Chapter 202: Exposing the Truth
The screen lit up, and the video started playing.
The setting was simple, just a white wall behind them, looking eerily close to an amateur confessional. But what stood out wasn’t the setting. It was Nyx.
She sat in the center of the frame on a simple chair, knees drawn together, hands nervously clenched in her lap. Her pink eyes, normally steadfast and playful, were swimming in tears. Thick, glistening trails ran down her cheeks, and her lip trembled as she tried—and failed—to compose herself.
Behind her stood Luna and Aria, each with one hand placed on Nyx’s trembling shoulders in utmost solidarity. Their postures were rigid, but their expressions spoke volumes. Aria’s face was soft, her brows drawn together in anguish. Her usual ethereal calm had vanished, replaced by something heartbreakingly human: tenderness sharpened by helpless guilt, as if she wished she could rewind time and shield Nyx from everything.
Luna, on the other hand, looked like a dam on the verge of breaking. Her chin was tilted up in a brave attempt at composure, lips pressed into a thin, trembling line. But her wide violet eyes shimmered too brightly, and her shoulders occasionally quivered under the weight of a barely held sob. She looked like she wanted to scream, or rage, or disappear, but instead, she stood still, brokenly trying to be the unshakable wall Nyx could lean against. And failing.
It was the image of sisterhood in mourning. And in fury.
"I... I didn’t know what I was doing..." Video Nyx began, her voice already cracking during her very first sentence. "I just wanted to survive. I just did what I had to... They said many pretty words... But I wasn’t special to them," Nyx whispered with a glassy stare right into the camera. "I was another product among a sea of unfortunate, defenseless young women. XXXVidz knew I was a virgin. XXXVidz knew I was scared. And XXXVidz still hit record."
Her voice wavered, heavy with the kind of shame that didn’t fade, only deepened with time.
"When I registered for the XXXVidz video shoot where they offered large sums of money to virgin girls like me, I wasn’t even old enough to legally drink..." She paused, chest heaving with broken sobs. "Hell, I’m still not old enough."
She hiccupped once, shoulders jerking with a suppressed cry, then raised a trembling hand to gesture toward the purple-haired woman behind her. "And if that wasn’t already enough... XXXVidz also happily, without a single question or even a raised eyebrow, was willing to film Luna, a bright young girl who’d just finished high school a few months prior."