I don’t answer, and we watch as the video continues. The ones with paddles ask questions, and whenever the answer is deemed wrong, they paddle the offender.
River gets all the questions right, until… until Asch asks him about his finger.
I watch as River bends over, and Blaze paddles him hard. Asch holds him down for it, and they take the paddle to his ass again and again.
The empty void in my chest thumps harder and harder. My face heats up, and I don’t know if I’m angry or turned on.
It’s so hot.
But they aren’t allowed to do this to River.
“Try a different vid,” my voice says.
Anastasia looks at me. “There’s only a few more?—”
“Turn it off!” I yell, then I reach over to yank the laptop away from her. She doesn’t get to see this. This isn’t for her.
“Hey,” she says, and her voice is careful, though there’s an edge to it. “You asked me for help. I’m doing the best I can, but you don’t get to shout at me. Got it?”
“Well, you got the files. I can access these on my tablet now?” I grin at her. “Then you don’t need to see what else is on here.” My hand shakes as I look at the other files available. Will I find Blaze and Asch’s hazing? Will I see somebody taking a paddle totheirasses? Who else do I need to kill?
“Yeah, the drive’s encryption is cracked. You should have access to everything.” Anastasia stares at me for a long moment. “I hope you know what you’re doing, Pandora.”
“Yeah, I do.” I yank the cord to the hard drive out of her laptop. “Her room is still yours. Didn’t mean to yell. You know how I am. Don’t worry, Kratos isn’t like me at all! Good thing he’s the one who likes you and not me.” I giggle, even though I don’t think I’m supposed to.
Shit.
I take the drive into my own room, shutting and locking the door. I connect it to my tablet and start clicking through the files.
There are a lot of videos of the Kappa Alpha brothers. Not videos that would be posted online.Confessions.
Secrets.
“I once cut off a man’s hand.”
“I raped my sister.”
“I helped my father bury my mother’s body.”
“My parents kept a slave.”
I grin as I click through video after video. So much information, all for me to use and exploit.
Then I get to Blaze’s video. It’s dated right before the end of last school year.
“My family’s business is selling people,” Blaze says, his eyes directly on the camera. “But you already know that.”
“Yeah, I do,” the guy on the other end answers.
I don’t recognize the voice, but he sounds older.
“Guess I’ll tell you about the time I asked my dad to kill a classmate. No real reason; the guy was pissing me off.” Blaze grins. “Dude was gone within the week. The whole school sobbed and held a whole moment of silence for him.”
There’s a pause, then the guy says, “No real reason? You have to be completely honest or it doesn’t count.”
Blaze grows irritated, and I see that familiar flash of anger, that desire tohurt.
“Fine. Because the guy was being a dick to Asch. He didn’t stop even after I threatened him. So there was no other option.”
