The Crystal 2 by Jones M (reading cloud ebooks .txt) 📕

There was tension in the air once those words were said. Someone made a shocked sound in the background.

"Yes, I did. Too bad they didn't finish the job. I wanted them to make you look like a slut and then I would have spread the news that you slept with two men at once. Anyway, I don't need them now. My job is done, now that everyone hates you."

With that, Bianca walked away towards the bus exit. Emery stood at the spot for a while. It was then that she came to her laptop and pressed a button on her laptop, ending the recording.

I was still trying to process what I had seen.

"What. The. Hell?" Erick stated slowly. His breathing was a bit ragged, and I understood how he was feeling.

"We were wrong?" Justin asked with a small voice. I looked at him, noticing that his eyes had widened in shock.

"Emery... Emery...she didn't..." Logan stammered.

I looked at Selena, and she looked like she had just seen a ghost.

"Guys, look at the date of this," Ethan said, browsing through Emery's laptop. "It was two weeks ago. Friday the..." he trailed off.

"When was it, Ethan?" Logan asked him. Ethan looked unsure. He wouldn't meet our eyes for a couple of seconds.

"It was recorded a day before we had yelled at her after our concert in Las Vegas. I remember her telling us she had proof, and we said we didn't want to hear anything about it." 

I brought my hands over my head as regret coursed through my veins. I heard Selena let out a small cry.

No, no, no...

"What are we going to do?" Justin questioned. "I can't believe this, guys. I can't!" he suddenly yelled as he turned, punching the wall in front of him.

"Justin!" Ethan, Logan and I shouted at him. His form was hunched, and the way it was shaking told me he was silently sobbing.

I went to hug him, but a familiar set of footsteps were heard approaching my way.

"Close the--" I went to tell Logan, but it was too late. Emery entered the room with the expressionless mask she had perfected in the past week.

"Have you seen my--" Emery cut herself off as her eyes zeroed in on something behind me. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING WITH MY LAPTOP?"

She didn't give us a chance to speak as she quickly rushed to it. She flipped it close and hugged it to her chest, looking at the rest of us in anger.

"What were you doing with it?"

No one bothered to reply in words. I stared at Emery, seeing her suddenly in a new light. I couldn't believe how much she had suffered. I also couldn't believe she was still alive, standing in front of the guys and me with a strength I never thought she possessed.

The look of fury quickly vanished as shock took over Emery's features. 

"Did you find it?" 

"Emery--" I went to speak.

"Did you delete it?"

"Emery--"

"Tell me the truth! Did you delete it?"

"NO!" Ethan yelled in response.

The look of anger disappeared off of Emery's face. She was soon looking at us with no emotion.

"So, did you see it?" Emery inquired. A couple of seconds had passed, and no one bothered to answer. There was no need because Emery realized we had seen the video. Her eyes were becoming glassy, and I felt my heart clench painfully.

"Emery--" Selena started.

"Don't! Just... don't say a word," Emery cut off Selena.

"We have a lot to talk about," Justin said.

"No, we do not," Emery said, heading towards the door with her laptop.

"Emery, what the fuck?" he asked, making Emery stop walking. "How could you not tell us this?"

The laptop that Emery held quickly disappeared through teleportation. She turned to face us with a glare.

"Why, Justin, I didn't realize I had to tell you something as small as this," she spoke with sarcasm. "Do you suffer from short-term memory loss? I told you guys that I had proof of Bianca committing all the crimes she pinned on me. But you didn't listen to me."

"Emery--"

"In fact, we had a fight about it. You guys told me you didn't care about the proof, and all in all, you didn't care about me."

"Emery--"

"I realized you guys hated me. You left me alone in that parking lot afterward, and I had a lot of time to think. I thought and thoughts, and I finally decided I don't give a crap about what you guys think of me."

"Emery--"

"Why would I listen to anything you guys have to say? You didn't give me a freaking chance! You were all convinced that I would become an evil witch. The dream Erick had was enough to make me sound like an asshole!"

"Emery--"

"SHUT UP, LIAM!" she shouted at me. "All of you treated me like freaking dirt, and it hurt! After all this time... after all the words I yelled at you... all the things I tried to tell you about Bianca... now is when you believe me? Now is when you want to make amends? You don't believe me, but you choose to believe a freaking video?"

"Emery--" Logan spoke. Emery shook her head, feeling disappointed at us.

"I don't want to talk anymore. Besides, it is good to know how much you all care about me."

Emery proceeded to walk out of the room, leaving us silent with our thoughts.

