Page 63 of Brutal King

“There’s probably a password to get in.”

“Yeah,” I said. “But I have a sneaking suspicion that I might know what it is.” I punched in my name. “K-A-T-R-I-N-A. And...” I pressed ‘enter’. “... voila.”

“Figures he would use that,” Kobe said disgustingly. “The guy’s so obvious.” He looked me over. “I wouldn’t be surprised if he hasn’t tried to get you into bed with him on day one. The creep.”

“Okay,” I almost blushed as I looked at the screen. Trent did move very fast. Too fast for my traditional parents. Too fast for me even, but I must’ve been feeling so low after how Kobe treated me since I arrived at the Academy. Did I let Trent get as far as he did because I felt so rejected by Kobe in the beginning and I wanted to prove him wrong, that I was desirable? I don’t know. It could be because Trent was so seductively hot, and he knew how to make me feel good. I remembered how good he made me feel just minutes before as he licked my body. So good. I smiled as I said, “Look at this.”

Folders were on his desktop, and I opened the one named ‘security’.

“Here we go. Each of these is from one camera for one day. So here...” I brought the cursor over Camera 1, for October 12.” “This would give us a view of what happened out front on the night of the vandalism.”

“Open it up. I can’t wait to see.”

I started the footage. “Hmm,” I said when nothing much appeared. “I think I’ll speed it up a bit.” We watched the footage for the entire night.

“Nothing,” Kobe said, clearly disappointed.

“Do you think this could have been done during the day?”

“There aren’t many people around. Not much of a chance to have witnesses. Sure. Take a look.”

I opened the morning file.

“There’s Trent,” Kobe said.

“Yeah. He’s opening up in the morning to get to work.”

“And he turns around to lock the door behind him.”

“No one else can get in,” I added. “So, we still don’t have anything.”

“Go to one of the interior shots... let’s say the dining room.”

I opened the file. “Now we see Trent coming inside.”

“Disappears into his office.”

“I’ll fast forward it. Surely there isn’t much to see.”

“Hang on,” Kobe said before I hit the button. “Look. He’s coming back to the dining room.”

“So?” I said. “It’s Trent. That’s not who we’re looking for.”

“There,” Kobe shouted almost jumping out of his seat. “Look at him.”

Staring at the screen, I was stunned silent. Trent picked up a chair and smashed it against a table. Then another chair and another and another. He went back into the kitchen, his hands filled with cups and saucers. He threw them violently to the floor, ensuring they smashed into hundreds of pieces.

“The bastard,” Kobe said under his breath. “The fucking bastard.”

“He’s going back into the kitchen.”

“Switch cameras.”

I did and we witnessed Trent smashing several of the pots and pans with a hammer he’d brought. The rest of the pots and pans and cooking utensils he simply threw to the floor.

“Switch to his office.”

“I can’t believe this,” I muttered as I switched to his office. I could hardly bear to watch.