--: Author's POV: --
The hospital room felt strangely quiet once the girls had left. The laughter of the boys had faded, replaced by a heavy, suffocating curiosity. No one left the room. They all stood around Jay-jay's bed, forming a protective wall and serious faces.
Rory and Edrix set the laptop on the tray. Rory pulled the pendrive from his pocket, his expression uncharacteristically grim. "Kaizar was losing his mind looking for this. He risked everything to keep this from getting into our hands."
The air in the room felt thick. Even David, usually the most stoic, had his arms crossed tightly, his eyes fixed on the device. They all knew that whatever was on this drive was the reason Jay-jay had been hunted through the forest. It was the reason she was lying in this bed, covered in bandages and bruises.
--: Jay-jay's POV: --
The low hum of the laptop fan felt like it was echoing in my ears. Edrix's fingers danced across the keyboard, bypassing security layers I didn't even know existed. Lines of green code scrolled down the screen, reflecting in his glasses.
"The doctor said you need to rest, Jay" Keifer said softly. He was sitting on the edge of my bed, his hand hovering near mine. I could see the tension in his jaw. He looked like he wanted to snatch the laptop away and throw it out the window. He was ready to close it the second things got too intense.
"I can't rest until I know what I'm holding," I replied, my eyes glued to the screen. My heart was already starting to beat faster, a strange instinct telling me that my life was about to change again. "I need to know why he did this to me."
The final lock clicked open with a sharp, digital chime that sounded like a gunshot in the quiet room. A single folder appeared, labeled with my full name and my birth date..
"Why would he have a file on your entire life?" Rory muttered, his usual playful energy replaced by a cold, sharp focus. He clicked the folder open.
Inside, there were scanned copies of my school records, medical history, and a detailed timeline of every house I had lived in. But then, my breath caught. There was a list of every man who had ever entered our lives—my mother's past stepfathers.
"This is stalking," Keifer growled, his grip on the bedrail tightening until the metal groaned. "He wasn't just watching you, Jay. He was documenting you. He was looking for a weakness."
"There's a video," Edrix whispered, his voice trembling. He hesitated, his cursor hovering over a file dated years ago. "Jay... do you really want to see this?"
"Play it" I whispered.
The screen flickered to life. It was grainy, hidden-camera footage of a dimly lit kitchen I recognized instantly. It was the old house—the one where the air always smelled like stale beer and fear. I saw a man—the fifth stepfather—staggering across the room. His face was twisted in a drunken, murderous rage. He was lunging toward my mother, a broken bottle in his hand.
And then, a small, terrified figure ran into the frame.
It was me. I looked so tiny, so fragile.
In the video, I didn't run away. I saw myself grab a heavy kitchen knife from the counter. I saw the moment I stepped between them. I saw the flash of the blade as the man fell.
The world stopped.
For years, I believed my mother had done it. Even Keifer, he had been the one who told me about the official police case files he had seen—the reports that stated my mother had killed the stepfather in self-defense.
The case was closed, the "truth" was settled, and Keifer had used that information to comfort me, telling me that the monster was gone and my mother had been our hero.
But the police reports were a lie. The official case was a cover-up.
The video didn't lie. It wasn't my mother who struck the blow. It was me. I was the one who held the knife. I was the one who had taken a life, and the memory had been so traumatic that my mind had buried it, replacing it with the story everyone else believed.
--: Author's POV: --
The room went deathly silent. No one breathed. The boys of Section E looked at the screen in pure shock, their faces pale as they slowly turned their eyes toward the girl in the hospital bed.
Keifer looked like he had been struck by lightning. He stared at the screen, his mind reeling. He had trusted those police files. He thought he knew her history. Seeing the reality—seeing the girl he loved commit such a violent act as a child—broke something inside him.
Jay-jay's face had gone paper-white. Her eyes were fixed on the frozen image on the screen, blown wide with a memory that was finally clawing its way out of the darkness of her mind.
"I... I did that?" Jay-jay's voice was a ghost of a whisper. "The case... Keifer, you said the police said it was Mama. You said she did it..."
