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C:/ Access granted. You’ve been entered into the pool for admittance to The MidKnight Guild. You’ll be given a series of tasks to perform with fellow initiates. Fail to perform them, and you don’t belong. Your success is in your hands. Do you accept?
C:/ Yes. I accept.
C:/Welcome to the games. We’ll be in touch.
The screen returned to normal, and I exhaled, realizing I’d been holding my breath through the exchange. I was in!
Happiness and excitement, a foreign feeling, whirled to life in me, and I sat back, smiling. The drawer stood open, almost mocking me, reminding me what I’d been ready to do ten minutes earlier. Slamming it shut, I wasn’t prepared to let it go yet, but I didn’t need to necessarily be reminded of my weakness either.
Walking to my bed, I pulled another picture frame of my best friend and me off the nightstand, and I held it to my chest as I lay in bed.
“I’ll find you, Sariah. I promise.”
In the end,I did find her, but not because of the dark web. No, that had only led to my destruction.
* * *
I stayedin the hotel room for a few days, licking my imaginary wounds. I was embarrassed to admit it took me that long to pull myself out of my funk, shower, and have a stern talking with myself. If I kept letting myself fall back into the past, I wouldn’t be able to correct my future; I’d only be ruining it more.
“Time to suck it up, girl. Message him back and tell him how you really feel.”
Taking a deep breath, I pulled out my most prized possession after my sewing machine—my custom-built laptop. Smoothing my hands over the surface, I touched the stickers I’d placed on it adoringly, reminding myself of what I’d intended when I’d settled on each of them. The one that caught my eye today was, “Nevertheless, she persisted.” With one final push, I opened the lid and powered it on.
I used to get a jolt of adrenaline each time I sat in front of this screen, the thrill of a new adventure awaiting me on the other side. After the fallout with Blackhawk and Obsidian, it all felt too broken and contaminated. It took me a while to find I could use my skills for good, and my white hacking site was born.
“Though, how well did that turn out last time?”my sins whispered to me, reminding me how well I’d assisted someone who ended up being human trafficked anyway despite my ‘help.’
Pushing that reminder to the far recesses of my mind, I knew I couldn’t open that can of worms just yet. There were so many things attached to it, and I wasn’t ready. I didn’t know if I ever would be. It was much better to focus on the thing I could right now and strangle this demon instead of letting them all breed. Yeah, sound advice.
Signing into the app I hadn’t frequented in years, I clicked on the message that had sent me spiraling.
Blackhawk:Oblivion, babe, where have you been? I’ve missed you.
There he was. It felt surreal that he was right there. My nightmare had been at my fingertips all along. Tapping my nails on the keyboard, I debated how to respond. I honestly thought he’d put up more of a fight. I hadn’t expected to find him this soon. Now that I had, what did I say?
Hey, asshole, thanks for ruining my life. Now, please meet me at the 7-Eleven so I can kick you in the nuts?
No, I didn’t think that would work. Plus, I wanted to destroy him more than just leaving him unable to bear children. An idea formed, and I knew what I needed to do—exactly what they’d done to me.
Lure him into a false sense of security. Make him think we were friends and then crush his spirit. All the while, in the background, I’d destroy everything he loved and cherished. Nothing would be safe.
Unless he had a dog, then I’d just steal it and make him think it ran away. Yes, this was the way to go about it.
Feeling invigorated with my new plan, I cracked my knuckles and rested my fingers on the familiar keys. The power that lay beneath my fingertips was what always amazed me, pushing me to press them. If people only knew the real power they had to destroy others. Scratch that. I didn’t need to go full rebellion, just revenge. And maybe some redemption for the other things.
Okay, now that I had my mindset, I typed in a response. Time to play a little game, asshole.
Oblivion:That’s rich coming from you. I’m surprised your balls haven’t shriveled up inside you from how much of a coward you are.
I hit send before I could take it back and realized I’d gone a little harsh, but it was fine, totally fine.
Crap! Crap! Crap! How did I unsend something? Fudge, why did I let myself think I could do this?
While I was having a mini panic attack, I missed the fact that he sent back a message. So when the ping sounded, I jumped, hitting a bunch of random keys. Furiously hitting delete, I forced my eyes up to read his reply.
Blackhawk:How I’ve missed your wit, little hacker. It’s been lonely on here these past four years. But I must ask, why do you think I’m a coward?
I didn’t even have to think anymore as I typed out my response. If he was here to chat, it was time to find out some information. The problem with finding Blackhawk all those years ago was that I didn’t know much about his real identity outside of his hacker name and random facts we shared. I needed more than his favorite pizza this time if I was going to destroy him.
