A couple of days later, it was another day on campus for Dominic, Jonah, and Willa. As they were waiting inside the dining hall on a much colder day, Carston showed up to talk with them. As Carston walked through the door, the tension was one you could cut with a knife. Dominic was ready to jump across the table to punch Carston, but Jonah was able to calm him down before he could.

            ‘Hey guys, Willa told me you all heard about me,’ said Carston. Jonah asked, ‘How long have you been working with Z?’ Carston replied, ‘Only a couple weeks. They basically blackmailed me to work with them.’ The three friends were equally shocked. ‘You didn’t tell me that the other morning!’ said Willa, to which Carston replied to her saying, ‘That’s ‘cause I couldn’t say anything, lest I got caught by Z in broad daylight talking with you.’

            Jonah was astonished at this news and then asked, ‘How did they blackmail you?’ To which Carston answered, ‘I cannot remember for the life of me how they did it. It surprises me that they decided to blackmail me over my own girlfriend.’ Dominic then asked Carston, ‘Who was your girlfriend?’ ‘It was Anna, we broke up pretty recently,’ he answered back. Willa then said, ‘Wait, Anna was your girlfriend?’ ‘Yes, she was. We had a pretty nasty fight the night we broke up, and that started everything about Z and all the shenanigans that have gone on since,’ said Carston.

            Dominic, Jonah, and Willa were each trying to wrap their heads around the extraordinary events they were hearing for the first time. As soon as the conversation ended, the foursome then each went off to class. As soon as Dominic and Carston went off to their shared class, Carston’s phone buzzed in his pocket. He grabbed it and unlocked it, he opened his messages and found a bombshell from Z. He and Dominic read it together as they were walking to class, and it read,

You broke my rules, now you play my game.

            The duo were immediately terrified, and Dominic began to text Willa when she crossed paths with them in the quad. ‘What’s wrong you two?’ she asked. Dominic replied, ‘This,’ and he showed her Carston’s phone. ‘Fuck, now Z’s coming after you too? How’d you break their rules?’ she then asked. Carston replied to her, ‘Probably because I spilled the beans on being blackmailed by them’.

            As the trio made their way to their classes, Dominic and Carston stopped in front of their class building to talk. ‘Dom, I want you to know this. I sent some of the messages because Z made me. I didn’t want to fuck with you guys, but that’s how Z works. They manipulate their way to create this game,’ said Carston. Dominic replied, ‘How’d the game get started?’ Carston answered, ‘I have no idea, I only got sucked into this because of being blackmailed by Z.’ The duo then went inside to class.

            On the other side of the quad, Willa and Jonah were in their shared class when Willa slid him a note telling him that Carston received a text from Z. He gave her a perplexed look. After their class finished, Jonah walked over to Willa and said, ‘Wilzy, you have got to be kidding me about Carston’s text.’ She replied to him, ‘I am not. He truly got a text message from Z.’ Jonah replied back, ‘Shit. What are we gonna do now?’ Willa thought hard and finally gave him a response. ‘We are going to tell Jen, Max, and Noemi about what happened and we’ll figure out a plan from there. If anyone crosses Carston, we’ll be coming after them.’

            Jonah and Willa met up with Dominic and Carston at the dining hall following their classes, and the foursome then walked to the coffee shop to discuss with the others about what had happened. On their walk, Carston brought up a question to the other three, asking, ‘If Z is so hell-bent on having uncovered the deepest secret of your lives, why are they still coming after you?’ Willa answered him, ‘We honestly don’t know. Maybe they’re desperate to find out our individual secrets instead, and lately, we’ve been pretty honest to each other about those.’ Dominic chimed in, ‘Yeah, and it’s kinda interesting that the predator has become the prey, given what’s happened to you within the past few hours.’

            The foursome continued to walk until they reached the coffee shop. The doors were locked and the closed sign on the door, so the group went back to the barn instead to discuss the day’s events with Jennifer, Max, and Noemi. Once they arrived at the barn, Noemi was waiting for them, sitting on one of the sofas. Noemi then asked, ‘What is Carston doing here?!? Shouldn’t he sending us messages and tormenting us like he’s been helping Z do?’ Jonah replied, ‘In this case, he’s on our side now.’ Carston chimed in, saying, ‘I received a text after talking with Dominic, Jonah, and Willa this morning while on campus. Here’s what it says...’ Carston showed Noemi the text, and she was equally as perplexed as the other four were. Right as Carston showed her the text, Troy, Max, and Jennifer walked into the barn, and Jennifer was saddened to see Carston standing among the group. She went over and looked at the phone to see the message, and then gave Carston a hug. Max was frustrated to see Carston in the room, but was understanding of what had happened.

            ‘If Carston’s received a text now, then is anyone of us safe?’ asked Jennifer. Noemi replied, ‘We’re all still safe, for now. As we know from past experience, any wrong move and the game could turn deadly.’ The group was instantly reminded of the deaths of Em and Melisa from weeks earlier. The reminder was uncomfortable, but needed to put the events into perspective. Noemi spoke again, ‘If anyone dares to threaten us again, bet your ass that we’ll bite back hard. No one deserves what has happened to Em or Melisa, or even what happened to Felicity for that matter. We’re going to find out who Z is once and for all.’

            Jonah then chimed in, ‘I swear I saw a poster for a community dance at the college in a couple days. Anyone wanna come? Apparently tickets are free.’ Jennifer then said, ‘That’s a perfect idea, Jonah. We can use the dance to try and figure out who Z is. Anyone is a suspect, but we can fully narrow down the suspect list just from who we interact with.’

            ‘Great ideas, but who’s all going?’ asked Carston. The others except for Troy all raised their hands. Troy then said, ‘I can stay with Felicity if need be. I’d rather stay home with someone I can trust if you all decide to go.’ The group agreed to the decision that Troy had come to, and then decided to do some shopping for attire for the big night that was to come.

            As the group decided to make a late-day shopping excursion to the mall, the weather got colder. Everyone bundled up in their windbreakers and other coats to brave the wind and the autumn rain. The boys went looking for tuxedos and the girls went looking for dresses. Willa immediately found a pale-yellow pantsuit, whereas Jennifer and Noemi found dresses that suited each of their palates. The boys finally found their tuxedos, and the group finished their excursion at the mall food court. Troy found a burger joint in the food court for the group to eat at for dinner; Max once again paid the tab for the group. As they were finishing eating, Noemi brought to the attention of the others about Veronica, saying, ‘We haven’t heard much from Vee lately. Is she okay?’ Carston replied, ‘I talked to her through text this morning before class. She said she was fine and didn’t feel like talking.’

The group left the mall and continued home to try on their new clothing items for the dance that was to come just days later. Outside the mall in an unmarked car, was a hoodied figure taking photos of the group as they left through the front doors of the mall. The figure giggled to themselves, and then drove off like nothing had happened.