The realization was too much. It wasn't just a secret; it was a total collapse of her reality.
Suddenly, her breathing hitched. It became sharp, shallow, and terrifyingly loud.
"Jay? Jay-jay, look at me!" Keifer scrambled closer, his hands shaking as he grabbed her shoulders. "I didn't know, Jay! The files... they didn't say this! Please, just breathe!"
She didn't hear him. The room began to spin. The hospital walls felt like they were turning back into the walls of that dark kitchen. The smell of the hospital vanished, replaced by the copper tang of blood. She started to hyperventilate, her chest heaving as she struggled for air that wouldn't come.
"She's having a panic attack! Get the doctor!" Aries yelled, his voice cracking with desperation. He lunged forward to help, but the monitor beside the bed began to beep frantically—a long, high-pitched whine as her heart rate skyrocketed.
"Jay-jay! Stay with us!" Rory slammed the laptop shut, but it was too late.
Jay-jay's hands clawed at the hospital sheets, her body shaking violently. Her eyes rolled back into her head. The psychological trauma, combined with her fragile physical state, was more than her body could handle.
"Nurse! Code Blue! Room 402!" a voice echoed from the hallway.
Doctors and nurses rushed in, the sound of heavy footsteps and shouting filling the room.
"JAY! JAY-JAY!" Keifer screamed, his voice raw with a pain that shook the walls. He fought like a wild animal against the hands of David and Percy as they dragged him away from the bed to make room for the medical team.
But Jay-jay couldn't hear the chaos anymore. The world went black, and her body went limp. Her mind, unable to process the blood on her hands, pulled her back down into a deep, silent sleep.
The doors to the room swung shut, the frosted glass cutting the boys off from the frantic movements of the doctors.
The hallway was filled with a thick, suffocating silence. Edrix sat on a plastic chair, staring blankly at the closed laptop in his lap as if it were a cursed object. Rory stood by the wall, his hands buried in his hair, pacing in small, frantic circles.
"How?" Aries whispered, his voice shaking. He looked at the others, his eyes red. "The police reports... the lawyers... they all said it was her mom. How could Kaizar have the real footage?"
"Because he's been hunting her since the beginning," David growled, his voice a low, dangerous rumble. He punched the wall next to the door, leaving a small crack in the plaster. "He didn't just want the drive. He wanted her to see it. He wanted to break her."
Keifer didn't say a word. He was slumped against the wall opposite the door, sliding down until he was sitting on the cold linoleum floor. His eyes were glazed over, staring at the spot on the floor where he had last seen Jay-jay's hand go limp.
The image of that little girl with the knife was burned into his brain. Not because he was afraid of her, but because he finally understood the weight she had been carrying without even knowing it. And the fact that Kaizar had held that video—had used it as a weapon—sent a cold, murderous chill through his veins.
"If she doesn't wake up..." Keifer's voice was so quiet it was barely a breath. He didn't finish the sentence. He didn't have to.
They all knew. If Jay-jay didn't wake up from this, there wouldn't be anything left of Section E but the rage.
-----------
The first twenty-four hours were a blur of antiseptic smells and the rhythmic, mocking beep of the heart monitor. The doctors had managed to stabilize Jay-jay's heart rate after her terrifying collapse, but she remained in a state of profound psychological shock. Her body was healing, but her mind had retreated into the deep fog of trauma, a place where the image of the kitchen and the flash of the blade couldn't reach her.
Keifer hadn't moved. He sat in the hard plastic chair next to her bed, his large hand gently covering hers. He didn't eat. He didn't respond to the others. He just stared at her pale face, his eyes rimmed with red and dark circles. To him, the world outside this room—the war with Kaizar, the school, the council—no longer existed. There was only the girl whose mind had broken under the weight of a secret she was never supposed to know.
---------------
By the second day, the hospital hallway had become a fortress. The entire Section E had claimed the space. They didn't care about hospital rules or visiting hours. They stood like a wall of shadows, sixteen of the school's most dangerous boys turned into silent protectors.
Aries and Angelo were standing by the window at the end of the hall. Both brothers looked haunted. Unlike the official police reports they had read, they now knew the truth because they had both been there when the laptop screen revealed that horrific footage.
