The hooded man steps closer to us and holds up a piece of paper which he slams against the glass. I stare at the paper and see it's some kind of confession, written and signed by Chia. It says that she was solely responsible for May Van DeSeer's death and was so distraught that she had to take her own life.

The man's voice comes through the speakers. "If you both don't confess your accountability to May's death, dear Chiasu here will die and take the full blame and consequences. Everyone will know she killed May and then herself. Confess, and you'll be free."

"Okay," I say quickly, mind racing. "Okay. I admit it. We admit it. We both spread rumours about May, and we didn't help her situation. We could have done more to help her, but we didn't. We are responsible. Please, don't hurt Chia. She doesn't have anything to do with this. Please let her go. She doesn't deserve to be treated like this. None of us do."

"And did May deserve what happened to her?" The man's anger seems to accentuate his wheezing. "Did she deserve to be mocked and shamed and tortured by her peers?"

"No, of course not," I say.

"We've confessed," Bella says. "I admit that we played a part in May's suicide. You said you wouldn't hurt us if we confessed."

"It's not as simple as that. You have to confess to the world."

I try to understand what that means. All I can look at is the tall man. He's staring at us under his hood, although I can't see his eyes. He's just standing there, shoulders and chest moving slightly. He reminds me of a killer from a horror film, devoid of emotion or logic; just a mindless, faceless killing machine waiting to attack.

Bella says, "We'll sign whatever you want."

In response, a monitor turns on. It's high up on our side, around shoulder level, and is showing us, looking back. I guess that there's a camera watching us, showing us what it sees.

The man says, "You will tell the world what you did. Tell them everything. The live stream will go out to everyone. You will take full responsibility. And I promise you; if you even think of saying anything about this, give a hint or say the wrong thing, you'll all be dead within a minute. And they'll never know what happened to you."

Thoughts and images crash through my chaotic mind. I feel the most exhausted and weary I've ever been in my life. He wants us to live stream a confession? I frantically wonder if there is any way to tell the world where we are and what's happening to us, but I know the man is right. We don't know who these two men are, or where we are. What could I actually say, other than two deranged men are holding us prisoner and forcing us to confess... somewhere in London?

I look at Bella, who seems very unsure.

The hooded man steps back and goes to Chia. He holds the large knife to her throat. Chia leans away, crying and moaning, but she can't move very far with her restraints. She can only sit there with the knife touching her skin.

"Okay," I say. "We'll do it." I don't think we have any other choice. It kills me to see Chia so beaten and scared.

Bella gives a shaky nod. "Yeah."

"Wise choice," the man's voice says.

"It's okay, Chia," I call out to her, wanting to try and ease her fears; if that's possible. "It's okay. We're all going to get out of this." I want to add I promise but feel like that would be a lie. I'm sure they can hear us through the glass as she looked at me when I said her name.

Bella looks to be close to tears, her face on the verge of breaking. I give her upper arm a squeeze. I swallow and say, "I'll do it. For both of us."

She sniffs. "No. We'll both do it."

"Get ready for your close up," the man says. He seems to be enjoying this. I wish I could get my hands around his neck.

Bella and I step towards the monitor, framing ourselves up to our upper torso's. I can hardly recognise us. Our eyes are hollow and we look completely shattered, dirt smeared over our faces and clothes, dried blood on Bella's top. We both look like the walking dead.

I stare at the hooded man with the knife at Chia's throat. There's no way I can let her die. The only way out of this is to confess everything. It has to be genuine, too, if these two men are to believe us.

"Begin in five seconds," the man says.

Bella and I hold hands. A red light comes on in the corner of the monitor, signalling the live recording.

I freeze. My mind is empty. Bella is also silent. I try to speak but find my voice doesn't work, then clear my throat and manage to say, "My name is Andriana Masterson. This is Isabella Khau. We... We have a confession." What do I say? I wonder how many people are watching us or how many will see this after.

Bella tries to speak but only lets out a mangled sound. Her hand squeezes mine below the view of the camera. I stare at us in the monitor, seeing the rest of my life pass by in a flash. I'll never be able to look at my parents in the eyes again. This confession will ruin my life. But at least I still had a life to ruin, which is more than what May had.

I work moisture into my throat and say, "We... we confess to bullying May Van DeSeer." I want to say that it wasn't just us, that we weren't fully responsible, but that's not what our captors want to hear. "We... we spread rumours about her being a lesbian. That she... that she had sex with her own mum, who... who people said was a lesbian." My throat catches and I realise I'm crying. My head throbs so hard I can hardly feel anything else.

Bella finds her voice, which is strained and shaky. "I gave her the nickname Gay May. That's what everyone called her. She... she used to call me Bella Cow, and I wanted to get back at her. I..." she sniffs and whimpers. "I told some people where to find her after school, and it turned out that they pushed her into the mud and called her names. I didn't know they were going to do that. But I knew they were going to do something."

Bella bursts into tears that stream down her pained face. "I slapped her, once. In front of everyone. It was our worst fight. I... I hated her so much. She knew exactly how to push me and just wouldn't stop talking shit about me." She stops herself before she gets into a rant, and I can see her mind shifting gears as she continues. "I shouldn't have pushed her back so much. I... I didn't realise how much it was hurting her."

My face is twisting with grief as memories flood back. It feels greatly unsettling to stare at yourself, crying and confessing to such things. I knew what we were doing was wrong, but at the same time I had no idea what we were really doing. I couldn't see how much it was affecting May. That's not true. I could see what it was doing to her, but... I didn't care? I didn't think it was that bad? I just thought it was harmless fun? I really don't know what to say, but I force myself to keep speaking.

"I used to good friends with her. In Primary school. Our parents were good friends. But... we grew apart. She came to me for help, a few days before she killed herself." I don't recognise my own voice. "I told her to stop being so sensitive. We were friends. I thought we were friends. But we weren't really. We hadn't been friends for a very long time. I think... I think a part of me did want to hurt her, for all the mean things she had said about Bella, and for how me and her had grown apart. She wasn't the same person I once knew. But... none of this matters. May Van DeSeer never deserved anything that happened to her. We should have put a stop to the rumours and the taunts, and the bullying. We should have done something, but we didn't. We didn't. It's our fault."

I can hardly see through my tears. I wipe my eyes, rubbing the snot from my nose, and look over at the hooded man who still has the knife at Chia's throat. If there was one person I really wanted to hurt, it was him. Him and whoever the other man was that was doing this to us.

My eyes fall down to the boots under the hooded man's heavy raincoat. Brown desert boots, with blood stains on them. A fire bursts inside me.

I look back at the camera and say, "I confess to playing a part in May's death. And I confess... that we're being held prisoner by Will Campbell! He's nineteen, around six foot, short blond hair, blue eyes. He's a member of..." I look to Bella for help.

Her eyes light up. "Of Global Gym in London Bridge." I knew she would remember the gym he and Luke went to.

I turn back to the camera to urgently say more but the feed cuts off. The screen goes to black.

Panic seizes me as the hooded man steps up to the glass. I feel like I've made things a lot worse for us. Bella squeezes my hand hard enough to hurt, but I hardly feel it.

The man lowers his hood and pulls off the balaclava, revealing Will's sweaty face. A part of me doesn't believe it. He glares at us with a fierceness in his eyes that I've never seen before.

"Good work, detective," he says through his teeth. "You've just made a big mistake." 

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Thank you for reading!

So who guessed Will was behind it all? (Everyone can put their hands down)

What's next for our two remaining heroes? How will they get out of this now? Or has clever Andi just doomed them all?