It was 2:15pm when I made myself at home in an abandoned classroom. The game would begin in less than two hours, so I needed to pass the time. Staying up in this dazed state seemed nigh impossible, so I decided to test out what had happened last night. When I hacked Zoey while she was doing her homework, I was initially just a spectator to her actions.
In fact, this whole plan involving Gwen was something I came up with that night after having that experience. Concocting it was the only thing I could do to keep myself from falling asleep. If there was any chance that she was going to betray me, then I’d have to be there to see it for myself.
With that in mind, I set my phone’s alarm clock to go off at 3:45 pm, filled my mind with images of Gwen, and went to sleep.
---
The first thing I saw when I woke up was Krista’s smiling face. While Zoey had stolen my heart, Krista was easily on par with her as far as looks went, so it was quite a shock to suddenly awaken into a scene like that. It appeared that Gwen was seated on one of the benches in the gymnasium while chatting with her friend. The stands were packed with chattering students who were clearly eager for the game to finally begin.
“Oh my god, the atmosphere in here is sooo good! I can’t believe we’re going to cheer in front of all these people!”
“Yeah, I just hope it ends up being a good game.”
“A good… girl, the Ollenville Otters are a division 2 team. This is gonna be a great game! Of course, it’d be great if Lawrence got benched the entire time for being dead weight, but beggars can’t be choosers, I guess!”
“You need to get over him. It’s been 2 years.”
“Get over it? Girl, no one just gets over that. That was my 9/11, okay? And if America gets to stay in the middle east 20 years later, then I get to be upset with that jerk for at least three.”
“Yeah, right...”
She must have been referring to when the Law cheated on her during freshman year. I was only vaguely familiar with the incident, so I couldn’t comment too much on the details.
“More importantly, what is going on with you lately? Is that Zoey stuff bothering you?”
“Oh, that? No way.” Gwen waved her hand dismissively. “Honestly, I was just surprised they got together, is all. You know, after what he did to me.”
“Really? So it’s not bothering you? Even though you told her to break up with him?”
“That was, like, for her own good.”
“Hmmm.”
Krista’s playfully inquisitive gaze sent a shiver down Gwen’s spine. Apparently, she was trying to put on airs that she was over Benjamin in front of Krista. She maintained it to the point where, even though her lie was blatantly obvious, Gwen still did her best to maintain a neutral expression.
“Oh whatever. Guys are so lame, right?” Krista leaned back in frustration.
“Enzo came for the dance, but I think he wants to start shit with Lawrence again. It sucks because he’s a good boyfriend, and I do appreciate how much he cares about the damage Lawrence did to me, but I really would just like to move on.”
Krista continued speaking, presumably about her allumnus boyfriend, it seemed like Gwen had phased her out and was focused on the energy drink she was carrying. It must have already been spiked, because she was shifting her gaze between the drink and Benjamin. He was still sitting on the bench and having a leisurely chat with his teammate Warren. His own energy drink was seated behind him on the bench, and it was easy to notice that it was main focus of her gaze.
“Uhh, Gwen?”
“Huh?”
“You okay? You look a little lost.”
“Oh, uhm... I need to go check on something.”
Gwen stood up with her drink and walked over to the bench that Ben was sitting at. She placed her drink right next to his then took a seat behind him. He hadn’t noticed since his attention was focused on the conversation, but when Warren’s gaze fixated on her, Ben followed his line of sight until he locked eyes with her.
Ordinarily, locking eyes with Ben in a situation like this would feel extremely unpleasant. Any time I had come face to face with him in the past, every cell in my body screamed at me to escape. He was the absolute worst type of person for me to deal with.
However, looking at him through Gwen’s eyes, the feelings were quite the opposite. It was as if she was staring at God himself. As if her very existence depended on the warmth of his love. I felt like I was being sucked into Ben’s very core just by receiving his gaze through her.
“What do you want?”
But as soon as he opened his mouth, all those complex emotions vanished. In its place, all that was left was a vague annoyance over the situation, along with her focus on the mission.
“Not much, just wanted to ask how you’re feeling about the game today.” She folded her legs then looked away with a displeased frown on her face.
“Gwen, seriously? It’s the Otters. Come on, that’s not why you’re here.”
She didn’t respond to his words initially. Rather, she took the opportunity to scan the court. Lawrence, who was chatting with Suzie from the debate team, hadn’t looked in their direction at all. Krista had already diverted her attention to Penny, who had just gotten done changing into her cheer outfit. Zoey and Jazmine were chatting leisurely among themselves behind their camera.
