The theater room was alive with energy.

  Laughter echoed off the walls as students gathered, some running lines, others arguing playfully about costumes.

  Kai sat in a chair near the edge of the stage, leaning back slightly, watching his friends as they moved around.

  Brandon was perched on a table, waving his arms dramatically as he recited a line — Naomi was already rolling her eyes.

  Leo and Sam were arguing about which song to use for the next scene.

  Lila sat nearby, casually scrolling on her phone, though every now and then she glanced up to smirk at Brandon’s antics.

  For once, everything felt normal.

  “Almost makes me forget what else I’m dealing with.”

  Kai smiled faintly, leaning forward, elbows resting on his knees.

  “You gonna join us, or just sit there all mysterious?” Brandon called, flashing a grin.

  Kai smirked.

  “I’m just enjoying the show.”

  “Yeah, yeah,” Brandon laughed. “Mr. Cool over here.”

  Lila gave Kai a small glance, an amused glint in her eyes.

  “You do have a habit of watching instead of acting, you know,” she teased.

  Kai just shrugged, a slight smirk still playing on his lips.

  “Maybe I’m just waiting for my moment.”

  But then — his phone buzzed, breaking the mood.

  “Be right back,” he said casually, waving a hand as he walked out toward the empty hallway.

  Once out of sight, Kai swiped to answer the video call.

  Kai answered, already feeling that knot in his stomach.

  “Felix?”

  Felix looked pale, sitting in what looked like a hospital waiting room.

  “It’s bad, Kai.”

  Felix turned the camera slightly.

  Across the room, a boy lay unconscious on a hospital bed, wires connected to machines beeping softly.

  “He’s from our school,” Felix said quietly. “OD’d on something. They don’t know what it was yet, but…”

  Kai’s jaw tightened.

  “And you think it’s from Mercer?”

  Felix nodded.

  “Kids say he bought from Darren a week ago. No one’s talking, but… yeah.”

  Kai exhaled slowly, mind racing.

  “Alright. Stay there. Keep me updated.”

  “Okay.”

  But before he could turn back to class — the phone buzzed again.

  Kai glanced down, seeing the name flashing across the screen — Jonah.

  Jonah’s face appeared, but he quickly flipped the camera.

  “Look who I found,” Jonah whispered, zooming in across the school courtyard.

  A boy — thin, sharp-faced, dressed in designer clothes — was leaning against a wall, laughing with a group of bigger, rougher-looking guys.

  Kai’s eyes narrowed as he studied the scene.

  “Darren Mercer,” Jonah said quietly.

  “Kid’s been pushing pills around school. Not a fighter — but his daddy’s got money, so he rolls with guys who are.”

  As Kai watched, Darren slipped a small packet into a student’s hand, casual like it was nothing.

  “Been watching him all week. He’s careful — but not careful enough.”

  Kai’s voice was calm but sharp.

  “Good work.”

  Jonah snickered.

  “Knew you’d like that.”

  “Keep watching him. I’ll figure out what to do.”

  “Got it.”

  As the call ended, Kai stood in the empty hallway, slipping his phone into his pocket, gaze darkening.

  If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.

  “Selling drugs to kids who don’t know better… that’s a problem I’ll fix.”

  “Enough watching.”

  “It’s time to act.”

  By the time Kai walked back into the theater room, the mask was back on — calm, quiet, unreadable.

  Brandon was still joking around, Lila was now flipping through her lines, and Naomi was bossing Leo about blocking.

  Lila glanced up as Kai re-entered.

  “Everything okay?” she asked softly, tilting her head.

  Kai smiled faintly, slipping back into his chair.

  “Yeah. Just… family stuff.”

  She raised an eyebrow but didn’t push.

  “Alright, Romeo,” Brandon called. “Back to the show. We need your deep emotional angst over here!”

  Kai smirked.

  “You have no idea.”

  As he sat there, pretending to follow along with the rehearsal, his mind was already racing ahead.

  “Darren Mercer… hiding behind daddy’s money.”

  His eyes narrowed slightly as he watched Brandon flub a line and everyone laugh.

  “First, I need a way in.”

  “Then, I need to show him that money can’t protect him from everything.”

  He smirked to himself, mind already working through scenarios.

  “And maybe… I’ll let him see the face of the watchers too.”

  The day moved like any other.

  At least for everyone else.

  But for Kai, it was a symphony — a carefully orchestrated play.

  From his quiet seat in the library, Kai watched his phone, earbuds in, eyes sharp.

  On the screen, a live video call ran silently — Felix walking the school halls, camera low but capturing everything Kai needed to see.

  “Let’s see if the world follows the script I gave it.”

  Felix’s voice came in low, blending with the background noise of students moving around.

