Chapter 22

As I closed the door behind me, I couldn't understand what happened. I was angry at first. I wanted her to grovel beside me, but my main goal was to find out everything that happened and why. Yet Violetta didn't even think about talking. It made me angrier, and then, and then...

"Fuck." it all went from my control.

I looked at my arms, which were trembling while my stomach started churning. I felt stuffy, and I wanted to cool down.

I knew that there were washbasins in the toilet rooms, so I hurried there.

As I walked through the endless tunnels of school corridors, I felt how something was squashing my throat. Taking my breath away. I was trying to fix the collar of my shirt so it would stop squeezing so hard but ended up ripping the button out. I heard music that was playing from somewhere as I was trying to find my way.

My head started throbbing.

"FUCK! Where is the restroom? Why is it so goddamn hard to find a restroom over here?" I couldn't help but swear.

I almost broke into running when I finally found the toilet room. There was no one in the toilet cubicles, nor did I meet anyone as I walked here.

Finally grabbing the edge of the washbasin, I turned on the faucet. I splashed the water on my face, but it was too little of a relief for me. Taking out my handkerchief, I stuffed the sink. As I was waiting for the water level to rise, I looked at the mirror in front of me.

A pale boy was standing there. He had a big build, but right now, he slumped and looked tiny. His hair and clothes disheveled, the collar ripped apart. His skin, pale in color, with his lips still being dried up even after washing the face with water. While his hands were trembling as they held onto the edge of the washbasin. His dark hazel eyes looked desperate and frightened.

"Ouch." My head started hurting as I furrowed my brows and squinted my eyes. All while the boy in the mirror did the same things as me.

My hands felt wet, the water started overflowing. It started spilling to the floor.

"Is this still me?"

I stuck my head into the small improvised reservoir of liquid. My head was enveloped by water. When I opened my eyes, all I could see was darkness. I opened my mouth and wanted to scream, but nothing except the sound of blubbing could be heard.

My head throbbed with pain, and my hands froze as I tried to push my head out.

"AAAAH!" I screamed when my struggle finally bore fruit as I managed to tear my hands from the edges of the washbasin. I almost fell down.

I saw the boy in the mirror once again. He stood there with bared teeth, water dripping from his head. This time he didn't look small. He filled almost all of this room with his frame. His eyes were bloodshot, glaring at me. I couldn't help but feel that he was someone unnatural. He wasn't a part of me or this world.

"AAARGH!" I struck the mirror with all my strength. "YOU FUCKING GAME, STOP JOKING WITH ME!" I hit the shattered glass once again.

I heard whispers from all over the place.

"WHAT IS HAPPENING, WHAT DO YOU WANT?!" I looked around but saw no one. "WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU WANT!?"

A picture of what happened in Violetta's office flashed in my eyes again.

I pointed at the broken mirror. "THIS ISN'T ME! I DIDN'T DO IT!!!!" My head throbbed again. "YOU MADE ME DO IT!!!" I squatted as the pain kept increasing until it became unbearable. I felt like I was struck by a sledgehammer. My head was splitting apart.

Every thought was accompanied by severe pain.

"Hhhrg." I felt how all my muscles tensed. Like I had a cramp all over my body while there was a lump in my throat.

This feeling probably lasted for a short amount of time as I started to feel better soon.

The excruciating agony was leaving my body. Along with something else.

I hurried to one of the toilet cubicles. The toilets in school were probably dirty, but I couldn't think about it. As I hugged the toilet bowl, I started throwing up. I didn't eat that much this morning, but I just kept vomiting to the point that even my gastric juice started thinning down.

I feel weak right now. However, I felt a huge relief after discarding whatever was inside of me. On shaky legs, I stood up and went towards the source of water once again. There was a broken mirror.

"Did I do this?" I wanted to brush off my lips when I felt that my hand was wet. I felt a salty taste on my lips, along with the taste of my own vomit. Looking at my hand closely, it was bleeding.

Everything that happened flashed before my eyes. And my head started hurting again.

"What the fuck?" I hissed from the pain, but this time it was somewhat bearable. "Why did I do all of this?"

There were no voices, no music, no one here. I was alone in a restroom with water spilling all over the floor, a broken mirror, and a bleeding hand.

I turned off the water and used the remaining water to wash my face from the sweat and puke on my lips.

While I waited for the water level to drop, I rinsed my hand under the other faucet.

After rinsing my mouth and drinking a few gulps of water, I felt much better. Throwing away my handkerchief, I went out. Looking if there was anyone near me who could cause trouble. There were no such people, and I quickly left the building, as well as the college's territory.

As I looked outside, I saw flocks of people. This city doesn't know such a word as rest, huh?

Walking down the street, some people were looking at me and gave me weird looks, but most of the time, I was ignored by the crowd. Near the school were lots of small cafes, restaurants, and so on. Probably because the students felt hungry when they left school, which was strange. Lessons there were much shorter.

Looking at different buildings, which were mainly two to four storeys tall, I made my way to some sort of a resting area. There was a sign telling it was a smoke zone, yet there were no smokers in the vicinity. I finally could take a breath. As I touched my chest to check my pulse, I felt something.

"Right, totally forgot about this thing."

A small box full of matches and a pack of cigarettes. I wanted to numb my head, so it came in handy. And being in the smoke zone killed two birds with one stone.

I lit the cigarette and let the smoke pass through my body. After a few drags, I felt how the pain was going away.

I rubbed my nose and traced the scar.

