Shattered

35) Hostage

Emma's POV
As soon as we exited the closet, quite thankful for Max's help, we noticed that the room was almost completely silent.

Despite over 300 students occupying the gym, along with chaperones and teachers, the only sounds came from the slight whispers of those brave enough to speak to their peers.

The dj's stand on the stage was barren and empty, it appeared that Brady had turned the music off. The brat himself was sitting on the stage as well, by the podium, looking quite bored and unamused.

"This is dreadful," he complained loud enough for even those on the surrounding balcony to hear, "are you all just going to sit their? If you keep behaving like corpses, then I'll have to make it a package deal. Dance! Eat! Talk! Don't make me push this trigger..."

The room suddenly filled with nervous chatter and the swaying of hips, everyone scared and cautious of their every movement. We took the sudden liveliness as an opportunity to make our way towards the front of the crowd, getting ready for when the heroes would make their appearance.

"Would you like to dance? Beautiful?" Brady asked a scared girl in the front, very near where we now stood. A cheerleader, no doubt.

"Brady, you don't have to do this-"

"Come on Tatum! Don't be scared!" He gave a crooked grin as he walked back over towards the music and turned it back on. The girl hopped onto the stage, afraid of the consequences that would follow to being disobedient, nearly bumping into the lowered curtain that cut the platform in half.

"He's trying to make a statement." I whispered to Hugo.

"Yeah," he agreed, "it's obvious that he wants to show off his power. First threatening the quarterback, now playing around with the cheerleader, he's turning powerful people into toys. He wants to humiliate them before they, they... leave." He did all in his power not to say the "d" word, but it was insinuated. All I could do was agree with his assessment.

"Hugo... you don't think that we're..."

"That we're next? Of course not! He doesn't even know us!"

"But we have a reputation! Our parents could pay the fine with a single payment. They could pay millions of dollars. He might not know us personally, but it's hard to miss your face on every teen magazine in the country!"

"That's not true... I wasn't on TeenInsight this year."

"But you were last year, and the year before that! Do you not get how serious this is! He could hurt us, he could hurt you just because he can. He could try to humiliate you and toy with you and-"

"Em," he interrupted my rambling, grabbing both my hands in his, "I don't care about my reputation. I don't care if he tries to use me or embarrass me. All I care about is you getting out safely, everyone getting out safely, and making sure this sociopath gets what he deserves."

I paused, taking deep breaths, trying to sort out my priorities once more.

"You're right," I puffed, "our reputations are the least of our concerns."

He smiled before pulling me into a hug.

"Now let's wait for mom and dad, we'll be out of this before we know it."

Our brother and sister moment was ruined when Brady caught glimpse of us.

"Is this! Oh no... it can't be... this is too perfect. Tatum, you're excused." The frightened girl ran off the stage as fast as she could, launching herself as far away as she could.

"Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but you two look like none other than the famous Agreste twins! Hugo and Emma, I believe? Why don't you join me for a bit?" He taunted.