“Don’t worry about me, Cooper. I’ll be OK.”
“Ax!” I catch up with him and grab his arm. “No, dude. No. You’re not walking away.”
He chuckles. “Come on, Coop. Don’t be such a fucking romantic. Divide and conquer. You know this is how it ends.”
“But—” And then I just run out of words. Because he’s going to tell me all the things I just told Cadee. And in the end, my protests won’t matter.
So I let out a long exhale and say, “Take care, man.”
He nods once and walks away.
I watch him until he blends into the darkness of the forest and disappears. Then I turn back to the sound of chaos coming from the direction of my house, and return to play my part.
I stop on the edge of the woods and watch as my father is led over to a cop car in handcuffs. The red and blue strobe lights mixed in with the background of fire makes the whole thing surreal.
“Wait!” I come out of the woods and several state troopers come towards me. They’re gonna grab me, and that’s fine. But I want to talk to my father one last time before this ends.
“He’s with us,” a voice calls.
The troopers are just reaching for my arms when the FBI agent walks up to us. “Let him go, he’s with us.”
I nod at the agent, but my attention is on my father. “Can I have one minute with him?” I ask the agent.
I don’t wait for the reply. I just walk towards my father.
He’s the one who set this up, not Dante.
He’s the one who saved Cadee, not me.
And he’s the one who will pay for all of it. Because he and the Mayor betrayed their oaths to Fang and Feather.
There was a folder in the car I gave Cadee. The folder the Chairman and the Mayor sent the FBI letting them know where to find four vehicles programmed with GPS coordinates. Where to find four sets of girls who needed to be set free.
And of course, where to find the tomb in the woods and what time they should show up for the raid.
The trooper holding Chairman Valcourt pauses at the open door of the backseat. I open my mouth to say something, but my father speaks before I do. “I really like that tie, Cooper.”
The he ducks into the backseat without being told and the trooper closes the door.
And that’s that.
My father’s bully king reign is over.
BREAKING NEWS
Sick Secrets Discovered at Monrovian Lake Estates
In the early morning hours of New Year’s Day, the residents of the small rural town of Monrovia were learning about the sick secrets being kept up in the quiet, wooded campus of an elite private school ten miles outside of town.
The FBI raided a mausoleum deep in the woods beyond Monrovian Lake Estates while seventeen lakeside mansions—some of which were over a hundred years old—burned in the background.
We don’t yet know what really happened out there in the place everyone calls ‘the tomb,’ but there has been talk of ritual sacrifice and a collection of bones were found buried along the shores of Lake Monrovia.
The bones of babies.
Forty-three people connected to High Court Prep and College were part of a murder suicide pact and FBI sources say “the woods are littered with bodies”.
Two of those bodies were identified as Judge Wesley Olsen and the mayor of Monrovia.
The Monrovian Sheriff was arrested on federal charges ranging from kidnapping to murder and seven deputies and city council members are being charged with obstruction of justice and accessory to murder.
It will take weeks to sort the facts from the fiction but the Monrovian County district attorney is already hinting that “the worst is yet to come”.
COURT REPORT
Winston Valcourt, former chairman of High Court College and Prep, finally has his day in court.
A day no one ever really thought would happen is finally here.
He is the last surviving member of what is now referred to as the High Court Cult, and the only one who will be brought to justice.
In the two years since the small upper-class town of Monrovia discovered that a sick Luciferian cult had been breeding children to sacrifice in bizarre rituals and selling young women into sexual slavery, almost all the high-profile men and women associated with the case have died or mysteriously disappeared.
All the deaths of the major players were declared to be murder suicides and occurred in the woods near the tomb the night of the raid. But another dozen high-profile families—all alumni of the elite High Court College and Prep schools—were arrested in the months following the initial raid.
They are all deceased now too, even though they inside prison cells and under suicide watch. No one knows if the minor players—those who were out on bail—escaped or found their final justice outside the legal system. But none of them have shown up for their day in court .
None of them have ever been seen again.
Chairman Valcourt was the exception. The kingpin of the operation. He enters the courtroom today fully expecting his only surviving son, Christopher, to testify against him.
EDUCATION NEWS
Mona Monroe, Chairwoman of High Court College and Prep, announces bold new educational initiative in her first interview since Chairman Valcourt’s conviction.
Interviewer: Thank you for joining us, Miss Monroe—
Mona: Oh, it’s Mrs. Legosi now.
That’s right. How could I forget your secret wedding? The media was in a frenzy when they discovered you and Dante were trying to tie the knot in secret on that private island. And my, my—that is some rock he gave you.
Oh, this old thing. It’s actually my great-grandmother’s ring. But I’m not here to talk about my private life. High Court College and Prep is once again open for business.
Three long years. But… you do have to admit. The history of High Court is… well… terrible. It’s sick and sad. Why keep that name?
Because High Court was about more than the Valcourt family. It was about my family too.
The Monroes.
Yes. We started that town more than two hundred years ago. My home was one of the first and every square foot of land inside Monrovian Estates always has belonged, and always will belong, to the Monroe family legacy.
But all the homes burned down.
Except one.
Yours.
Mine. I might’ve slipped the firefighters a few joints to put our fire out first.
I’m… what? Was that a joke?
Do you think it was a joke?
Anyway. (uncomfortable laughter) What fantastic news do you have about the school?
Oh, ‘fantastic’ is the proper word for it. What we’re doing out there is amazing.
There have been rumors that it’s become a public school.
Not quite. But close. As most are probably aware by now, High Court has always been exclusive. We only have room for five hundred people max. But we want to enrich the area around Monrovia, so the Legosi family foundation has committed ten million dollars a year for scholarships. When we open our doors again this fall, every single student will be on scholarship. And all of them will be from needy families. It is no longer a school for the rich, but instead a school for the exceptional.