Like Rapunzel, but Not Really ✔

Chapter 16

Author's Note: Revelations abound :) Hope you enjoy this chapter! Do let me know your thoughts. And, of course, have a great weekend! <3

I laid down on the couch, panting, and sweating like crazy.  Feathers were flying everywhere in the living room and I watched one float and fall towards my face.

"I think we've got all of them," Hunter said as he threw what was, I hoped to be, the last camera in the house. "But I really don't think Eric would have placed them in the pillows that would warrant you tearing them up like that," he looked at all the feathers floating about and all the torn up cushion fabrics lying deflated on the floor.

Maybe.

"It's Zeke, not Eric" I corrected my cousin.

"Same difference," he shrugged. "So what are we going to do with all these cameras?"

I looked at said tiny cameras. The first thing Tristan and I did when we got home was turn off the wi-fi as Gus had informed us that the cameras operated on internet, most likely using our wi-fi, to upload the recording to whichever server it was configured to. If Eric - I meant, Zeke, damn it - had an accomplice, we did not want to get them to catch whiff of the fact that we had figured out about the hidden cameras. We need to let them think that the server was down to give time for Gus to trace where the recordings were being sent.

And so our hunt for the cameras had begun. Everyone, including Hunter, after we had filled him in on the new intel, were on all fours and were scrounging the whole house, hence its extreme messy state. Tables were turned over, lamps laid on the floor while pillows hung on the ceiling. I had to admit, some of them were the result of my rage and may not had been necessarily turned into shambles for our camera hunt.

When we found the first camera on the plasma TV hanging on the wall, I smashed it into bits with my shoe before anybody else had a chance to react. And then when Hunter found the second one plastered on the top of the fridge, I grabbed it and smashed it again with my foot.

"Damn it, Ari, stop smashing it! We need to send it to Gus!" Hunter shook me in mild frustration.

But I couldn't help it - I was so angry. And after that, we found them everywhere. On the stereo, the ceiling, the lamps, the AC, and my room was just infested with them - even my toilet. They were extremely minute and blended in with whatever surface they had been placed on, hence why they had escaped detection all this time. But I could not believe they had been recording me in my whole house this past month. 

I had never felt so violated. 

"Where's Tristan?" Hunter looked around in search for the dark haired boy.

"He went to send a few of the cameras to Gus to track," I told him as I continued laying on the couch. "Hunter, this sucks." 

Hunter stayed quiet as he plopped himself on the floor at the side of my feet.

"Why do we live like this?" I asked tiredly. "What's the point?"

"So you can stay safe for the people who love you," he said quietly. I snorted at his response. 

"Well, I definitely feel safe right now." The sarcasm escaped from my mouth before I could hold back my tongue.

"I'm sorry."

I turned to Hunter, perplexed by his apology. "Why are you apologizing?" I frowned.

He raised his eyebrows as if the reason was obvious. "Ari, I brought him to the house. These cameras are all here because I waltzed him into our lives."