A second message has hit the vtuber boards

“What to do?” I asked aloud, huddled up in my room–door closed. Only the feeble light from my monitor gave any sense of my surroundings, a sign of the time. Any normal person would have called it a night hours ago. Alas, the second I discovered vtubers that became an impossibility.

Truly what a life.

My list wasn’t long now, just a few names remaining. This leaker was smart. Any trace of their existence was long erased–even the digital logs that served as our foundation… gone!

Felix and Cameron solved themselves. Even with my doubts aside, Charlotte clearly held faith in both of them, and that was enough for me, though… Felix still had a question mark or two floating above his head. Man had flowers for brains! Someone was pulling his strings, and he was gleefully playing alone, assuming everything was his idea all along.

That aside, Avery was knocked out, and honestly, Sam was a safe bet to eliminate as well. Better to throw out the fluff now than drag it on to a neverending conclusion.

Lilly, Patrick, Ella, and Dakota, four names worth mentioning, and in reality, Dakota was just there to hit quota. That girl's mind refused to waver from her next grand idea totally not ripped from whatever rpg happened to be popular. Besides, where was the motive?

And just like that, three names remained. No easy throwaways either. Fuck.

I glanced outside, moonlight trapped upon my curtains. Time to speedrun this asap, or school tomorrow was just gonna be a blast!

Camping was a mistake. The mystery afoot got shoved in the background for a temporary distraction, pure filler.

Filler that just served to muddy the water that much more.

Everything was connected: Patrick’s rants, Felix and his newfound intelligence, the stalker in the woods. I’d spent enough time asking dumb questions to extend this dumb game of cat and mouse. The fluff was gone, time to get down to business.

Lilly… I’d have to watch her like a hawk tomorrow. For good or bad, she’d be the easiest to eliminate, or if worst came to worst, to accuse.

                                                                                    * * *

Sunlight dawned, breaking through what moonlight failed to breach. I groggily reached for my phone. Notifications assaulted my eyes, buzzing over and over like the most annoying bee known to man.

After a bit of deliberation, I settled with Charlotte’s text, nested at the top of my favorites tab.

“Kaiden! Big news just dropped about the leaker! Text me when you're up.”

“Kaiden, wake up!

“KAAAAAAAAIIDEEEN!”

“HELLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO”

“That's it, I’m coming over you lazy sloth.”

I was doomed.

Ruffled sheets aside, I tossed on a shirt and put myself together. She’d sent the text around five minutes ago, and with the distance it took to walk between our houses, time was of the essence.

And sure enough, she appeared, just as I closed the shower door. “It’s way too early for any sane human to be up you know.”

“Kaiden, it's ten in the morning.”

“On a weekend!”

She sighed, ruffling her cute jacket–bright blue with white stripes running down the side. Her blonde ponytail caught a whiff of sunlight, almost hypnotizing me as it swayed back and forth. “Your incredible dedication to becoming the laziest student JBHS has ever known aside, there's been a bit of an update with our leaking friend.”

“What happened now?”

“They decided to post again, taunting our little group. Whatever the case you were right on target. Whoever the leaker is, they're tuned in to our every move.”

“And just when I annoyance was starting to face. Truly this is the timing of a master.”

“You would know.” She softly whistled, turning towards my bedroom.

“Hey! what's that supposed to mean?” No answer. “Charlotte? Charlotte!”

Inside, Charlotte pulled up vhub in a flash, maneuvering my mouse towards the popular tab. You didn't need to scroll far to see our friend's post. Its engagement alone would skyrocket it to the top for the next five months, much less the ever growing frenzy pertaining to Astella Volago.

Her gentle voice read aloud, every word clear as crystal. “Hello hello, I see my last post here gathered a bit of attention, so I decided to drizzle a bit more information to my loyal fans.”

“Someone has a ginormous ego.” I scoffed.

“Oh, it just gets worse.” She cleared her throat, continuing on. “Astella not only attends JBHS, as I mentioned before, but she's an upperclassman with blonde hair. No pictures yet, but if my mind happens to change…

Also to the feeble group attempting to find my identity, cope harder. Every move you make I hear about before you finish your train of thought. Happy hunting!”

“Well, they're sure confident about this, too confident for my liking,” I said.

“Or, whoever's leaking this is a ginormous idiot who couldn’t think two steps ahead if their life depended on it. This post alone would narrow down any fresh search to a group of like, ten people max.”

“And clearly, their knowledge of our shortlist is nonexistent.”

“Exactly!” Charlotte smirked. “You mentioned what, three names left on your list?”

“Yep. Ella, Lilly, and Patrick.”

“Patrick…”

“What's the deal with you two anyway? Last time I asked you never gave me a straight answer.”

“Well…” She sighed. “It’s complicated. He may have the mentality of an egomaniac, but I owe him more than I could ever hope to repay. Yet, him setting me up for this spectacular failure–I could see it. I’m the opposite of an expert, yet Patrick gives off this vibe that everything here is entertainment to him. But at the same time, I truly think he cares.

Sorry, trying to describe that man is a fool's errand.”

“Well whatever the case, we shall know if he’s the one behind the mask soon enough.”

She smirked. “Let's start narrowing that list, shall we?”