Blank Slate | ONC2023

Chapter Eight: Not A Clean Slate

Darkness hangs around me, slithering into every crack and down my throat, permeating through me until every breath sounds too loud. There is something about being alone in your room in the dead of night. It is as if you are the only person in the world, with stillness heightening the loudness of your thoughts.

I am all too aware of how dangerous this is. How wrong this could go. Maybe there's a camera in this room I don't know about. Maybe David—who's taking the night watch—will decide to randomly check on me. Maybe I'll trigger an alarm. If I mess up, if someone sees me, it's all over.

But I don't care. At least, that's what I tell myself.

I need answers. I need to know what Cyclone was talking about. I need to know what actually went down the day I became the top villain. I need to know just who I am and where I stand. I've always needed to, but now the need is stronger. Louder. More desperate.

The bug I put in the heroes' system has access to answers. Not all, but enough. It has to be enough. I stare at my laptop's screen, the light burning my gritty eyes, reading through the bug section in Lists.txt over once more. It's simple—almost suspiciously so.

Activate the bug. Give the correct password. Let it do its thing, then, voila, I have access to the heroes' database. Simple. Easy. And yet, I hesitate.

Once I activate it, there's no going back. It's not just because the bug will self-destruct once I am done, but because once I use it, I will have officially acted against the heroes. Sure, I've done it before, but this will be the first time I remember doing it.

Do I dare? What if they patched the hole? What if activating it triggers something and they find it? What if I am caught? Are the risks worth it? Am I willing to lose everything?

Hot air fans my face as I blow it out, closing my eyes and reaching past the static for answers. I didn't activate the bug earlier because there was a chance something else less dangerous could tell me and that...I still thought I had a chance at life. At something worthwhile.

But now...the heroes are too close. It's only a matter of time before one of them realizes I've duped them all and turns on me. It's all a mess. And what do I have? Questions. Pieces of truth or lies—I can't tell. Memories of days that I'll never experience again, if the auto-played message is to be believed.

It's not much—not enough to outweigh the risk. It's do or die and the only thing I have to lose is myself—whoever that is.

I open my eyes and start typing. Windows of code pop off my screen, running through commands I don't recognize, then merges into one holo-pop-off with the question, what is your name? in bold.

Checking my note, I type in E. LL. The pop off goes blank for a beat. ACTIVATED. It expands, hovering over my laptop's screen, and opens to the heroes' database search function.

I am in. I...did it. I am in! A breathless smile tugs at the corner of my lips, twitching to the time of my pounding heart. Stretching my fingers, I begin typing Blank Slate into the search bar. Before I can finish, my fingers slow to a stop, hesitate, then delete it and type out Deception.

The interface shifts, rearranging words and sections into Deception's file. The first thing that renders is a startlingly clear picture of a black-haired girl looking over her shoulder with a scowl, streetlights flashing off her smooth, scaled jacket as she runs away from the camera.

My breath catches in my throat. Her eyes are vivid amethyst. Something purple stirs inside of me and my gaze falls on her lips. They're purple too, though they are a rich, royal velvet that doesn't stand out as much as her eyes against her pale skin. It's her. It's the girl.