Third Person's P.O.V

"I need your help," Bianca said. She was in a dark alley in the city of Los Angeles. The alley between the two buildings she stood on was hardly conspicuous due to the darkness of the night. There was the horrible smell of rotting garbage from a dumpster a few feet behind her, and she also noticed a few rats roaming around the area.

The woman hiding in the dark walked forwards and pulled her gray hood back.

"What do you need?" Eva asked. "It seems like I can hardly help you from this point. Emery seems to be beating you at your own game."

"It is our game!" Bianca stated angrily, motioning a finger between her and Eva. "You agreed to help me with this!"

"I did, but I had no idea that this was how things would turn out."

Bianca sighed in exasperation.

"I could say that this is your last night of freedom," Eva said, making Bianca tense in fear.

"W-what?" she stuttered.

Eva rolled her eyes. "Have you been listening to the news? Emery had all your helpers arrested, and they cowered and said that you were their accomplice. Did you even forget about the video?"

Eva was right. Bianca was so screwed, and she needed help with the issue. She had gotten an opportunity where she could try deleting the video, but she failed.

It had happened when she, Selena and the Ordinary Brothers were in Las Vegas. She had to think quickly when they had all boarded the tour bus after the concert ended. Bianca had thought of something, and she convinced the driver that everyone had boarded the bus. Once the bus was moving away from Las Vegas, Bianca went to Emery's laptop and tried to delete the video. However, the evidence was undeletable. She tried again and again, but she still failed.

"Look," Eva directed Bianca's attention to her hand as she took two vials of a red potion from one of the coat's pockets. "There is a way of turning it all around. You could slip these bad boys into the drinks of two people. You can feel free to pick whoever you want."

"What will this do?" Bianca asked as she stared at the slightly-glowing red liquid in the vials.

"It will spike up the anger of a person. It will spike it up so high that they wouldn't even think before they act."

Bianca thought of giving the vials to Zane and Harry. The rest had grown suspicious and had been avoiding her all afternoon.

"If I give this to Zane and Harry, what will happen?" Bianca questioned.

"Whoever drinks this will have their anger fueled over something they are already angry about."

"WHAT?" Bianca whispered in shock.

"Are you listening, my dear?" Eva asked with a roll of her eyes. "This is an anger potion. Zane and Harry believe Emery is bad, and they are angry because she wants to get rid of you. If you slip these potions into their drinks, it will make their anger over Emery spike higher than it already is, and they could kill her and you could find a way to make it look like they did it."

Bianca considered it. It was not a very bad idea after all. The plan could work for her. She could get Harry and Zane to get rid of Emery for her and then she could call the police and find a way to blame all the bad things that had happened to Emery over Harry and Zane. That way, Bianca would not have to go to jail.

"But... what about money?" she asked.

"You have been a very wonderful accomplice, Bianca, and so I'll pay you thirty million dollars for this," Eva said, making Bianca's eyes rise in greed.

"In fact, I have deposited a million into your account," just as Eva spoke, Bianca's phone dinged with a notification. She unlocked it, seeing a message from a bank telling her that her account had been topped up with one million.

"You will be set up for life. 30 million is a lot of money, my dear. Will you do this or not?"

It didn't take Bianca a lot to think of an answer.

"I'll do it," Bianca said with a smirk, turning to leave the alley.

"Pathetic," Eva commented once Bianca was out of earshot before teleporting away from the scene.

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Emery's P.O.V

Later in the afternoon, the boys, Selena and I had returned to the tour bus. It had been after the memories and pieces of evidence of the erwich attack on the previous night had erased. Bianca had passed out ever since we had been in Crystalia and she came to wake up an hour after we had boarded the tour bus.

I was angry that she was still on tour. I guessed that was how things worked with the boys; they preferred a murdering bitch to someone they once trusted.

I kept an eye on Bianca in case she decided to pull off something. She didn't, and later in the evening, she decided to 'go out'. I didn't bother to check where she was going, believing there was nothing she could do to get her out of her mess. I was also busy with other things.

Seeing that my job of dealing with the erwiches was done, I had no other reason to stay on tour. I got to leave whenever I wanted! 

I wanted to leave soon, but unfortunately, there was an unexpected interview. It was earlier meant for the boys and Selena, but Bianca and I were included hours before the interview.

At first, I did not want to do it. However, a part of me wanted to do something before I left. It was going to be the last interview and possibly the last time I would be seen on TV. I also hoped I could anger Bianca and make her look like a fool on TV.

So the boys, Selena and I were in a building where we were all going to be interviewed. Bianca had not yet returned, and we