“Do you really like her that much?” Gwen asked.
“Are you really going to do this again?”
“No, I’m not. I’m going to accept whatever the outcome of the bet is. I’ve already made up my mind on that.”
“Oh, THAT’S why you’re asking how I feel about the game. Don’t worry Gwen, this isn’t even a real game for us. They’ll probably throw in the towel before the second half.”
“Are you sure you’re not going to get nervous knowing that your girlfriend Zoey’s going to be watching?”
“Wow, even your sense of humor fell off after we broke up. You’re not doing a good job of hiding how upset you are right now.”
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
“Hard to be upset when you look like such a psycho over a girl who wants nothing to do with you.”
“Psycho? Really? Are you sure you wanna go there?”
“Oh, sure. I might have bad taste in men, but that has nothing to do with how much of a loser you are. She doesn’t like you, Ben. She’s just manipulating you. Learn to take a hint, you fucking creep.”
“Uh, hello? Look who’s talking. Why don’t YOU learn to take a hint?”
“What? I’m talking to you as a friend here, Ben. What are you even talking about?”
“You sound more like a crazy ex than a friend, but sure. Tell yourself whatever helps you cope with how fucked up your life is.”
“Yeah? So what, then? You’re lucky that anyone still cares about you at all after the shit you did. Or did you already forget what you did to me?”
“And what, you’re innocent?”
“They’re not the same thing.”
“Yeah, I regret it, and I’ve been trying to change. But I don’t like this framing that I’m some insane abuser.”
“Well, them’s the breaks, asshole.”
There was a boiling hot sensation in Gwen’s chest that I thought would burst out at any moment. The amount of anger she felt at the perceived injustices against her carried a weight that I couldn’t yet fathom. And yet, when they stopped chatting for a moment, the feelings dissipated just as quickly as they had bubbled up. And all that was left was a feeling of distant longing.
“What happened to us?” she mumbled the question to herself, staring down at the floor, probably not expecting an answer from him.
Benjamin sat in silence, gazing out at the court. I couldn’t help but want to hop into him and find out what he was feeling at that moment, but I could probably make an educated guess just based on their interaction.
“We’re bad for each other, Gwen. I told you. Nothing’s changed since then.”
“And you think that you and Zoey will be good for each other? She tried it for a day and broke up with you immediately. Don’t you think that’s fucked up of her? It’s like she has absolutely no respect for you.”
“You don’t understand what things used to be like between me and her.” His words were like a hammer to the head. When Benjamin said those words, my mind went blank.
What did he mean by ‘used to be like’? When I looked at her phone, all I saw was that pathetic, one-sided begging and nagging. Was their relationship that much different before that?
“Whatever. If you want to throw everything away for her then be my guest.” She grabbed Benjamin’s energy drink then stood up.
“Good luck out there.”
“I don’t need… whatever. I’ll take it. Thanks Gwen.”
He smiled, then chugged some of his drink, before running off to continue warming up for the game.
Gwen took the sight in with relief then turned around.
Relief, which quickly turned into horror. Zoey, who had been fiddling with her camera and talking with Jazmine earlier, was suddenly standing right in front of her with a gaze so powerful that it almost knocked her off balance.
“Z-Zoey? What? What do you want?”
Zoey didn’t answer. Her haunting, wide-eyed gaze was so intense that Gwen was forced to look away. She was overwhelmed with guilt over switching the drinks. Did Zoey notice it? Had she seen through it? Why was she standing before Gwen?
“You know,” Zoey began, as she walked past Gwen. “If I were you, and what I mean by that is, if I were someone so obsessed with Ben that I couldn’t stop thinking about him even months after we broke up, then I don’t think I’d let this game play out fairly. Not when such a huge bet hinges on it.”
“O-obsessed? Hah. You sure have a big fucking mouth, don’t you?” It was bad.
It was beyond bad.
Gwen was shaken up, and Zoey seemed to have a hunch as to what was going on. Of course she did, I got Gwen’s number from her after all, so it probably wasn’t very difficult for her to make the connection. But still, I was doing all of this for her, so she had no reason to interfere in the way that she was.
“Hmm, what would I do… I think maybe I’d try to convince my friends on the team to throw the game.” Gwen’s blood ran cold. Zoey must’ve been right on the mark. “But that probably wouldn’t work, right? No one’s going to sabotage the entire game just because a friend of theirs asked them to.”
If this kept going, then everything would fall apart right then and there. Gwen needed to stop her from saying anymore. She needed to take control of the situation.
