Can You Keep A Secret?

18. Sylvie: The Manuscript

Welcome to the first part of my manuscript, where I will take you on a journey through time - from the interlude, the period in between, until the present. Before we begin, I must warn you - I may no longer be here. I could be dead, in hiding, or in danger. This manuscript is my only evidence, from the day my parents died until now.

However, I have decided to grant you permission to read my story. As spectators, there are four rules you must follow before I start narrating:

1. Remain neutral. As you read, please refrain from judging. Your opinion on the story is not needed.

2. This is not a work of fiction or imagination. It is a true crime story, and every word is the unfiltered truth. I will not sugarcoat anything.

3. There are no heroes or villains in this story. Everyone mentioned has a story to tell and a past that led them to their actions. No one is innocent, and you are not allowed to judge.

4. This story must remain a secret. Do not share it with anyone. By the time I finish writing my tragedy, the killer will have found me.

With that being said, I welcome you to my manuscript. Proceed with caution and read with sensibility.

Yours sincerely,
Sylvie Olivia Quinn

30th of August 2023

I guess you were wondering if I'd start by telling you immediately the story starting from that night. And I also know for sure you'd want to skip to the following pages, but in order to understand how everything can fall into place, you must start from page one: THE INTERLUDE. I am not going to start my story by narrating the 30th of August, and I am not going to start it in a depressing way.

I am going to go way back, by telling you the story of my parents and how I had created my own group that I called the Elites. You see, in BrookSville people weren't always judged by their ranks and status. People think that it was me- no, they don't think. They blame me for it. Sylvie created this fucked up status thing, she was the one that judged everybody, she was a narcissit and a manipulator. And in part, things were true. But I wasn't the one who created the ranks or started anything. I was simply the girl who resurrected an old tradition and made people bend to my rules.

My mother, Diana Quinn, back in the days was a very popular girl. I mean, not popular like the girls you see on television. Your typical teenage girl who wakes up in the morning and has the perfect day, the perfect outfit, the perfect everything planned out for her. Your perfect girl that lives in a movie where everything is as bright as a rainbow.
Before BrookSville was built, my parents went to a school in Virginia, a school that was named after a famous painter- “Leonardo Da Vinci.” It was a prestigious school meant for people who wanted to follow art, get into mathematics, acting, singing, business, several serious courses that people died to follow. The catch about this school wasn't about money though, it was about intelligence.

Back then, people valued intelligence. They didn't care if you were rich or poor. They only cared about the smart and the stupid. So what better way than to test people by creating an IQ test? Before entering Leonardo Da Vinci, they all had to take an admission test based on 100 questions about different subjects. Subjects that were crucial and important, things we were all supposed to know by our age.
The rank back then already existed, just not the one I had wanted to bring back. If you were smart and came out with the best of results, you got full access to every school faculty and you could earn so much money that could last you a lifetime. Whereas if you weren't smart enough to keep up… Then you were kicked out of the system and your name would show up in the computer screens of wherever you went to apply. In search of a new school.
Yes, they were cruel like that. More brutal than me and my thinking.