Page 89

SANJANA

My phone was blowing up.

Buzz after buzz, vibrating across the nightstand like it had something to say.

I groaned and reached for it, the sleeve of Ryder’s T-shirt slipping halfway down my arm, still warm from sleep, and smelling like him.

His side of the bed was empty. Cooler now.

I looked around and saw that his hoodie and shoes were gone.

I checked my phone again and saw three missed calls. Four new texts. It started ringing again, and I answered without thinking.

“Someone better be dead.”

His voice came ragged. “She is!”

That got me fully awake. “Who?” I sat up fast, blanket tangled around me, the phone pressed tight to my ear.

“Angel—thank fuck.” His voice cracked, like he’d been pacing or running. “I didn’t know what the hell I was looking at, but I had to make sure it wasn’t you.”

“What are you talking about?” I glanced at the time. 8:32 A.M. Sunday. I was doomed to never sleep in again. “Why would it be me?”

“Check the Marked chat.”

I didn’t want to. In fact, every part of me resisted the idea, but the way his voice shook, I knew it was serious. I tapped into the group thread, switching to speaker. Most people weren’t awake yet, but a video had been pinned.

Still fresh, low on views.

? ? TEO ??????

Happy Hunting.

“I’m watching it now,” I said, hesitating before I tapped the screen.

The thumbnail expanded.

At first, the frame was angled down at the ground. Leaves. Dirt. A boot. Someone was breathing behind the camera, the sound distorted and warped. Then a voice came, just as distorted.

“This is the part where you run.”

The camera lifted. It caught a Private Property sign nailed to a tree, then panned over a cornfield just as a girl burst out of it, sprinting toward the woods.

She was barefoot, visibly bruised. Dressed in nothing but a bra and underwear.

Her arms were bound in front of her with what looked like a red zip-tie as she ran past. The person recording followed without rushing, boots moving over twigs and roots like he wasn’t even trying.

The footage was too smooth.

A thin wire stretched between two trees came into frame. The girl hit it hard. Her body folded and dropped with a choked gasp and a sickening crack.

I choked on a breath and held my throat as if it were I who had just run into that. “What the fuck is this?”

“I don’t know,” Ashton said, his voice tight through the speaker. “But I swear to god, for a second I thought—”

The footage cuts to a room. No—a basement. Or a bunker. Dark stone walls were too smooth to be natural. Too sterile to be anything but planned. The corners blurred. Shadows warped unnaturally. The girl was there, and alive. Much to my relief. I wasn’t sure if it was better for her, though.

Her bra had been taken off and was now shoved into her mouth like a gag. Blood ran from her neck in thin rivulets from where the wire had cut. Her arms were bound above her head; rope threaded through a hook bolted into the ceiling.

Someone else stepped into view, masked and silent. They circled her like she was meat hung to drain. “You said Hellraiser was your favorite, right?” The voice was still distorted, but playful.

The girl sobbed. Broken, hoarse sounds leaked around the gag—her bra, twisted and soaked. Her blonde hair had been hacked off in jagged chunks. Pieces stuck to her shoulders like straw. The camera shifted. Barely. Enough to catch movement in the corner. Someone else was there, watching.

“Oh my God,” I breathed, barely audible.

The main guy vanished off-screen, then reappeared, dragging some kind of altered chain behind him. It scraped along the floor,

He looped it around her waist--twice. Then dragged it lower—between her knees—hooking it to something bolted to the floor. I flinched and nearly dropped my phone when she started to scream. The sound was raw, muffled by the gag in her mouth, but it still came through my phone speaker crystal clear.

I think I understood why he mentioned what her favorite movie was. Tiny metal rods on each link of the chain pierced through her skin. Blood was dripping from everywhere. The worst had to be between her legs.

My stomach turned.

I didn’t want to keep watching this, but I couldn’t look away. Her body was bowed in two directions from how the restraints were placed.

Then the camera panned again.

It turned toward the far wall and revealed yet another masked figure. They held a second camera, filming too. The first person turned to face us, getting right in the lens so we could no longer see the girl, only hear her.

His breath fogged the lens.

“We can’t wait to play with all of you. Each of you will be It soon.”

The camera snapped forward in a jarring zoom, just a flash of the girl’s body behind him as someone pulled on her chain, ripping into her flesh.

“Happy hunting,” they taunted.

The video ended, and I was back in the Marked chat.

