A Livestream of infidelity

The walk to Jayden’s apartment felt like torture because I was burning with rage. Every step I took with that metal bat hidden under my oversized hoodie reminded me of the weight of the knife Karen had driven into my throat.

I planned to beat them up but that alone wasn't enough. It wasn't satisfying for just me to know, so I wondered. How to ruin them completely?

I looked up at a digital billboard displaying a Livestream and a toxic idea struck me, my lips curling deviously. That's right… How will little miss perfect ever crawl out into public once I ruin her pristine image first?

I reached Jayden's front door, and my fingers didn't tremble. I typed in the security code—the exact numbers he had carelessly mumbled around a campfire years later when the world was already in ruins and then it opened with a quiet click.

I slipped inside, closing the door behind me without making a single sound. The apartment was quiet, except for the muffled, unmistakable sounds coming from the bedroom down the hall.

​High-pitched giggling. Low, breathless murmurs and disgusting kissing sounds.

​I crept down the hallway, leaning the heavy metal bat silently against the wall right outside the bedroom door. 

I was going to ruin their entire existence before the world even ended.

​I pulled out my phone. Thanks to my hobby of posting fitness and lifestyle snippets, I had accumulated a pretty decent social media following—nothing massive, but enough to cause a massive scene. 

And with a lot of reshare, surely the news will fly.

I tapped into the streaming app, set the title to something sweet and innocent: "Surprising my boyfriend at his place! (⁠ ⁠˘⁠ ⁠³⁠˘⁠)⁠♥", and hit the live stream button.

​Within seconds, the viewer count started ticking up. Ten, fifty, a hundred people tuning in, expecting a cheesy, romantic couple moment.

​The bedroom door was cracked open just a little, letting a line of light and their sickening voices spill out into the dark corridor. I held the phone up, angling the camera perfectly toward the gap so the microphone could pick up every single word.

​There they were. Entwined in the sheets, promising forever to each other, completely oblivious to the fact that the girl they were playing for a fool was standing mere inches away.

​“Do you think Amber suspects anything?” Karen’s voice piped up, laced with that same fake innocence that used to fool me. She laughed, a nasty, sharp sound. “She’s just so blind. It’s almost sad.”

​Jayden chuckled, pulling her closer. “Amber? Yeah. She’s completely clueless and blind. She thinks she’s the most important thing in my life just because I take her out on weekends. Let her keep playing the doting girlfriend. It keeps her out of our hair.”

​The live chat on my screen immediately went into absolute meltdown. Question marks, angry emojis, and shocked comments were flying past so fast I could barely read them.

‘​The only forever you two will have is one with crippled legs, I thought, my jaw clenching so hard it ached. You two will spend the rest of your miserable lives running from zombies on stumps.’

​I didn't wait to hear another word. Keeping the camera pointed straight at the bed, I pushed the door wide open.

​The two figures on the bed froze instantly. Jayden’s arm, which had been wrapped tightly around Karen, went rigid, and Karen’s sickening giggle died right in her throat. 

Their heads snapped toward the door, their eyes widening in pure horror as they locked onto me—and the glowing screen of my phone pointed right at them.

​I didn't let the camera waver for a single second but I did put on an act. I let my tears fall, hot and fast, rolling down my cheeks. Those weren't fake tears. They were entirely real—the heavy weight of five years of foolish devotion, starvation, and a brutal knife to the throat, all washing out of me at once. 

These were the absolute last tears I would ever shed for these bastards.

​“I trusted you…” I choked out, my voice trembling with a perfect mix of devastation and raw betrayal. 

I looked down at the screen for a split second, watching the live viewer count skyrocket past a thousand as the chat completely erupted. “Everyone… this… this is my boyfriend. How could…? How could they do this to me? So it turns out my best friend and my boyfriend have been seeing each other behind my back, playing me for a fool this whole time. It's so sad. I'm a complete idiot.”

​“What are you doing?! Amber! Cut the camera!” Karen shrieked. “Can't you see I'm naked?”

“I can see it clearly. You're naked in bed with my boyfriend, you scheming slut! In fact, I'm going to make sure that everyone sees you clearly.”

​Panic completely overtook her as she scrambled backward, desperately trying to yank the sheets over her naked body. 

But I wasn't about to let her hide. I stepped right into the bedroom, closing the distance so the camera could capture every single inch of her flush, guilty face. 

I made sure the world saw her true face—the ugly, treacherous snake hiding behind the little innocent queen act.

​“Jayden! Do something! Make her stop!” Karen yelled, kicking her legs under the blanket in a frenzy.

​Jayden finally snapped out of his shock. His face darkened with irritation, and he threw the blankets aside, lunging out of bed to drag me away and smash the phone out of my hands. “Amber, turn that damn thing off right now—!”

​The moment he got close enough, I turned and slapped him with everything I had.

​It was loud, and it echoed through the bedroom. I bet he never expected me to hit him. Well, I never expected him to hit me in the future either. So that makes two of us.

The force of the hot slap sent his head snapping to the side, his cheek instantly blooming into a violent crimson.

​“You bastard! How dare you?!” I screamed, the rage in my voice completely unfeigned. “How dare you cheat on me?!”

​Before he could even recover or bring his hands up, I raised my palm again. SLAP! SLAP! I rained down a barrage of brutal, stinging slaps straight across his face, giving him back every single ounce of the pain and humiliation he had given me in that dark room in the future stronghold. 

My hands burned, but the satisfaction was intoxicating.

​Jayden stumbled backward, completely dazed and humiliated in front of thousands of live viewers.

​Wiping the tears from my face, I took a step back toward the door, turning the camera back to my own face to deliver the final act. 

“Today is the absolute worst day of my life,” I sobbed into the lens, my voice cracking perfectly. “I don’t know if I can ever trust anyone ever again… It just hurts so much.”

​With that final, heart-wrenching line, I turned and bolted out of the bedroom, my frantic footsteps echoing down the hallway.

​The second I passed the doorway and stepped back into the corridor, my crying stopped instantly. 

I tapped the screen, cutting the live stream entirely, and carelessly tossed the phone onto the hallway couch. 

I shoved my fingers through my hair, pulling it back from my face, and wiped away the remaining tears with the back of my sleeve.

​Every single trace of devastation vanished from my face. My face went completely blank, and my eyes turned pitch black, cold, and entirely dead.

​The social ruin was done. Now came the physical retribution.

​From inside the bedroom, I could hear the frantic, flustered shuffling of clothes and panicked whispers as the two of them tried to scramble into their pants. They thought I was running away to cry myself to sleep. They thought the drama was over.

​I reached down, my fingers wrapping around the cool, solid grip of the metal baseball bat resting against the wall. I lifted it, feeling the heavy weight settle into my palm, and walked right back down the hallway.

I stepped right through the open door, a dark, vicious smile cutting across my face as I rested the metal bat casually over my shoulder.

​“Surprise,” I whispered, the coldness in my voice cutting right through their panicked muttering. Jayden froze half-dressed, and Karen let out a small, terrified gasp. “Did you really think I’d just leave? No way. You two are going to pay.”