"Let's try and think about what happened." I knocked the cigarette butt with my finger to knock the ash.

"I was angry and wanted to take my revenge." That was one hundred percent right.

"When I finally entered the room, I was still able to think clearly, but when everything escalated, I lost my head…"

Is it rape what I did? I felt disgusted at myself. I did want to punish her, but not like that. Maybe a little bit of sexual harassment, to threaten her. But my main goal was to learn everything and earn something. Information or money, her weakness maybe. Why did she do that?

But I was quickly overtaken by her.

"No, it wasn't like that." I flicked the remains of a cigarette away and took another one.

"I let her take the lead. I wanted that." I exhaled the smoke through my nose which stimulated me to think even more.

I should be truthful to myself. There wasn't a man out there who could read my thoughts and judge me. I wanted her. Subconsciously or not, but I let this blackmail turn into rape.

I didn't know if it was the taste of smoke or the feeling that I stoop so low and raped someone, but I felt like I just ate a big pile of shit.

"Whatever," I sighed and threw the second cigarette butt, "But what happened later on?"

I couldn't understand. I should be able to control my emotions and thoughts, but it felt like someone interrupted me.

And the things I did after I left the room. I felt like I was hallucinating.

I heard strange stuff. My body didn't listen to me. Was this all machinations of the game?

Suddenly I heard music from somewhere. But this time, I understood where it was coming. It was a ringtone on my phone.

"Hello," swiping the screen, I answered the call.

"Hey, big guy, are you alright? Why didn't you take my calls for the whole day?" It was Jet. What the hell did he want from me?

I wanted to tell him that I was busy, but he got ahead of me.

"Look, I've got a serious topic to talk about. Can you come to Building B?" What the hell? What serious topic?

"Yeah, I can get there in a few minutes. Is it necessary for me to see you in person? What kind of serious thing you discovered?"

"I can't say it on the phone, just meet me near the backdoor of building B. Okay?"

Building B. If I remember correctly, It was "The blue one, where the swimmers train?"

"Yeah, that one."

I didn't think that something could go wrong.

"All right, I would wait for you there." I hung up. As I looked at my phone, I saw a bunch of missed calls. Was the music I heard coming from my phone?

I rubbed the scar on my nose and moved in the direction of our meeting place. It was easy enough to find a big-ass building painted in blue.

For the second time in one day, I came to Birchland High, but my mind was occupied by different things.

Leaning onto the wall near the backdoor of building B, I was waiting for Jet. Looking around, I saw a CCTV hanging up, but the spot where I stood was a blind spot. I was tapping my foot.

Soon enough, I saw a figure walking in large strides. Medium build, standard uniform of the Birchland High, dirty blond hair with a short haircut. No matter how much I tried to look into him, he looked excessively normal. As he came closer, I could also examine his face, which was the epitome of average. Not ugly nor handsome, just a common guy.

It was Jet.

He had a rather grumpy face, but when he finally saw me, his eyes enlarged to the size of small plates. He hurriedly ran the rest of the distance.

"Don't tell me they got you!" As soon as he stopped near me, he started looking me over. Even lifting my hands, trying to lift my clothes.

"Wow, stop and tell me already, what the hell happened, and why are you acting like that? Who should get me?" My words managed to cool him down.

"Why are you looking like that!? Are you alright?!" I felt his concern for my well-being through his words and the tone he had asked me.

"And how do I look?" it was a stupid question. With the torn collar, a scabbed fist, and unbrushed hair that was bathed in the school's washbasin. While my clothes were ruffled and wrinkled. "You should already get used to the fact that I'm more good-looking than you." I tried to give him a cheeky smile. It felt that it would be better to calm him down with a joke. And it proved to be effective.

Jet took a deep breath. "I'm serious. If you are okay, then why are you looking like that?"

"I went from training." I almost instantly spew bullshit. I was getting better at telling lies.

"Oh, yeah, that explains a lot of things." He musingly nodded. "No, wait, if you are alright, I can get down to business."

"That's what I was trying to say." I shrugged my shoulders.

"I've got important news," he took a small laptop from his bag, "Look at this," and gave it to me.

"What do you want me to see?" It was a site with a lot of text. I didn't know what to look at first.

"Look." Jet came to my side, and after a few simple manipulations, he opened up my photo. There was also a lot of text. And as I started to look through the text, my hair started to stand up, and my whole body was covered in goosebumps.

"It's a job commission. To beat you up." I was still reading when he suddenly made a few clicks and opened a new site. "There are a few sites like that. They are illegal, but if you use some tricks, you can easily access them." As he talked, he showed me a whole bunch of similar sites. Every site had my photo and description, as well as my habits, where I live, and other things like that.

"After you got helped by Jessie on Tuesday, Reid got really mad. He was talking with his goons about what to do with you." He looked into me.

I nodded to show that I understood what he said.

"I had a bad premonition about this. He soon stopped showing up in class, but I just couldn't get rid of this feeling that something bad was about to happen."

I nodded again, but I started feeling that I made a mistake.

"That's when I decided to hack into his pc and phone."

"You can do it?" I was genuinely surprised. I only met hackers in the cinema when watching movies about spies.

"Of course I can, don't you remem…" he looked at my amazed face. "Right, you don't remember." He looked sad.

"Doesn't matter right now." Jet shook his head and grabbed my shoulder. "Listen, as I looked through the things he did, I found out that he placed a bounty on your head."

I started coughing. "What?!"

"The sites I showed you, it was all his doing. He looked for a gang to beat you up."