The Academy

The Academy
Bentley Little
A SIGNET BOOK

SIGNET

Published by New American Library, a division of

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First published by Signet, an imprint of New American Library,

a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

ISBN: 1-4362-3899-4

Copyright Š Bentley Little, 2008

All rights reserved

REGISTERED TRADEMARK—MARCA REGISTRADA

Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise), without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.

PUBLISHER’S NOTE

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

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“BENTLEY LITTLE KEEPS THE HIGH-TENSION JOLTS COMING.”
—Stephen King
Praise for the Novels of Bentley Little
The Vanishing

“A plethora of gore and perversion.”

—
Publishers Weekly

The Burning

“Stephen King-size epic horror.”

—
Publishers Weekly

Dispatch

“Little has the unparalleled ability to evoke surreal, satiric terror . . . should not be missed.”

—Horror Reader

The Resort

“An explicitly repulsive yet surrealistically sad tale of everyday horror.”

—
Publishers Weekly

The Policy

“A chilling tale.”

—
Publishers Weekly

The Return

“A master of horror on par with Koontz and King. . . . so powerful that readers will keep the lights on day and night.”

—
Midwest Book Review

The Collection

“A must-have for the author’s fans.”

—
Publishers Weekly

“Little’s often macabre, always sharp tales are snippets of everyday life given a creepy twist.”

—
Booklist

“IF THERE’S A BETTER HORROR NOVELIST WORKING TODAY, I DON’T KNOW WHO IT IS.”
—
Los Angeles Times
The Association

“Haunting . . . terrifying . . . graphic and fantastic . . . will stick with readers for a long time. Just enough sex, violence, and Big Brother rhetoric to make this an incredibly credible tale.”

—
Publishers Weekly

The Walking

“A wonderful, fast-paced, rock-’em, jolt-’em, shock-’em contemporary terror fiction with believable characters and an unusually clever plot. Highly entertaining.”

—Dean Koontz

“Bentley Little’s
The Walking
is the horror event of the year. If you like spooky stories you must read this book.”

—Stephen King

“
The Walking
is a waking nightmare. A spellbinding tale of witchcraft and vengeance. Scary and intense.”

—Michael Prescott, author of
In Dark Places

“Flowing seamlessly between time and place, the Bram Stoker Award-winning author’s ability to transfix his audience . . . is superb . . . terrifying. [
The Walking
] has the potential to be a major sleeper.”

—
Publishers Weekly
(starred review)

The Ignored

“This is Bentley Little’s best book yet. Frightening, thought-provoking, and impossible to put down.”

—Stephen King

“LITTLE POSSESSES THE UNCANNY ABILITY TO TAKE EVERYDAY SITUATIONS AND TURN THEM INTO NIGHTMARES.”
—
Publishers Weekly

“A singular achievement by a writer who makes the leap from the ranks of the merely talented to true distinction with this book. This one may become a classic.”

—
Dark Echo

“Little is so wonderful that he can make the act of ordering a Coke at McDonald’s take on a sinister dimension. This philosophical soul-searcher is provocative.”

—
Fangoria

The Revelation
Winner of the Bram Stoker Award

“I guarantee, once you start reading this book, you’ll be up until dawn with your eyes glued to the pages. A nail-biting, throat-squeezing, nonstop plunge into darkness and evil.”

—Rick Hautala

The Store

“Frightening.”

—
Los Angeles Times

The Mailman

“A thinking person’s horror novel.
The Mailman
delivers.”

—
Los Angeles Times

University

“By the time I finished, my nerves were pretty well fried, and I have a pretty high shock level.
University
is unlike anything else in popular fiction.”

—Stephen King

ALSO BY BENTLEY LITTLE
The Vanishing
The Burning
Dispatch
The Resort
The Policy
The Return
The Collection
The Association
The Walking
The Town
The House
The Store
The Ignored
The Revelation
University
Dominion
The Mailman
Death Instinct

This book is dedicated to Paul Smith, whose tales from the trenches gave me nightmares.
Special thanks to Rachel Jackson-Smith, who allowed me to use her name in this novel in order to raise money for Golden Hill Elementary School.

Prologue

“What do you wanna do?” Van asked.

Kurt shrugged. “I dunno. What do
you
wanna do?”

“I dunno.”

The two teenagers leaned against the closed garage door, staring out at the street and looking before them at a long boring afternoon.

“Let’s play some hoops,” Van suggested.

“All right,” Kurt agreed. Neither of them had been back to the campus since school let out, although the summer before, they’d practically
lived
there. This year, however, he had his driver’s license, so they’d gone to the beach a lot, cruised for chicks (not that they’d found any) and generally taken advantage of his newly mobile status. Unfortunately, last week his dad had grounded him after getting the gas bills from Kurt’s two credit cards, and for the rest of the summer they were once again relegated to doing things that were within walking distance.

The two of them grabbed a couple of cans of Coke from the fridge, then headed down the hill to the high school, bouncing the basketball between them on the sidewalk.

Van was hoping for a pickup game, but when they arrived, they were the only ones there. Kurt was glad. He hadn’t played in a while and wanted to be able to get in a little practice before going against someone. “Let’s play Horse,” he said.

Van snorted. “What are you, three? Let’s play Shit. Or Fuck.”

“Fuck it is, then.” Kurt took the ball, dribbled down the court, ran under the basket, threw the ball underhanded over his head and, miraculously, made it. He tossed the ball to his friend, who tried to copy his moves, but the ball hit the rim and bounced away. “F!” Kurt announced.

“Watch
this
!” Van called, going into Globetrotter mode and executing his fanciest dribbles.

But Kurt didn’t watch. Instead, he looked toward the classrooms.

Something was wrong.

There was a chain-link fence blocking off the buildings in an effort to prevent vandalism. Behind the fence, he could see closed classroom doors and windows shaded by off-white institutional blinds. The sight of the shut-down school had made him feel happy last year, but now it made him uneasy. Even the field and the blacktop basketball courts put him on edge, their emptiness somehow emphasizing the fact that the two of them were all alone here.