Chapter 22, Page 11
[Entry logged one year ago]
Marissa’s Journal
There are two types of girls at Sumter—those who try their best to stay clear of Mora Halterin, and those who go out of their way to kiss her ass. Keeping as much distance as humanly possible is my first choice but, with a boarding school this size, that’s not easy.
When I started at this academy, I was immediately told on day one that, if you do talk to Mora, make absolutely certain you don’t annoy her in any conceivable way. I thought they were just being dramatic.
Nope.
Didn’t take long for me to see it first hand—a girl complimented Mora’s hair clip, saying she had one “just like it” at home. Holy shit, was that a mistake! Mora went nuts, shouting and swearing that hers was one-of-a-kind, custom ordered by her dad so that the diamonds on it spell out her name.
That girl eventually left the academy because Mora made her life a living hell. We’re not talking stupid pranks or the occasional school bullying—Mora and her pack of cronies would come up with some real psycho-level shit. And that girl wasn’t the only one.
There were others who got it far worse.
Another apparent no-no is lying to Mora. They say she’s got a built-in bullshit detector and that getting lied to is a major trigger for her. Hope she never asks what I think of her…
The real screwed up part is that she can get away with just about anything. Even the teachers turn a blind eye to whatever she does. I think they’re as afraid of her as the students are. I don’t know what the deal is with Thorne, but Mora and Siyo usually get a free pass with her too.
Maybe it has something to do with Mora being the richest girl at Sumter, or that her dad’s the CEO of Halterin Pharmaceuticals. Either way, it’s royally messed up.
Danger Zone One. Story by Midnight. Art by Salaiix.
Is it bad that I love seeing Reena get dominated/humiliated? Moments like this add a lot of fun tension to the story.
Those are some of my favorite moments too.
No lie, but if someone like Mora did that to me, I’d probably end spilling the beans immediately if I were in Reena’s shoes, or in this case, LACK THERE OF HERE!!!!!!!!!!!
Oh interesting. I wonder if Mora is blackmailing Thorne. Thorne certainly has a taste in lesbian sadism; Mora could have figured that out and decided to profit.
Also it occurs that there could be several murderers. Zoe’s death is very, for lack of a better term, technical. It was unlikely to have been done spontaneously. There was that big storm. If the gargoyle had been merely loose it would have blown off well before killing Zoe.
Yet the janitor’s murder was very basic. He was straight up chopped dead. Whoever did that must have been very aggressive and sneaky. There’s no reason to think he would have been hard to catch off-guard. Quite the opposite with his damaged brain. But it’s still very personal. Probably not because of who he was, but because of some threat he represented.
(I wonder if he had a piece of her jewelry. But then, if so why now? Plus as witnesses go he would be highly unreliable. Even a dead girl walking up and filching her missing earrings would be a tale no one would believe.)
(I wonder if the school has hidden passageways most faculty have forgotten about. Maybe his death was about concealing them. But again, if so why now? Maybe it’s someone who knows Reena is po-po. Probably not any of the usual suspects, then. An outside observer.)
The IT guy got his brain fried by a very black market piece of software. Notably he didn’t recognize it. I will assume if that was possible any IT pro worth their energy drinks would have some kind of countermeasure -if only as simple as recognizing when to look away. So maybe it was homemade? Again, like the gargoyle trap -I’d check all the gargoyles for mechanisms at this point- that would require a serious level of applied technical skill.
Meepo Thalia tries to warn off Reena. That’s interesting, because whether or not MT knows Reena is police this is actually kind of benevolent. It’s a way of saying “I’ll hurt you if I have to; don’t make me do it.”
So maybe it’s different people. Maybe it’s the same person with a wide range of skills. I bet it’s someone we haven’t met yet. I’d start with whoever is supposed to be dead, but is actually missing. Someone without a family to return to.
Hmm. Quite curious about the ultimate conclusion, I am.
It’s so sad that you haven’t seen the financial success you deserve with this comic. I’ll regret seeing you go back to black and white. I would make a fat dono, but I’m one of the poors.