Chapter 4: A Game of Shadows
The tension in the room was suffocating. Aria could feel her pulse in her ears as she scanned the faces of her friends—no, not just friends. Co-conspirators.
Zayn broke the silence first. "We need to find out who sent that message."
"How?" Nadia scoffed, folding her arms. "We can't exactly track an unknown number."
"Maybe we can." Imran pulled out his laptop from his bag and powered it on. The others stared at him.
Aria raised an eyebrow. "You suddenly a hacker now?"
"Not exactly," he muttered, typing rapidly. "But I know how to run a reverse lookup. If this number is linked to any online profiles, we might get a hit."
Minutes passed as the screen flickered with code and search results. Then—
Match Found.
A chill ran through Aria. "What does it say?"
Imran hesitated before turning the laptop so they could all see. The number was connected to a burner account on a dark web forum. The username? Watcher_09.
"A dead end," Nadia said, exhaling in frustration. "Obviously fake."
"Not necessarily," Zayn muttered. He clicked the profile link. There was only one post from the account, made just an hour ago.
It was a video file titled: "You can't hide forever."
Nobody moved.
Imran's finger hovered over the play button. "Do we watch it?"
"Do we have a choice?" Aria whispered.
With a deep breath, Imran clicked play.
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The video was grainy, taken from a hidden camera. The footage showed a dimly lit parking lot. A man in a hoodie was standing near a car. Samir's car.
Then, another figure appeared on screen—someone they recognized instantly.
It was Zayn.
In the video, Zayn was pacing, talking on his phone. His face was tense. Then suddenly, from the shadows, a third figure emerged. A fight broke out. The camera quality was too low to see faces, but it was clear that Zayn had attacked first. The struggle was brief. A single punch. A hard shove.
Then—Samir fell.
The screen went black.
No one spoke.
Then, Nadia whispered, "This isn't just someone watching us. This is blackmail."
Zayn was frozen. His hands clenched into fists. "That video… it's not what it looks like."
Aria swallowed hard. "Then tell us what it is."
Silence.
Then, from Zayn's pocket, his phone buzzed.
A new message.
Unknown Number: Confess, or the full video gets out.
The walls were closing in.
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