What the hell did I just watch? There was no way that was real.

If their goal was to torment the Marked, they had done an excellent job.

I had to give them that. None of the masked people in that video were wearing masks I had seen already. Just how many were there?

“Sanj?”

I startled, remembering Ashton was on the phone. He had gone quiet at some point.

“Yeah,” I answered quietly. “I’m here.”

“You’re… not freaking out?”

“No.” I rubbed my face with both hands. “I’m disturbed. But this isn’t real.”

“How do you know that?”

“The cuts in the footage and the edited clips. Because people are starting to see it now.” I scrolled through the chat. “Only three think it’s legit.”

I shifted forward on the bed, my brain clicking through theories. This was far more Ari or Cloe’s area of expertise.

“And two,” I continued, “if this were real, the cops would be crawling all over it. That video alone would be enough to shut the Hunt down permanently. As powerful as Crowsfell is, they’re not going to risk being associated with live-action snuff films. I doubt that part was in our student handbook. ”

“You really think it’s fake?”

“Ashton, if I thought that this was real, I would’ve called the cops myself. I’d be freaking the hell out like you expected me to.” I was not going to be that gullible. “Ash… how the hell did you think that was me?”

He stammered on the other end, caught off guard. “I—I panicked, okay?”

“You panicked so hard you turned me into a white girl with blonde hair?”

He didn’t say anything.

The silence stretched, thick with his embarrassment; I could practically hear him shriveling on the other end of the line. I exhaled softly. “It’s fine, Ash. I was mostly joking.”

“I feel stupid now,” he said sheepishly. “For calling. For not seeing the logic like you did.”

“I get it,” I admitted, shifting on the bed as the silence in the room started creeping in again. “Honestly, if this had been a few days ago, I would’ve lost the plot.” I stared at the screen, that final scene burned into my skull. “I mean… I still might,” I added. “That was morbid as hell.”

“You at least sound better,” Ashton said gently. “Well-rested. I take it you had a good weekend?”

My eyes went to the empty spot beside me.

Had it been a good weekend? I nodded to myself before I remembered he couldn’t see it. It had been more than good. It would have been everything if I had ignored all this Hunt drama. It was effortless in a way that almost hurt. Being with Ryder was easy. There was no awkwardness or weirdness.

Last night, things felt more surreal than the pool house had.

I told him what I wanted. What to do. I’d pleaded for more with a voice I didn’t recognize, and he listened.

He hadn’t just touched my body, he answered it.

Never in a million years would I have thought Ryder Voss would go down on me.

That had been a far-fetched fantasy until now.

I felt like I was getting a far better deal than he was, though. He wouldn’t let me return the favor.

Now I was sitting there, my legs tangled in the sheets we’d ruined, talking to the boy I was supposed to be with.

The one I was still technically dating, who had never made me unravel with a single look.

The one who’d never made me feel safe or seen in the way Ryder did.

I couldn’t consider Ashton without inevitably thinking of Brooke.

I wasn’t sure how I was going to deal with all this back on campus.

“I had a nice weekend,” I answered.

“Good, Sanj. I’m glad. You really think the video was fake?”

“You still think it’s real?”

He sighed loudly. “I don’t know. I guess I was more worried about you. You weren’t with the others last night, and you’re usually all thick as thieves.”

My brows pulled together. “What do you mean?”

“Ellie’s party.”

“Ellie Newton?”

“Yeah. You didn’t know about it? All your guys were there—and so was Arianna. Olivia too. No Roxxi or Cloe.”

So that’s what Ryder meant by out.

This was why I heard him and Cade mention Ellie the night we got back. They must’ve been planning to go all along.

“You were there too? I thought you said you’d be at your dad's for the weekend.”

“I was,” he said. “Headed back yesterday afternoon. I wasn’t at the party, I just saw people going live, reels about it. Looked packed.”

I could’ve sworn he told me he wouldn’t be back until later that night, but plans changed. They always did. My phone buzzed with a new text.

Rye ????

Good morning. Will see you soon.

“Hey, I should go,” I said gently.

“Me too. Thanks for not laughing at me. About the video.”

“I wouldn’t laugh at you for being scared,” I said softly. “It was disturbing. You weren’t wrong to be. Next time, try to remember I’m not white or blonde. And I know it’s easier said than done, I’m struggling with it too, but they’re going to try to get inside our heads any way they can.”