Fractured Minds (Rebels of Sandland 3)

“Neither do I.” I sighed and decided to go with a compromise. “What if I watch until I can’t? I promise I’ll stop if it gets too much.”

“I really don’t think you should, but I trust you.”

Truth was, I didn’t even know if I could watch it, but I had to try. I had to put this to rest.

None of us spoke about the shit-storm we’d just weathered. Instead, we all made our way out of the room, leaving the elephant in there behind. I don’t think any of us could stomach facing any more drama. Not tonight.

Ryan hugged Emily and Zak tapped away on his phone, moaning about shutting shit down before it went viral. I assumed he meant Brandon’s fight. Liv came to the other side of Effy, and where I had my arm around her shoulder, Liv snaked her arm around her waist and said, “This is a party I’ll never forget.”

Little did we know how true that statement would be by the morning.

We entered the fighting arena to see the aftermath of what a Mathers loss looked like. There was rubbish and crap all over the floor. A few people were hanging about arguing and trying to throw down with the security guys. From the look of it, there’d been total carnage going on in here when we were out the back dealing with the soldiers. Some guys who were throwing their weight around suddenly noticed that we’d entered the room and the tension escalated.

“This is fucking bullshit,” one of them shouted, marching over to us.

“We want a rematch,” another called out, pointing right at us.

“This isn’t what we paid for,” his mate added. “You’ve fucking scammed us.”

“Leave this to me,” Zak stated, pocketing his phone. “Get the girls out of here. I’ll deal with them.” And he headed over to them with his hands in the air like he was showing his surrender, or trying to placate them.

Ryan spotted Kian lingering in a doorway across the room and he ran over to him, gesturing for him to go and help Zak. In hindsight, we should’ve all stopped to sort it, but Ryan had Emily and I had Effy and Liv to care for. In that moment, all we wanted to do was get the fuck out of there and find out if Harper and Brandon were okay.

The music in the main hall was still blasting out, and we decided to take a detour down a side corridor to exit via a fire door out the back. We didn’t fancy running the gauntlet of the main crowds. They were pissed up, fired up and ready for anything.

Once outside, we made our way to the car park, walking around the perimeter of the building and picking over the mud while we listened to Liv complain about the state her heels were in and how much she’d spent on them.

Ryan and Emily headed to their car with Emily typing away on her phone, trying to get either Harper or Brandon to answer and let her know what was going on. Liv pulled the back door of Effy’s car open and climbed in without saying a word, her huffing and puffing said all she needed to say. She’d had enough. And Effy and me stayed outside, leaning against the car.

“Watch it now,” Effy said, biting her nails nervously and nodding to my pocket where I kept my phone.

“Why?”

“Because I want to be here when you do. And I want you to get it over with so you can delete every one of their sick messages. Tonight has been… awful. But tomorrow is a fresh start. Get it out of the way and then we can try to move on.”

She did have a point. I wasn’t about to sleep on it and watch the video over my cornflakes. There’d been a shit load of crap thrown our way tonight. Might as well get it all done with in one go.

“Fine. But I don’t want you to see it.”

I moved so I was standing opposite her and pulled my phone out. She bit her lip and waited, clutching her little handbag to her chest and taking deep slow breaths.

I tapped my phone screen to life and opened up my messages. Sure enough, there it was, a line of text and a link to a video clip.

Congratulations. You completed the game of consequences. Happy viewing!

There was an emoji of a laughing joker at the bottom of their message and seeing their fucked-up logo made me want to throw my phone to the gravel. But I didn’t. I clicked the video and gripped my phone tightly, hoping there were no more surprises in store.

The video started right where they’d left off last time, and after hearing them say he was dead before they’d sent me the first message, I realised this had all been one long video, cut up to form their sick and twisted games.

Colton King stood behind Tony, holding a knife to his neck. The whole thing looked like a cheap horror movie, albeit a real one. I’d muted the sound because I didn’t want Effy or any of the others to hear any of the screams, but I could see the way Tony’s mouth was contorted in pain. His face a mess of blood and skin. Another soldier walked on, his face covered with a black balaclava and he held a spiked club, swinging it around like he couldn’t wait to use it. Colton’s eyes lit up as the other guy lifted his club up and then smashed it down into Tony’s lap. Then he put his boot onto Tony’s leg to steady himself and yanked the club out of him, lifted it again and smashed it right back down into his groin.

I couldn’t stop myself from flinching as my own nuts shrivelled in response to what I was watching, and Effy reached forward to place her hand over mine.

“Stop if it’s too much,” she urged, but I shook my head. He was still alive. I wasn’t finished watching yet.

I kept my eyes on the screen and tried not to react as the second guy rained down blow after blow with this club, making the wood turn dark with the blood stains. But Colton grew restless and couldn’t wait any longer. He wanted his fun too. So, he yanked Tony’s head back, then started hacking with the knife. Blood was pouring everywhere and I could see Tony’s body go from twitching furiously to limp. But it didn’t stop Colton. He was on a fucking mission to take his head off, and that was something I didn’t need to watch. That was the moment I had to tap-out.

I stopped the video and deleted it. I deleted them all as Effy held me tightly and whispered that it was over.