They don't just want to ruin us.
They want us to choose who burns.
The poll appeared on RavenLine at exactly 7:00 a.m.
Pinned to the top of every feed. Unmissable.
"VOTE: WHO DESERVES THE SPOTLIGHT NEXT?"
1. Lena M. - For what she did last summer.
2.Ezra H. - For what he's hiding.
3.Nova R. - For what she's becoming.
4.Mr. Kessel - For what he touches.
5. Angel -For what she stole.
Results go live at midnight. One will be exposed. One will fall.
- B
Beneath the post: over 3,000 reactions.
Students joking, panicking, speculating.
I stared at the screen, sick to my stomach.
They'd turned truth into a game show.
And we were the prizes.
"They're trying to divide us," Ezra said, pacing behind me. "Force us to turn on each other."
"They already have," I whispered. "Look at the comments."
Because it wasn't random. Each name on that list had a rumor behind it.
Lena had once dated a girl who vanished.
Ezra had a sealed transcript from his last school.
I… was just the loud one. The disruptor.
Mr. Kessel was creepy. No one denied it.
And Angel, Ravenshade's golden girl, was perfect. Too perfect.
Perfect things get stolen.
Perfect things get punished.
The worst part?
You could only vote once.
Which meant every choice came with a price.
I didn't vote.
But 2,000 others did.
By 3:00 p.m., the leading name wasn't Ezra. Or Kessel.
It was Lena.
"I knew it," she said flatly. "I knew this school hated me."
"You don't know it'll be you."
"They only need an excuse. I gave them one years ago."
She said it so calmly, like she'd rehearsed the moment a thousand times.
"I made a mistake," she continued. "Two years ago. Summer camp. There was this girl. She… she trusted me."
I stayed silent.
"I told a secret I shouldn't have. It ruined her. And I've never stopped paying for it."
She laughed bitterly. "Guess I'm finally getting the receipt."
That night, a package was slipped under my door.
Brown paper. No label.
Inside: an SD card. And a note:
"She left this with me. I was too scared to share it."
-E.H.
Ezra.
I popped it into my laptop with trembling fingers.
The video was dated: Feb 11. That is 3 days before Isla died.
She sat in what looked like her dorm. Pale. Eyes darting to the door every few seconds.
"If you're watching this, it means I'm gone.
Or erased.
Or… made invisible.
There's a group. They call themselves the Row.
Not students. Not teachers. Somewhere in between.
They don't just watch. They decide.
Who fits. Who folds. Who disappears.
I thought the Archivist was the ringleader.
But I was wrong.
She's the pawn.
The real one? The one with the key?
She wears your skin and calls it help.
If I vanish, don't trust the people who offer to find me.
Especially not Angel."
The screen glitched once. Then it went black.
I sat frozen.
Angel? The perfect, untouchable, effortlessly adored student?
The one with a voice like a lullaby and a smile like sunlight?
I had never even seen her angry.
And suddenly, she might be the core of it all.
Midnight came.
And with it, the poll results.
Lena: 51%.
The page blinked once.
Then a single file was posted.
A video.
Lena, in a stairwell. Crying. Younger. A voice offscreen, female.
"Tell me what you did."
"I..I told them. About her. That she liked me. That we kissed. I thought it'd make her go away…"
The voice interrupted.
"And what happened to her?"
"She overdosed."
Silence.
"Say it, Lena."
"She overdosed. Because of me."
The screen cut to black.
Underneath:
"CONFESSION. DELIVERED."
- B
Lena didn't come to school the next day.
Or the one after that.
Her account went dark. Her parents didn't answer calls.
Rumor said she'd been pulled out.
I knew better.
She'd been removed.