Commitment

Ryan POV...

"So now messages back from Megan. And you tried to call Lindsay after they messaged you and nothing..." Tom says slowly sitting at a bench in a crowded park. Megan insisted that currently the best hiding place would be in crowds.

"I can sense what you're implying Tom and you need to stop. I need to lead this team without distractions for once and this giving up attitude you have is overwhelming." Megan sighed hopelessly grasping and squeezing my hand. She was lost at sea amongst so many emotions and it felt like she was trying to keep me as her guiding light as she sailed through.

"We can't just assume we've lost them. But we do need to think up a plan in case we have." I admit frowning at her. "It isn't giving up. I think we all know we are targets now. And with that house gone I'm sure there is plenty of sources that asshole can use to target us with that book. So we are on a pretty strict time limit. So Megan what should we do? What do we know at this point?"

Megan sighed and waved her other arm dramatically like some distraught teen. "That we were being played this entire time! That somehow my laptop was tapped and that we were being listened to and recorded. That this person has our names. I narrowed it down to six men in our school. Based on the footage of the gym theft you told me about, access to the college department to steal the book, and who could be in proximity of me and Ryan to watch us." Megan groaned as her eyes widened, "You don't think we had someone from the inside mess with us do you?"

Tom frowned, "You mean Maria? Lindsay and Don seemed fine."

Megan shook her head. "I am worried Don wasn't completely the person we believed him to be. My parents were very paranoid people, the security this person would have to breach to remotely access my laptop like that...no, it had to be internal. Lindsay nor Maria have any idea about computers. Don on the other hand."

The tall athletic ex-womanizer stood from the bench glaring at them. I could feel Megan shaking in reflected rage. "How dare you accuse the one person in the group that wasn't running around fucking each other and was focused on actually helping people!"

"Look I'm glad you're turning a new leaf. Becoming an actual respectable human being. And I get that stems from your weird guy crush on Don but think about it for three seconds! Every time he was out with you trying to do anything you both had close calls or worse. When you went to his house you found his mother changed. His sister was changed and corrupted him according to your story when you met back up with him. So how did this person so quickly access the household to get what he needed to use the book on them both? Unless someone was around to get used towels, panties and the such."

The look in both their eyes made it clear I needed to step in, "Hey! What does it matter who is right? What we know is this person knows who we are and what we are planning. He set traps for both Megan to stop her from operating at a distance and probably for myself and the girls while we were on our missions. If it wasn't for some random mysterious woman I might of ended up walking into a trap myself. Megan said awhile ago that the book gets more powerful the more people are changed and accept their changes. The gaming community I had spent some time at are like a factory fueling that book. They somehow are able to make bets to transform one another, the winners gaining power over the losers. No doubt that club the girls are at is an establishment doing something extremely similar."

Megan and Tom both slowly cooled off as they began listening to me. Megan shrugged, "So either this guy is really scared of us..."

Tom grew pale. "Or he's planning something big."

I place my head on the bench and sigh. "We need a different group chat. And to find a new laptop or something Megan can use. Until we can reach the girls again...I hate to fucking say it...but they are on their own. If we chase after them not knowing what is going on there we could lose everything. So invite them all to a new group chat, call again and then let's find somewhere we can stay."

"No." The blonde says softly.

"What?"

"We aren't finding somewhere to stay. We aren't chasing into traps. We aren't playing defensive running away from this self righteous pervert while he slowly takes us one at a time. This isn't some horror film, we aren't just going to run away." She looks up at me with red eyes. A look I had never seen before. It scared me a little. "You remember Max? He came by and is currently trapped in my basement. So...what's stopping us from going to Alexa's house?"

I look back at her worried her state of emotions were making her reckless. "Uh, Alexa and whoever else that madman might have under his control now. This person has corrupted dozens of people at least. Even communities and locations."

Megan shook her head, "I don't give a fuck, Ryan! This is an opening. That asshole went for what he thought was checkmate and opened himself up to take it. Alexa was working on studying the book when all of this started and I guarantee this eager bastard has been way too focused on spreading his perversions and chasing after people like us to care that patient zero is sitting on valuable information. We just need to figure out a way to deal with Alexa and we can finally get what we need to strike back!"

Before I could point out the countless holes in this plan Tom cheered and the two of them hurried off the bench and were already walking briskly in the direction of Alexa's home. I groan and squeeze my fists before slamming the bench and getting up to follow them.

This was it. We were either jumping into the messed up fantasy and joining it, or we were going to know who we were facing. And it seemed the other two were that willing to know who they were potentially losing their wills to even if it meant potentially guaranteeing their loss.