If she didn’t, then…
---
The sound of my phone’s alarm woke me up from my slumber. It was the absolute worst possible timing. I had no way of knowing how Gwen would respond to Zoey’s probing, and it would take me about two minutes to get there from the other side of the school even if I ran, which is something I’d rather avoid since I’m still suspended.
With a throbbing headache and adrenaline coursing through my veins, I picked my phone out from my pocket and tried my best to find Zoey’s number through my still blurry vision. After a moment of fumbling with the display, I finally located the text she sent me and called her from there.
“Come on, come on, pick up…”
I was fidgeting anxiously as the phone rang on the other line. The wait was killing me. I didn’t know if she would even pick up in the first place, but this was the only thing I could realistically do about the situation. If it went to voicemail, I would have to call Gwen instead, and I doubted that I’d have as much control over the situation in that case. But thankfully, it didn’t come to that, as the sound of the gymnasium finally came through and phased out the monotonous ringing of the phone.
“Oh, hello.”
“What are you doing?”
“What do you mean?”
“You know exactly what I mean. You’re talking to Gwen right now, aren’t you?” Zoey went quiet for a moment, then spoke once more. “I don’t see you anywhere. Did you hack someone by any chance?”
“Maybe I did, or maybe I just hid outside after finding you to make this call.”
“No, I’ve been looking around for the past hour. You never came in or out of the gymnasium.”
“Okay, fine. So what do you want?”
“Nothing, I was just curious as to what your plan was.”
“Are you trying to sabotage it?”
“What are you going to do if I am? You’re going to have a hard time hacking me on such short notice.”
“Just answer me.”
I heard her giggle cheerfully as if the whole situation were a fucking joke to her.
“Like I said. I was just curious. I’m not going to do anything. If you don’t believe me, I’ll let you talk to her.”
The sound of the phone being handled filled my ears for a moment.
“Who is this?”
“It’s me, from earlier. What did you tell Zoey?”
“Nothing.” Gwen lowered her voice into a whisper.
“I fucked up. I think she saw the switch.”
“Don’t worry, she’s on our side.”
“Really? This bitch? She’s the one who bet on that terrible team. How is she on…”
“Trust me. She’s not going to tell anyone. If she does, then I’ll take the fall.”
“You’ll get expelled, you know. You’re already suspended for ruining that classroom yesterday.”
“It’s fine. No one’s going to talk.”
“I regret doing this so much…”
“Yeah, whatever. You can thank me when they lose the game. Give the phone back to Zoey.”
“What? Why the fuck are you giving orders now? Gross. I have half a mind to get you expelled right this second.”
“Please, Gwen.”
“Well, since you asked so nicely...” Seeming satisfied with my prostrating, she handed the phone back to Zoey.
“Satisfied?”
“When our school loses the game, I want you to promise me a dance.”
“You sound confident.”
“You said it yourself, didn’t you? There’s nothing as authoritative or as terrifying as Dream Paralysis.”
“Fair enough, but that’s only if you don’t care about its existence becoming public knowledge. If I figured it out after two experiences, then can you really say it’s that terrifying?”
“Sure, but I didn’t know how to use it back then.”
“Oh really? It sounds like you’ve figured something out. Well then, I suppose I’m in your hands.”
The phone went dead immediately after her sentence was completed. Once again, she had no problem abruptly hanging up on me.
Regardless though, it seemed like it wasn’t much of an issue at all. Zoey must have realized that I had hacked someone, but I doubt she realized that it was Gwen herself. After all, it must have been extremely apparent to her that the girl she was just talking to was Gwen and not me. The takeaway was that this experiment was successful in two ways.
Firstly, I can hack someone while they’re awake and sit passively while spying on them through their own eyes. It’s like using Zoey’s glasses, but without the wearer’s knowledge. This made it a useful ability even while someone is awake, which would prove helpful in the match. I would be able to hack Ben safely at this rate. The only issue is that his body would reject my consciousness if I made any drastic moves, so I needed to pick my spot carefully.
The second thing is that Gwen was willing to team up with me on this without stabbing me in the back. If she had done it, I would’ve been forced to reveal dream paralysis to her by taking her control away, but it thankfully wasn’t necessary. If Zoey was going to use Lawrence to get information from everyone, then I decided that I needed my own set of eyes and ears. Dream Paralysis might be a crazy power, but I can’t be inside of someone all the time. I need passive observers too.
But that was neither here nor there. My goal at that moment was to prevent Benjamin from going out with Zoey. And I had a solid grasp of how to do that now.