  “Darren’s at his usual spot. Guards are with him, looking smug as ever,” Felix whispered.

  Kai leaned back in his chair, eyes narrowing slightly as he spoke.

  “Good. Stay with them. Where’s Jonah?”

  “Across the courtyard. Watching from the benches.”

  “Alright. Stay sharp.”

  Kai ended the call but stayed watching, shifting to a text chat with Jonah.

  Moments later, Jonah’s message came through:

  “Dude. Something’s up. Guards are eating lunch and now one’s throwing up. The other’s holding his stomach like crazy.”

  Kai’s eyes sharpened, sitting up straighter.

  “Where are they going?” he typed back.

  “Dunno. Looks like infirmary. Or restroom. Not sure.”

  Kai smiled faintly, fingers tapping the edge of his phone.

  “Check what they ate,” he replied.

  Seconds passed. Then another message came.

  “Tray looks normal. Wait… hold on.”

  Kai’s fingers hovered over the screen, waiting.

  Another message popped up, this time with a picture — a yogurt cup, seal opened, sitting on the tray.

  “Dude, yogurt smells off. Maybe spoiled? Guess no one noticed.”

  Kai stared at the picture for a moment, then leaned back in his chair, a slow smile spreading on his lips.

  “So this is how the universe decided to make it happen.”

  “Interesting.”

  He exhaled softly, watching students move around the library, none of them aware of the invisible web tightening outside.

  “Nature rearranging itself. Setting the stage.”

  With that, he switched to Felix’s live feed again — just in time to see Darren now alone, standing nervously in the courtyard, glancing around for his missing protection.

  As if on cue, Darren started moving, shoving his phone in his pocket, muttering to himself.

  Felix followed at a distance, camera still aimed low, blending in with the crowd.

  Kai’s focus sharpened.

  “Here we go.”

  Darren paced toward the alley behind the gym — the same alley Kai had envisioned the night before.

  “He’s headed toward the alley,” Felix whispered.

  “Stay on him. Don’t get too close.”

  From his seat in the library, Kai watched the screen like a conductor waiting for the next note.

  And then — they came.

  From the shadows, rats — dozens of them — poured out into the alley, moving as if they had one mind.

  Kai exhaled slowly, a faint smirk rising.

  “Just like I saw it.”

  On Felix’s screen, Darren stopped, his entire body frozen.

  “What the— what the hell?!” Darren’s voice broke.

  The rats moved as one, circling him, weaving and shifting in the dirt and trash — until the words became clear:

  “STOP DEALING.”

  Felix kept the camera locked on the scene, the message spelled out in living, moving creatures.

  Kai leaned forward, watching.

  Darren was trembling now, his phone slipping from his hand before he grabbed it quickly, fumbling to check the screen — as if hoping for a way out.

  And right on cue, his phone buzzed — an unknown number flashing across the screen.

  Kai was already dialing, calm as ever.

  Darren’s hand shook as he answered.

  “H-hello?”

  Kai’s voice came smooth, cold.

  “I’m watching you.”

  Darren gasped, glancing around wildly.

  “Who— who is this?”

  Kai’s smile was faint but sharp, though unseen.

  “The one who sees what you hide.”

  A pause stretched over the line — Darren’s ragged breathing the only sound.

  “You’ve been warned.”

  “Stop dealing. Or next time, it’ll be worse.”

  Kai hung up before Darren could speak again.

  Sliding his phone back into his pocket, Kai leaned back in his chair, letting out a slow breath as the tension of the moment unraveled.

  His gaze drifted out the library window, watching the school courtyard where students moved around, laughing, chatting, completely unaware of what had just unfolded behind the gym.

  For a moment, Kai let himself think back to last night — to the moment he had lain still in his closet, eyes closed, focusing on that one image.

  Darren standing alone.

  Surrounded by rats, circling him like a living wall.

  And the word — STOP DEALING — spelled out in sharp, shifting lines of fur and tails.

  A quiet smirk tugged at Kai’s lips.

  “I chose rats for a reason.”

  “Guys like Darren, all money and ego — rats are their worst nightmare. Filth. Contamination. Fear.”

  But even as he thought about how perfectly that scene had played out, another thought crept in — something that hadn’t been part of his plan.

  “The guards.”

  He hadn’t imagined them getting sick.

  He hadn’t needed to.

  Yet, somehow, the world had made sure Darren would be alone — the spoiled yogurt doing the work for him.

  Kai chuckled under his breath, leaning forward now, resting his arms on the table, eyes still fixed on the students outside.

  “So that’s how it works…” he whispered to himself.

  “I imagined Darren alone, and the universe figured out how to make it happen.”

  A deeper laugh slipped out, soft but full of awe.

