Page 30 of Mine To Hunt

“Come on.” She says, her tone softening slightly. “We’re leaving.” She glances back at the building like it personally offended her. “No more campus today.”

I nod numbly, letting her steer me to the car, the walk a blur of averted eyes and stifled snickers. Inside her car, I buckleup mechanically, staring out the window as she peels out, the campus shrinking in the side mirror like a bad dream I can't wake from.

Maddie glances over every few seconds, her voice filling the silence with worry. "This isn't your fault, Ree. That monster, he's the one who should be rotting. We'll get lawyers, go higher up the chain. My dad's an ass, but he knows people."

But I don't respond, the words trapped behind the hollow ache, the stalker's message looping endless,Let’s see who laughs when everyone enjoys watching you.Enjoy. Like I'm entertainment, my pain a punchline.

The drive stretches, Maddie's chatter fading to background noise. "We'll get a PI, anything." As betrayal settles deeper, a knife twist for every mile. Why me? What did I do to deserve this exposure, this erasure?

We reach her flat too soon, the elevator ride silent except for her soft "You're staying as long as you need."

Inside, she heads to the kitchen, calling over her shoulder. "You need something? Tea? Or something stronger?"

But I don't answer, my feet carrying me straight to the bathroom instead, the door shutting and locking with a click that echoes final.

Maddie's knocks come immediate, muffled through the wood. "Ree? You need anything?"

"I'm fine." I lie, voice hollow even to me, sliding down against the cabinet until I sit on the cool tile.

The mirror looms across, and I force myself to look, but the girl staring back is a stranger. Eyes dull and shadowed, face slack with defeat, like life drained out with the video's release.

Who is she? Not the Iris who dreamed of stories, who laughed with friends over bad drafts. Just a shell, violated and discarded.

Desperation claws up then, raw and unrelenting, the noise in my head, a cacophony of whispers, stares, that blurred preview, too loud, too much. I need it to stop. Just stop.

My hand trembles as I reach for the cabinet, fingers closing around the first bottle they find. Maddie's anti-anxiety meds, the label blurring under tears I didn't know were falling. I don't read it, don't count, don't think beyond the ache screaming for silence.

The cap twists off easy, pills spilling into my palm like small white promises of peace. One. Two. More. They go down dry, bitter on my tongue, chased by nothing but the sob hitching in my throat.

Why fight anymore? The shame's too heavy, the betrayal absolute. Stalker, Ryan, the world that watched and whispered.

My vision blurs, and my limbs start to feel heavy. The mirror shifts in front of me as everything fades.

For a moment, there’s only silence. Then the world goes dark, and I slump sideways as the bottle slips from my fingers and rolls across the floor.

Chapter 9

Her

Blinking against the harsh overhead lights, my eyelids feel heavy as if they’re glued shut from the inside, and the steady beep of the monitor pulls me further into awareness. My body feels like it's been dragged through mud, limbs leaden, mouth cotton-dry, a dull ache throbbing behind my temples.

Maddie sits beside the bed, her hand still clasped in mine, her face streaked with dried tears that make her look smaller, more fragile than I've ever seen her.

The events in her bathroom crash back in fragments. The pills spilling into my palm, the desperate swallow for silence, the world tilting into black. Guilt floods me immediately, sharp and unrelenting, twisting my stomach because I see the devastation in her eyes, the fear I put there.

"Mads." I croak, my voice a rasp that scratches my throat raw, and I squeeze her hand weakly, needing the contact to ground me in this sterile reality.

"What... What happened? How did I get here?"

She startles, her head snapping up as fresh tears well in her eyes, and for a moment, she just stares at me, her grip tightening until it borders on painful.

Then the dam breaks, and she bursts into sobs, leaning forward to bury her face against my arm, her shoulders shaking with the force of it.

"Ree, oh God, you're awake." She chokes out, her words muffled and wet against the thin hospital gown.

Maddie’s voice cracks as she leans over me, her words muffled against the thin hospital gown. Her arms wrap around me so tightly it almost hurts.

For a moment I just lie there in the hospital bed, the beeping monitor beside me steady and accusing, the IV tugging faintly at my arm. My head feels heavy, like my thoughts are moving through thick fog.