"We lived in a different world back then," Angelo whispered, his voice cracking as he leaned his forehead against the cold glass. He thought back to their childhood—how he and Aries had been staying together with his adoptive parents while Jay-jay was left behind. "We were safe. We were at home with our parents while she was stuck in that hell. We thought tita was the one who... God, Aries, we saw it. She was just a kid. She was all alone."
"Mom lied to protect her, and we believed it because we weren't there to see the truth," Aries replied, his voice a low, painful growl. He hit the windowsill with his fist. "But Jay-jay... she's been carrying that trauma in her head for years. And we all saw it what she had to do because we couldn't be there to protect her."
Across the hall, the rest of the boys were scattered but united. Edrix and Rory were hunched over a laptop, their faces grim. David, Percy, Mayo, and the others sat on the floor or leaned against the walls, their usual rowdy energy replaced by a heavy, murderous silence. They weren't just a class anymore; they were a brotherhood bound by a secret that could destroy the girl they loved.
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Day Three.
The morning sun hit the hospital floor in long, dusty streaks.
Keifer's head had finally dropped onto the edge of the mattress, his exhaustion winning for just a moment. His grip on Jay-jay's hand hadn't loosened even in sleep. He looked broken, his tough-guy persona completely dissolved by the sight of her lying so still.
The room was deathly quiet until a small, sharp movement occurred.
Underneath Keifer's palm, Jay-jay's fingers suddenly twitched. It was slight—barely more than a flutter—but to Keifer, it felt like an electric shock.
He bolted upright instantly, his chair screeching against the floor. He didn't breathe as he watched her hand. There it was again—a jagged, weak contraction of her muscles as she tried to close her fist.
"Jay?" he whispered, his voice raw and desperate. He leaned over her, his eyes searching her face. "Jay, if you can hear me... please."
In the hallway, the word spread through the boys like a silent signal. Aries, Angelo, David, Rory, Edrix—the whole of Section E moved as one, crowding toward the door and peering through the glass, their hearts hammering in unison.
Inside the room, Jay-jay's eyelids struggled to open. She winced at the bright white lights, her gaze wandering aimlessly until it landed on Keifer.
"Keifer..." she croaked, her voice sounding like sand.
The door burst open. Aries and Angelo were the first ones in, followed by the rest of the boys. The small room was suddenly overflowing with the presence of Section E. They surrounded her bed in a tight, protective circle.
"Jay-jay!" Angelo breathed, reaching out to brush a stray hair from her forehead, his eyes shimmering with tears. "You're back. We're right here."
"The video..." Jay-jay whispered, her voice trembling as the memories flooded back. She looked at her brothers, then scanned the faces of all the boys standing around her. "You all... you all saw it, didn't you? You weren't there seven years ago... but you saw me... I killed him."
The room went silent, but it wasn't a silence of judgment.
Aries shook his head fiercely, grabbing the foot of the bed. "We saw a hero, Jay. We saw a little girl who did what her brothers weren't there to do."
Keifer didn't let go of her hand. He leaned in close, his forehead almost touching hers. "Listen to me, Jay-jay. We all saw it. Every single one of us. And not one person in this room thinks any less of you. You're not a monster. You're a survivor."
The entire Section E stood there, a wall of loyalty that nothing could break. They weren't looking at a killer; they were looking at their heart.
But as the initial relief faded, David looked toward the laptop on the table, his eyes hardening. "She's awake, but the war isn't over. Kaizar still has that footage, and he knows we know. He's going to move soon."
Keifer's eyes darkened, his hand tightening protectively over Jay-jay's. "Let him. He wanted to break her by showing us the truth. He didn't realize that the truth just gave us more reasons to destroy him."
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I am really really sorry for uploading this late.. I had a lot of work to do today!!
Ik I should not make any excuse
I am seriously sorry 🙏🏻
So here is the longest chapter I have ever written
I love you 💗💗
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Also the part where Jay Jay falls asleep for some time was suggested by
"DaoistHG2rvn"
Thankyou soo much for your suggestion 💖 💖