Page 118 of Veiled in Brick

The general thrum of anxiety that I knew we all had been feeling was palpable, then. We all stared at each other with straightened backs—alarmed eyes—questioning glances because it went without saying that none of us wanted to wait. We looked to one another in silent contemplation until, finally, it seemed that we had all come to the same determination.

“Well, it’s all a theory until we look at the camera,” James announced in a tired voice. He slapped his thighs, pushed himself to stand, and grumbled, “Let’s do this.”

Chapter 20

The sensation of standing dominos on their ends, anticipating them toppling them over with so much as a breath in the wrong direction, was enveloping me from all angles. I was… skeptical of this plan that had quickly started to lay itself out the moment that Cassie mentioned it. Hesitant once we realized that the camera was able to be charged with the USB-C charger that Cassie had for her phone. I was metaphorically digging my heels into the ground once we were making our way back to the complex—Cassie in her vehicle, and the rest of us in James’. But, finally, and with little to no vocal resistance on my end due to what I believe was simply shock, we were at home base.

That’s what Cassie had delightfully coined my apartment—home base.

We had successfully charged the camera to the point that it could be used, anxiously commuted our way down the road, tiptoed into apartment 2A, and sat ourselves at the dining table. Cassie sat adjacent to me, attempting to connect to the camera via Bluetooth on her cell. James was next to her, his laptop open, and after glancing at her screen, began to type something that Cassie showed him on her phone. They murmured to each other in quiet voices, nodding as they found what was needed regarding the applicable camera app.

Claire and I at the heads of the table and Liam and Luke next to both of us, we sat in waiting. Claire had made coffee in an attempt to address our collective sleep deprivation. My mug sat before me untouched, the idea of indulgence abhorrent considering the situation at hand, and we waited.

“Oh.” Cassie finally took a deep breath and nearly choked on her cup of coffee. James’ focus snapped to her as she coughed, his expression pinched as she sputtered, and once she set the magenta mug on the table before her, she croaked, “Oh my God.”

“What?” I voiced.

James leaned to his left, peering over her shoulder at her phone once more, and his jaw dropped. “Is that…”

“Is what?” I pressed.

Liam stood from his chair, took large steps to walk around the table and stand behind his sister, and his eyes narrowed. “I don’t understand—what are those?”

I exclaimed, “Guys!”

Luke was now sitting at rapt attention, watching Claire stride her way to stand on Liam’s left, and her eyebrows flew up.

“Oh, fuck this shit,” she snapped, pointing at a particular spot on Cassie’s screen. “Is that what I think it is?”

No one replied, and the feeling of careening down a steep incline in a car with no brakes bored under my skin. Control—I needed. Fucking. Control. And at this point, I didn’t feel like I had an ounce of it. When Luke moved to stand behind Claire, placed a hand on her shoulder, and his light eyes widened at whatever was displayed on the phone before them all, I pushed myself up from my seat with enough gusto for it to loudly scrape across the hardwood.

I stomped around the table, everyone else’s eyes glued on Cassie’s phone, and I forced my way through the group as if I were fighting through a mosh pit. I stopped in front of Liam, and as I glanced through the space between Cassie and James’ heads, I felt mine cock to the side as I began to thoroughly understand everyone’s initial reaction and their hesitance to speak further. We all stared, dumbstruck, at four thumbnails, each one more peculiar than the last.

The first was us. All of us, staring directly at ourselves from the lens that was sitting on the table. Our eyes blinking was the only clue that the camera feed was live.

The second displayed an empty room. It was covered in a dark grey material that looked like some sort of foam padding which, despite the less than stellar quality of the image, appeared to have a peculiar, zig-zagged texture. It was everywhere. On the walls—the ceiling and floor—even covering the entrance to the room in its entirety save for the round doorknob.

The third was the common area of an apartment that had a similar layout to ours. The walls were painted in a deep taupe. Each piece of furniture was a gaudy style with large, ornamental wood moldings and rich, clashing colors.

The fourth—the final one—was remarkably familiar. The room housed a queen bed with a white, eyelet lace duvet. An open, black duffel bag sat directly in front of the sliding closet doors, but the rest of the room was neat and tidy. My bedroom.

More cameras. All of these were more cameras.

I whispered, “What the fuck, there are more? My room?”

James stated, “Probably put it up when he broke in. At least you haven’t been staying here since then—all this guy’s got from this one is me sleeping.”

“You’ve been sleeping in Zoey’s bed?” Cassie inquired with a single, high eyebrow.

James sighed heavily, and Liam retorted, “Not the time, Cas.”

She shook her head quickly. “Okay, yeah, fine—how are we even seeing all these?” Cassie asked the question rhetorically, but Liam answered:

“Must be synced together. Heard about it with parents using nanny cams—easier to watch the whole house at the same time. If you connect to one, you connect to all of them.”

“Huh—interesting,” she returned, pointing at the image of my bed. “So…this is your room?”

“Uh huh,” I murmured back.

---