather I remain unknown here for the moment. Hush now, let's go upstairs."

My eyes had adjusted enough that I saw a dark silhouette walk toward me and I felt her hand grab mine as she walked by toward the stairs.

I followed dumbly.

When we got upstairs, she led me toward the library and sat me down in a chair.

"Do you mind if I make use of the necessaries? It's been a very long day."

"Of course." I pointed vaguely down the hall to the bathroom, and she headed off.

What the hell was Tess Kindlaw doing here? I swear I felt the gears in my mind turning slower than molasses. Nothing made sense and I felt dumber than ever. There were so many pieces that felt like they should be connected, but I couldn't see clearly.

The last time I saw Tess, I was shooting my spunk over her shoulder onto the face of a student who I didn't even know was in the room. She was the one who had started all this mess.

She had the trick!

Maybe she could explain what the hell was going on with me. But if she had the trick, how could I know she wasn't working with Sten and her goons?

I heard her come into the room and click on a dim chairside lamp. She sat down across from me.

She looked exactly the same. She was a tall woman, even a bit taller than me, medium long brown hair, a sort of roundish face. Looking at her again, I could see clearly in my memory, those lovely large breasts, and I could feel those thighs crushing me in her passion. She was dressed for plausibly deniable stealth, I suppose. Black sweater, tight enough to please me, black pants, but pants that looked normal enough, and boots that could just be regular old hiking boots. All of this with enough style that wouldn't be too out of place for someone on a late-night grocery run.