Eccedentesiast (Brandon Darrow)

#Fire

[#Fire]
Where there is anger, there is always pain underneath.
–Eckhart Tolle
*****

When I got there Rowan was already there. "What's going on?" She asked. Just then Elisia walked in as well. I explained what I found and then showed them the picture. I suspected Sean was part of the zoo as well as Trevor. I also hated to admit it but thought Brandon could also be part of the zoo.
"Where's Hailey?" I asked slightly panicked.
"She hasn't returned any of my calls," Rowan answered before asking Stinger, "They had tear gas, like, they threw a smoke bomb at Hailey . Where would they get something like that?"
"Picture it like this, its like Craigslist in the dark web. It's way easier than you think. You can do anything. The zoo's throwing one of their party animal ragers sometime soon. There's a buzz about it on the site. I guess they text the time and address the night of. Kind of thinking about going," stinger said, "A little bee looking to sting. Hey, Rowan when does your sister get out?"
     Suddenly Rowan called out Hailey's name and we all turned to see Hailey walk in. I heard them say something else before Rowan said, "Tell her what you saw."
    "Sean had the pig mask," I told her with sympathy as she stood there shocked.
   "Guys it's a good thing you're here. King Cobra left the zoo website. He's creating his own now; he went underground," Stinger replied.
    "What is that?" I asked looking at stinger.
    "He's in the onion," he replied, I still wasn't sure what that meant so I raised my eyebrows.
    "The dark web," Elisia answered my silent question.
    "It's like the normal web, but completely hidden and anonymous, and you need special software to enter these sites. I'm accessing the site with tour, but like creepy crawly ass people are down there," Stinger explained.
    "So what does that mean?" I asked looking at the others with wide eyes.
   "Shits just got real," he replied. We left Stingers soon after and when I got home I was alone like always. I didn't want to talk to my father tonight anyways I just wanted to lay in my bed and sleep. To bad that was never going to happen as when I went up to my room I got a knock on the window. I jumped and slowly opened the curtain to see Brandon.
   "What the hell are you doing?" I asked sliding up the window.
   "Came to see you," he replied climbing in my room with a smirk on his face.
   "That's not a good idea," I said turning to sit on my bed.
   "Why?" He asked picking up fishy and raising an eyebrow. I scoffed and took it from his hand.
   "Because whenever we're around each other we do stupid things, like make out in the school hallway," I replied.
   "Yeah but I like doing stupid things," Brandon replied leaning down to be eye level with me.
   "That's obvious," I replied rolling my eyes and looking up at him.
   "I'll leave if you want me too, just tell me," he said leaning away.
   "I hate you," I replied standing up before pulling his head down toward mine. My hands traveled through his hair and he grabbed behind my thighs. I jumped and wrapped my legs around his waist continuing our heated kiss. His lips trailed down my face all the way to my neck. I moaned as he hit my sweet spot. "Fuck," I muttered pulling away.
    "What's wrong?" He asked through hooded lids.
   "We can't not now," I muttered, "I think you should go." I hopped off him and turned away from him.
   "Okay, I'll go," he said before I heard him crawl through the window. I looked behind me before closing the window and watching him go with his hands in his pockets.
    "Fuck!" I screamed before slamming my fist in the wall. I'm such an idiot. I felt tears in my eyes as I crawled into bed and cuddled fishy. The next morning when I woke up I didn't even want to get out of bed. I dressed and dragged myself down the stairs.
"Hey honey," my dad said. And my anger doubled.
"When were you going to tell me?" I asked my voice rising.
"What are you talking about?" He asked eyebrows furrowed.
"You and Trevor askills mom," I said.
"Honey I wanted to tell you really but," he started but I cut him off.
"Save it you lied to me, I have to get to school," I said slamming the door. I spent the rest of the day watching Brandon actively avoid me. Great, I ruin everything. After school I was told to meet the girls at Stingers.
"Are you okay?" Elisia asked as I sat on one of the pews with the others.
"I got into a fight with my dad about Trevor," I answered.
"Huh?" Rowan asked.
"My dad and his mom," I explained.
"Oh," she said with eyes full of sympathy.
"King cobra's looking for people on the dark web," Stinger said coming up to us, "people who will kill you guys. Not just scare you. Like, bang, bang, bang, bang; kill you guys."
"We should tell someone," Hailey said.
"Like who? My dad? Then I'll just end up in boarding school and by the time the CIA or the FBI or whoever does the work that Stingers already done—"
"We'll be dead," Elisia finished for Rowan.
"Can you send King Cobra a message, tell him we believe in his cause and wanna meet," I ask Stinger.
"Alright, alright, I'll make sure the message is untraceable. Better yet, I'll make the message traceable to any Hilland High student that isn't one of you guys. It's child's play. What animal do you wanna be?" Stinger asked me.
"You should be a deer Aspen," Elisia suggested.
"What are you thinking Aspen?" Hailey asked.
"Fight fire with Fire, if we meet him, we can expose him," I answer her.
"I like that," Rowan grinned. We all went home and a couple hours later I got a text from Elisia asking to meet at Stingers. Was this going to be a regular occurrence? I groaned and got out of bed and left for Stingers. When I got there Elisia was frantic and Hailey, and Rowan were asking what's wrong.
"Hey what's going on?" I ask jogging up to them..
"King Cobra sent me a video, I saw who set the fire at my parents house. It was nicki," she said and I gasped.
"Show us the video," Rowan said hurriedly more for proof rather than Elisia.
"You don't believe me?" Elisia asked hurt.
"Why would she lie about that?" Hailey asked.
"I screen grabbed it," Elisia said showing us her phone.
"That doesn't prove anything," Rowan replied.
"The zoo can make videos remember, edit tricks," Hailey said, tears were welling up in her eyes.
"It makes sense, Dunbar blackmailed nicki with the sex video and made her set my house on fire to punish her for the Romeo Rejects video. That early post said five girls," Elisia explained.
"That would explain why she wasn't tagged in the Romeo rejects video," I said.
"He'd already made her pay," elisia said. She reached into her bag and pulled out a gun. I suddenly flashback to the yellow room.
"What are you doing with that?" I asked.
"Where did you get it?" Rowan asked at the same time.
"I'm going to make nicki admit it," Elisia answered.
"Come on put the gun away, we'll meet her tomorrow, we'll all go together," Rowan tried to reason.
"I knew you'd defend her, Aspen Hailey come with me?" Elisia pleaded.
"Elisia we can't," I told her tears forming in my own eyes.
"That was my parents, THAT WAS MY PARENTS," she screamed and I flinched back. She grabbed her backpack and rushed out.
"Elisia," I called out, "We have to go after her."
"She's not thinking clearly. She's just looking for someone to blame," Rowan said.
"Stop arguing we have to go get her," Hailey said.
"Yeah let's go," Rowan nodded and we bolted out of the church.

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