  “The universe is amazing.”

  Shaking his head slightly, Kai reached for his notebook, fingers brushing over the word “Illuminatii”, carefully scrawled in sharp ink beneath the pyramid symbol.

  The small café was tucked away off campus — a quiet place most students didn’t bother with.

  But inside, at the back table, Felix, Jonah, and Evan sat close, voices low, heads huddled together.

  A laptop was open on the table, paused on the frozen image of Darren standing alone in the alley, the rats circling him in that terrifying formation.

  The word still burned in their minds — “STOP DEALING.”

  “Man… I can’t believe it actually worked,” Jonah whispered, still shaking his head.

  “I mean… the birds writing in the sky, I thought that was maybe a fluke or luck. But this? This was real. This was right in front of us.”

  Felix leaned back, arms crossed, watching the screen.

  “Yeah, no way that was luck. I don’t know what he’s doing… but that? That was planned. Somehow.”

  Evan, who had been tapping his fingers anxiously on the table, looked from one to the other.

  “I told you,” Evan muttered. “I told you he wasn’t joking when he said someone’s watching us. The Watchers… whoever they are, they’re real.”

  Just then, the café door opened, and Kai stepped in, calm as ever, hands in his hoodie pockets.

  The whole group instantly straightened up, like soldiers at attention when the commander walks in.

  “There he is,” Felix muttered under his breath.

  Kai’s eyes swept over them, sharp and unreadable, but when he reached the table, a faint smirk pulled at the corner of his lips.

  “I see you’ve been busy,” he said casually, sliding into the empty chair at the head of the table.

  None of them said anything right away.

  They were all watching him now, a mix of curiosity, fear, and respect.

  Kai leaned back in his seat, glancing at the laptop screen.

  “You did good,” he said, nodding slowly. “Better than good.”

  Jonah swallowed, leaning forward.

  “So… was that really you? I mean… the rats, man. That was insane.”

  Kai smiled slightly, but there was something sharp behind it.

  “I told you Darren would learn his lesson.”

  Felix ran a hand through his hair, still shaken.

  “I don’t get it, though. How did you make that happen? Like, are the Watchers even real? Or is this… is this all you?”

  Kai tilted his head, watching Felix for a moment before answering — calm, steady, letting his silence linger long enough to make them uneasy.

  “The Watchers are always watching,” Kai said softly. “That’s all you need to know.”

  He reached into his bag and pulled out three thick envelopes, sliding them across the table — one to each of them.

  “For your work.”

  They stared at the envelopes, hesitating.

  “What is this?” Evan asked, voice low.

  “Payment. From the Watchers,” Kai said simply. “For staying loyal. For not asking too many questions.”

  Felix picked his up first, glancing inside — his eyes went wide at the stack of bills.

  “Holy—”

  Jonah opened his next, hands shaking slightly.

  “Damn, this is real money.”

  “Of course it is,” Kai said, watching them calmly. “I told you — this isn’t a game. You help me… and I’ll make sure you get what you deserve.”

  He leaned forward slightly now, his voice dropping to something colder.

  “But remember… this isn’t charity. You earn this. Every time. The moment you stop delivering — it stops.”

  They all nodded quickly, the weight of his words sinking in.

  “Understood,” Felix said, swallowing hard.

  Kai sat back again, watching them like pieces on a board.

  “The Watchers have plans for this school,” he said quietly. “For this city. There are people in the dark doing things no one wants to talk about. You’ve seen it. You’ve filmed it.”

  He glanced pointedly at the laptop where Darren’s terror was still frozen on screen.

  “We’re not here to play games. We’re here to fix things. To tip the balance.”

  Kai’s eyes darkened slightly.

  “And sometimes… to make people afraid to cross the line again.”

  Jonah nodded slowly, clearly trying to process it all.

  “So… what’s next?”

  Kai smiled faintly, standing and adjusting his hoodie.

  “Next?”

  He paused, watching them all carefully.

  “Next, we get more eyes. More ears. This school isn’t the only place with darkness hiding in corners.”

  He stepped away from the table but turned back for one last word.

  “Enjoy the reward. You’ve earned it.”

  With that, Kai walked out of the café, leaving them sitting there — now fully aware they weren’t just messing around anymore.

  As the door swung closed behind him, Evan looked at the others, voice low.

  “Dude… what are we even part of?”

  Felix shook his head, still staring at the money.

  “Something way bigger than us.”

  Jonah glanced back at the frozen video of Darren on the laptop, then at the door where Kai had left.

  If you’re enjoying the story, please consider dropping a follow, leaving a rating, or writing a quick review — it really helps more than you know!

  And hey… maybe a comment too? I read every single one.

  Thanks for being here — seriously.