Blackmail Material

Marcus led Susan, Marcie and Gina to his chambers. He handed Marcie some pieces of paper. It was a script.

"You want me to read this?" asked Marcie.

"It is to hearse" said Marcus, "basically blackmail material"

--

Marcie was in bed with Marcus. The two were naked under the bedsheets.

"You have done well" said Marcus, "your girls never suspected a thing"

"It was easy" said Marcie, "Rina, Lindsey, Cutie, Marel, Vanessa, Lauren, they all fell for it, hook, line and stinker. They had no idea I had been working for you the whole time"

"You got everything?" asked Marcus.

"Yep" said Cutie, the female one, "its all recorded"

Cutie turned off the camera she was using.

"Good, now if you cross us, I'll make it look like you betrayed your side to me" said Marcus.

"So I can't move against you" said Marcie.

"I don't understand the purpose of this" said Susan, "I'm already slowly turning the entire Council of Six against her"

"Yes, slowly" said Marcus, "it provides her with enough time to work against me. I had to make sure that didn't happen"

"I promise I will find a way out of this" said Marcie.

"I don't think you will, you know why?"

"Why?"

"Because if Gina was indeed afflicted with a psychological phenomena requiring her to atone for her sins, the only reason it would happen to you would be if you actually believed you needed to atone for yours" said Marcus.

Marcie didn't want to believe this but it made so much sense. Why would Gina's guilt afflict this 'curse' on her but Marcie be afflicted if she didn't believe she did anything wrong. Could it be that Marcie felt that she deserved it?

"Listen, Marcus" said Marcie, "I will try to fix our system. I don't want a war"

"Could you tell me which of my lackies were secretly working for you?" said Gina.

"No" said Marcus.

--

Gina, Marcie and Susan were taken back to the car park they were picked up from.

"Dammit" said Gina, "when I find out who was working for this fuck, I'm gonna rape their entire families!"

"We don't actually need to know that" said Susan.

"Yeah, chill out" said Marcie.

"No, I mean the ones specifically working for the Shadow Council" said Susan, "I already planned on allying with my fellow lackies anyway"

"All of them?" asked Marcie.

"Yes, why?"

"Including Carmen?"

"Why would Carmen be a problem?" asked Susan.

"She always wanted to be my number two" said Gina, "she hates you. The two of you were rivals"

"I never felt like a number 2" said Susan, "I was just trying to somehow not lose the will to live. When you stripped me, I thought of killing myself before Marcie led me to believe she was my friend"

Marcie thought about what Marcus had said. Maybe she had done more wrong than she thought.

"I'm sorry" said Marcie, "I didn't know how you felt about me. I just wanted revenge on Gina. I tried to tell myself that you had taken it too far but really, I just wanted to enjoy my own revenge on her and thought it wouldn't be fun anymore if she was broken"

Marcie put her arms round Susan.

"But I think you might have been broken yourself" she said, "I didn't know how scared and alone you were when you were with her. I was just so busy feeling sorry for myself. When I first got control over Gina, I only thought about revenge. It wasn't until later that I decided I just change the school"

Susan cried.

"I was the same way" she said, "at the time, I just wanted revenge and was scared of what she'd do if the curse was ever lifted. I wanted her broken so she could never hurt me again. It wasn't until I got control of you that I realised that I could make a difference to this school, maybe the world, depending on how the curse works"

Susan suddenly pulled away from Marcie.

"Wait, is a word you said even true" Susan asked, "tell me the truth"

"Yes, Susan, I am sorry" said Marcie, "I'm sorry I tossed you aside and I'm sorry I told Marel you betrayed her. I did hate you because you were one of Gina's lackies but I don't hate you anymore. I might not have cared about you before but I care about you now"

"And what about Gina?" said Susan.

Gina didn't wanna speak.

"Gina, tell me, how do you feel about me? Be honest"

"I hate you!" shouted Gina, "Marcie might have be willing to forgive you for being such a stupid cow. I hate you because you use your mom as an excuse. And I think you're creepy for using Marcie, who is your own age, as a surrogate mom"

"But you also used your mother as an excuse" said Susan, "you know what I like about Marcus. He completely deconstructed your status as de facto ruler of this school. Just a few words and he revealed you were just a puppet king, or queen, and that you never had any real talents. The Royal Magnificence only existed because the Shadow Council allowed it for their own plans"

"If I didn't have this curse, I'd kill you" said Gina.

"But allow me to deconstruct something else about you" said Susan, "be honest, did you ever care about your brother?"

Gina knew she'd better lie but her curse compelled her to tell the truth.

"No"

"Was your mother such a bitch before or after you became one?"

"No" said Gina, "everything she did was an attempt to make me stop"

"There you go" said Susan, "if she only became this way because of what a vile person you were, she's not the reason for any of it and its entirely your fault. You were born evil"

Gina just gave Susan an angry look. First she found out she was never actually the queen bee and now she could no loner use her family as an excuse for her behaviour.

"I promise you Susan, I will find a way..."

"No, you won't" said Susan, "I will never give you the chance. Perhaps you might have convinced Marcie that you were sorry but I will never forgive you. I know your sins are too great for you to ever atone for. And when I have no more use for you, you know what I'm gonna do?"

Gina just wanted to punch Susan.

"I will command you to feel fear" Susan said, "every second of every day for the rest of your life, you will be afraid not only of me but everyone around you. You will feel you have no to turn out. You will want to end your own life because you feel so alone but my command will never allow you to"

"Damn" said Marcie, "that's just cruel"

"Its how I felt my whole life"

"You just want to punish her because its the closest you'll ever get to getting revenge on your mother" said Marcie, "Tell me do I remind you of her. What will you do to me?"

"I was going to do something similar" said Susan, "I would make you feel unloved and alone. You would so desperately want to end your own life but be unable to do so. But now, that you honestly care about me, I don't think I want you to suffer like that anymore. I'm sorry, I went over your head with Gina. I'm sorry, I tried to punish her worse than you were comfortable with. We were both bad friends"

"Will you remove my curse?" asked Marcie.

Susan cried.

"I'm sorry, I can't" she said, "I'm still too scared you won't like me anymore"

"Its not really a friendship if you control me"

"I know but its better than nothing" said Susan, "if I freed you and you decided you didn't wanna be my friend anymore, I'd be alone again. I don't want that"