Page 2 of Villain

He couldn’t do it.

Nix squeezed his eyes shut and pumped faster, praying for the end to hurry up and come already. He’d been unable to face the camera—even with the mask on to help conceal his identity—but turning his back to it had only helped ease his nerves so much.

It was the knowing it was there…

Watching him…

That others, strangers, were on the other side of it staring while he—

Well. Maybe not multiple, but there was at least one. One person who’d sent him this invitation—Favor, as it was called—with the instructions to touch himself to release. That person was there, the username taunting him when he’d entered the chat room and set his camera up, but he hadn’t been able to check to see if any others had come to see the show.

His show.

Good Light, how had Branwen done this?

He bit his bottom lip hard enough there was an accompanying tang of blood and let out a low growl of frustration. He could do this. He had to do this.

For her.

Thinking about his cousin right now wasn’t helping him get off any quicker, and he dashed those thoughts from his mind. In his left hand, his dick was still full and leaking, but no matter how turned on he was, he just couldn’t seem to shake the trepidation enough to reach the finish line. Which wouldn’t do, because if he didn’t follow the rules and come on camera…

Nix was currently in his childhood bedroom, alone in the house since his parents were still staying with Branwen’s three hours away. He was a rather vocal lover, so he’d thought being on his own would help him accomplish this task, since he could be as loud as he needed. Unfortunately, though he was alone, he wasn’t alone, and that fact kept getting to him, worming its way past the jolts of pleasure brought on by his lube-slicked palm.

He’d set the camera on his desk and had started the live feed over ten minutes ago. Though he’d bitched out and turned away before he could see the chatroom open to viewers aside from the one who’d invited him. That person was still there, right? Was probably the only one?

How popular was this app?

With another sound of frustration, he dropped his forehead to the mattress, the move lifting his ass higher in the air. He’d spread his thighs and put himself on full display for the viewer, jerking himself off with his dick aimed low so they could see as much of him as possible even from this angle.

He’d done as much research into the app as he could, but there wasn’t much information out there that was accessable to the open public. The app had been created for the rich and elite students of Foxglove Grove University, a prestigious school Nix had only ever been to once when he’d been touring to try and find the right fit for him.

Foxglove hadn’t been it.

Not that it mattered any more, since that’s where he’d find himself at the start of the upcoming semester anyway.

From what he’d gathered, Enigma was a fancy hookup app meant to have their members jumping through hoops to prove how deviant and depraved they could be. Only those who attended or had attended the school were allowed to join, and there was a farce of anonymity and discretion.

Farce, because there was no way to keep one’s identity a secret if they were going out screwing people they’d met through the app. But whatever. The app also operated on a tiered system. The lower ones meant nothing, but he’d skipped right past those while hacking his way into the program.

After the funeral, Nix had found the email with the QR code in his cousin’s multi-slate. He’d also found the app downloaded to her device, though it’d been locked. Since then, he’d managed to hack into the system, but only a few of her chat logs were accessible and nothing else, the rest of it under biometric locking mechanisms he couldn’t break through.

Now that she was dead, no one could.

The QR code had still worked, surprisingly enough. Apparently, whoever managed the app didn’t bother checking to see if their members were still alive or not. It wasn’t as simple as downloading the app to his own device, however. In her letter to him, Branwen had mentioned something about crowns. He’d figured out that part of her message easily enough.

Everyone had a profile photo, something that was meant to be obscure—not an actual picture of your face or anything that could reveal your identity. Though the first two levels operated the same as any other hookup app, anonymity was still the number one rule.

It made Nix wonder how many random people his cousin had slept with, or exchanged sexual favors with like he was doing right now, without ever having seen their face before.

This was already a lot for him; he didn’t think he could fuck someone without knowing what they looked like beforehand. Clearly, Branwen hadn’t felt the same way, since over the tiny profile photo of an ivory mask, there was a small golden crown.

She’d wanted it and she’d gotten it.

So why had she killed herself in the end anyway?

A boy. A boy who’d betrayed her. A boy who had something to do with this secret world and these dirty dealings.

Nix had downloaded the app and created an account. He’d been able to hack the system and manipulate it into believing he’d already successfully beaten the first two tiers and was currently a part of the third one, which was known as Bishop. But that’s where things had gotten…complicated.

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