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The lights completely shut off, revealing all of the video screens on the walls, videos, pictures, and below them written in glow in the dark paint, the names of all of the people who were confessing.
Everything was recorded previously for us to keep account of.
“I cheated on my boyfriend with my best friend.”
“My mom and dad are embezzling money from the city.”
“My family is broke.”
“My family is involved in a drug trafficking ring.”
“I cheated my way to get to Eagle Elite.”
“I think I’m a vampire and my parents put me on medicine, but I can’t tell anyone because my dad is running for senate.”
“I poisoned my professor.”
On and on the confessions went, we allowed at least ten minutes of them. Bored, I finally lifted my hand and nodded to the other girls. We all grabbed the red paint cans next to our chairs and walked back down to the corner of the room, some called it haunted, others refused to even look at it.
It was an outline of a fallen De Lange. A relative.
The outline was from the time when the notorious Mil De Lange was killed by her own brother for betrayal, for keeping secrets in order to profit from them—she betrayed Chase Abandonato, Bella’s uncle, she betrayed the Five Families with her secrets, which is why it was so important that they were confessed here if you wanted protection and loyalty from us.
The exchange was high—but the power and prestige the students received was higher, and in the end, it gave us little soldiers around the school doing our bidding, protecting us because they knew in the end we protected them.
Bella walked up to the white outline with the small white candle on the table next to it and grabbed the brush from her paint can and drew an X over the body. “Blood.” She swiped.
“In.” Lydia followed.
“No,” Raven whispered, making another X.
“Out.” Tempest finished.
When it was my turn, my hand shook as I grabbed my own brush, knelt down and drew a final X over theirs, as if to represent the Five Families, and made a cross in front of me. “Amen.”
Anya and Ariel stepped forward and poured vodka over the floor, then each of them tossed a match into the alcohol.
“Your sins,” Anya whispered.
“Are now accepted and forgiven…” She looked up and smiled. “Let’s have a great year.”
The videos clicked off, and the music started again. We left the paint cans as students started dancing once more.
I still stared down at the outline of her body.
She’d been young.
Stupid.
Greedy.
She was my blood.
And I hated her for it even though I never knew her.
The ending of my story wouldn’t be like that, if I went out it wouldn’t be because I betrayed the Families or my own.
If I died—when I died.
