See No Evil

Our grim brother just shakes his head and replies, “That won’t happen. They don’t want us, East. If they did, they would have outed all of us by now. No. We’re not their end game. We’re just the means they believe they can use to get whatever they want.”

“Are you sure?” I croak out, hoping Lincoln’s logic is on the money.

“Positive. They want something, so we’ll play along and pretend to give it to them,” he says, throwing us a sinister smile.

It makes me cringe, seeing it on his face. It reminds me too much of another smile I saw that horrific night. A grin that comes to me in my nightmares, taunting me how none of us will ever truly escape our fate. We sealed it that night with the pact we made out of blood, and this ominous letter might just be the begi

“What if what they want from us is a reenactment of what we did last spring?” Colt asks, making the shivers down my back more profound.

I don’t dare look away from Lincoln’s face, hoping the compassionate friend I grew up with still lives and breathes inside him.

“Then they’ve drawn a line we aren’t willing to cross. And if that’s the case, we’ll wait for them to show their hand. I don’t think they’ll go to the authorities. I’m positive it won’t come to that. Blackmailers never want justice. They are only in it to gain something in return.”

My lungs breathe a little easier, relieved that Lincoln still has his soul intact. But as his last words begin to take root inside me, it dawns on me exactly what this little letter means.

“So that’s it, huh? We’re being blackmailed.”

I know I’m stating the obvious, but saying the words out loud just cements the idea. It makes it easier for me to confront and deal with it better.

“Afraid so,” Lincoln adds coolly, erasing any doubt that there could be something more to this than just good old-fashioned blackmail.

“Fuck!” Easton shouts, falling to the bed while cursing the sky above him.

Colt gets up, leaving the whole bed for Easton to have his meltdown, and walks over to the window to scour the eerily remote scenery.

“You okay with this, Colt?” Lincoln asks his cousin, walking to stand beside him, as both take in the dark, green backdrop of Oakley woods.

“You want the truth? I’m not okay with anything as of late. But if you want us to play along, then that’s what we’ll do. At least for now,” he hushes at his side, and this time, it’s Lincoln who places his hand on his cousin’s shoulder, offering a light, consoling squeeze.

“Fuck it!” Easton exclaims, jumping off the bed. “I’m in too. Whatever it takes, Linc. We got you.”

“Fi

Is there really a choice? No, there isn’t. It’s not only Linc’s life at stake. We’re all in this. If one of us goes down, we all go.

“Yeah, I’m in.”

“Good.” He gives me a grateful, tight nod, but he knows as well as I do that my hands are tied like his.

“These assholes think they have us over a barrel, but they fucked up. They have no idea what kind of devastation we can bring,” Colt states, trying to uplift our spirits.

However, it does nothing for me. It only makes me feel even more uneasy.

The Society might not have an idea of what depths we are willing to go, but we sure do. We are capable of doing the most heinous things if one of our lives is on the line. We proved our loyalty, and now I guess it’s being put to the test again.

The rest of the morning is spent talking about how we are all going to handle this. Lincoln and Colt hatch out a plan to get their hands on anything related to The Society, leaving Easton and me to handle the commands they throw our way. Like good little soldiers, we wait on orders from their general, which is fine by me. I’d rather be doing something on the front lines than stuck in some dusty old library reading shit that will make my head spin.

I’m just not sure what that will be, though. I don’t do well with surprises, so I’d rather know what to expect than be taken off-guard.

When I finally get home a few hours later and see a black envelope with my name on it sitting on top of the lobby desk, I realize that The Society is as impatient as I am to get this show on the road. And lucky me, I’m the first one they decided to set their sights on.

Fuck them.

They want to play? That’s fine with me.

I’m used to playing dirty anyway.