Lily's eyes fluttered open, her mind sluggish, her body heavy with exhaustion. A dull ache pulsed in her head, and as she tried to focus, she realized—something was off.
"What is going on? Why do I feel dizzy?"
She groggily shifted, but the moment she did, her breath hitched. The world looked _wrong_.
Then it hit her.
She was upside down.
Confusion twisted into panic, her heart pounding faster. The space around her was dim, unfamiliar, the air thick with silence. She tried to move, but something restricted her—ropes, tight against her wrists.
Her pulse quickened.
_Where am I?_
_What happened?_
She swallowed hard, forcing herself to stay calm, to think.
It was cold and she was freezing terribly and that's when she realized. She was naked. Stark naked and out in the open.
Lily's breath hitched as she blinked against the bright lights, her vision swimming, her body tense with confusion. The noise around her was deafening—laughter, shocked murmurs, gasps of disbelief.
She struggled to steady herself, her mind sluggish as she processed her surroundings. People were watching her. Their faces twisted with shock, amusement, disgust. Phones were raised, recording, capturing—her humiliation unfolding in real time.
The air was thick with murmurs, voices weaving through the crowd in hushed tones.
_"Did you see that?"_
_"What is going on?"_
_"I can't believe this is happening."_
Clusters of students huddled together, their eyes flickering with curiosity, unease, and silent judgment. Some leaned in closer, whispering more urgently, their words barely audible but sharp enough to cut through the tension.
_"Who did this?"_
_"Is she going to recover from this?"_
_"This is brutal."_
Her stomach twisted, her pulse racing as panic took hold.
_What happened?_
_What was going on?_
Lily's breath came fast and shallow as she tried to piece together the missing fragments, her heart pounding against her ribs. This wasn't just a nightmare—this was real.
And she knew, without a doubt, that her life had just changed and all she could do was cry as she was suspended on the rope outside her house.
******
Jason sat back, his fingers tapping idly against his phone screen as the video played. The chaos was unfolding exactly as he had anticipated—**whispers spreading like wildfire**, faces twisted in shock, others filled with amusement. _This was control._ This was the kind of power Jason had learned to wield.
He watched Lily on the screen, saw the raw humiliation in her eyes as realization dawned. The background noise of the recording was a mixture of laughter, gasps, and low murmurs, all feeding into the perfect storm of disgrace. He had spent years watching people like her—people who had treated him like nothing, walked over him without a second thought—carry their arrogance like an invincible shield. But **that shield was shattered now, stripped away in a single, ruthless move.
Jason smirked, shifting in his chair, taking in the reactions online. Comments flooded in, fast and relentless:
_"No way this is real."_
_"She's DONE."_
_"Who even did this? This is insane."_
He knew exactly how this would play out. Lily would scramble to regain control, to erase the damage, but it was far too late. Once something was exposed, it never truly disappeared. She would feel the weight of it in every conversation, every stare, every whisper that would follow her long after the initial shock faded.
Jason leaned back, exhaling as the satisfaction settled deep in his chest. He had orchestrated every detail, every step, every fall—without ever having to raise his voice, without ever needing brute force.
This was more than revenge.
This was justice.
*****
Lily sat in her room, the echoes of whispers still bouncing in her mind. The humiliation, the violation—it wasn't random. It was personal. Someone had planned it, executed it perfectly.
And the more she thought about it, the more one name kept surfacing.
Jason.
It made sense. Too much sense.
The way he watched people, the way he operated in the shadows, his eerie satisfaction in seeing others break. He had humiliated Cole—methodically, brutally. What if she had just been the next name on his list?
Lily's fingers clenched around the edge of her desk.
She had confronted Jason once, accused him outright of posting the video of Cole. He had smiled—smiled—as if the entire thing was beneath him, as if she was foolish for even suggesting it.
But now, thinking back on that moment, Lily realized something.
Jason had never denied it.
And if he was behind this, then she wasn't going to sit back and let it slide.
She was going to prove it and that's by going to the police.