Page 133 of Twisted Little Game

Noah walks over, and when he glances between the two of us, his eyes linger on my neck.

“Somebody likes you,” Noah tells me, then reaches out to give Roman a handshake.

I feel heat creep up to my cheeks, even though I’m proud, not even a little bit embarrassed.

I like the fucking attention.

I love it.

“Somebody does like him, very much,” Roman says.

He pulls a piece of paper from his pocket, pushing it into the top slot on the box.

Noah collects two more from other guys, and then he steps in front of the fireplace, illuminated in the flickering orange glow.

A hush falls over the room.

The guys take this seriously, and it’s incredible to see. A room full of laughing frat bros and jocks needling each other one moment, only to become something sacred, the next.

The tall ceilings look colossal in this light.

And Noah begins to talk.

“Welcome to the Confessional,” Noah says. “We begin. Onyx brothers, let us say it together: Nocte onychina nigra, cor meum adhuc igne coccineo ardet. Honestas ante omnia.”

I recognize it as Latin, but I don’t know the words.

They repeat it afterward in English:

“On an onyx black night, my heart still burns a crimson flame. Honesty before everything.”

Noah nods, looking all around. “As always, we will pass this box around the room, to each member. You will reach in and randomly select a secret, pull it out, and read it aloud for all of us. As if it were written by you. From your soul, baring your truth.”

Roman had told me, earlier today, that the Confessional can contain truly anonymous secrets, if the secret writer wants it that way. You can get as detailed as you like, or stay vague.

Oliver reaches in for the first secret, reading it out loud.

The only other sound in the room is the steady crackle from the fireplace.

“I was in love with a woman who didn’t want me,” Oliver reads aloud someone else’s confession. “I let her pull me away from everything I should have cared about, and failed two classes. I don’t forgive myself. All I want is to change.”

The box gets passed to the next person, a freshman I haven’t spoken to before. He pulls out the next paper.

“I dreamed about my sister’s boyfriend, and I am so ashamed.”

I wish I knew who wrote that one, just so I could give him a hug and tell him everything was going to be okay.

A few more secrets are read, which involve confessing to petty crimes like shoplifting, a guy who thinks he is ugly, and another who knows he isn't a good enough boyfriend. Some are simpler: people saying that they don’t know how to deal with their fear of death, or fear of losing people they love.

But when the box gets passed to Hunter, I know exactly whose secret he is reading.

Roman didn’t even try to anonymize his confession.

Hunter reads it, baring Roman’s soul for all of us.

“I thought that I would have to stay trapped inside a machine forever, solely for one reason: to avenge my mother’s death. I’ve realized now that nothing can do that. She is gone, but she is also here, with me, forever. No amount of bloodshed will ever get her back. But starting over feels like a beginning, not an ending. And I want my heart to be open.”

Ollie, Weston, and Rayne are all tearing up, hearing it.