The Rift Uprising by Amy S. Foster Page B

of the music. Henry has arrived. I see him at the fireplace with his arms crossed, looking like a bouncer. No wonder kids think everyone in ARC is a freak.
    I drink some more. I feel myself loosening up. I can’t believe it, but I actually think I’m having a good time. After about an hour, though, I get a pang about Flora. I really should go find her and make sure she is okay. I look throughout the house forher and then outside where the party has spilled out around a fire pit. I see Levi talking to another Citadel his age, a year older than me, a supposed senior at Battle Ground High. When I don’t see Flora, I ask Levi if he has. He says he hasn’t, sighs with annoyance, and together we walk into the house.
    I grab a random girl on the stairs and ask her if she’s seen our host.
    â€œShe went up to her room,” the girl says drunkenly. “With two guys,” she whispers, and stumbles a bit on the step. I see Levi tense. I can see he’s about to leap up the remaining flight of stairs, but I grab the back of his arm and push him up against the wall, pinning him to it. Anyone looking would assume that we’re about to hook up. I speak softly in his ear.
    â€œTake it easy, Levi.”
    He turns his head and looks at me, his eyes burning. His voice goes deathly quiet. “Get off of me, Ryn.”
    â€œI will go and deal with this,” I assure him. Levi pushes forward and I push him back harder.
    â€œShe’s my sister.”
    â€œYeah, but if you go in there, you’ll kill them. Me?” I smile. “I’ll just hurt them.” Levi rolls his eyes and then nods his head. I race up the stairs, and throw open the door to Flora’s room. I see my friend naked on the bed. She is totally passed out. One guy is on top of her, and the other, beside me, has his phone out and shirt off, and is clearly filming the action.
    â€œHey, girl, you wanna join the party?” the guy next to me says. Oh my God, did he just say that? The party ? Dumbass must think we are in an actual porno, because that’s the only situation where I think a girl would be down with this rapey shit.
    I consider how much restraint I actually want to show. My conclusion: very little.
    â€œOh, yeah, I really do.” My voice is a soft purr. I quicklyreach out and grab the guy’s phone and throw it hard against the wall so that it smashes into pieces.
    â€œWhat the hell?” he screams. The guy on the bed turns around. His pants are open, but it doesn’t look like he has done anything . . . yet.
    Thank God.
    â€œShe brought us up here, she wanted to do this and it’s a free country, so get naked or get the fuck out,” Bed Boy snarls. “Oh, yeah, and you can pay for my buddy’s phone, too, you crazy bitch.”
    Restraint level: virtually zero.
    â€œYou think this is cool?” I yell. “She is passed-out drunk. Any alarm bells go off in your head? Even you two morons must know that this is wrong.”
    The guy closest to me goes to grab me by the arm. I’m not sure what he was thinking, but now the gloves are off. Maybe he was going to try to force me onto the bed, too, or maybe he was just trying to throw me out of the room. Either way, he should not have touched me. I grab his hand and bend it back the wrong way. I sidestep him as he yelps in pain. I easily maneuver my arms around his neck to put him in a choke hold. I squeeze, applying just enough pressure to make him pass out. His body slumps, I push him off of me, and he falls to the ground with a thud.
    The guy in the bed scrambles up. He’s about six feet tall with sandy-colored hair and brown eyes. He’s not exactly ugly, but there is something distinctly ratlike about his nose and mouth. He looks at me with a mix of surprise and anger. “What did you just do? Did you just kill him?”
    I walk closer to him and see that he’s breathing hard. His chest is puffed out. If