Blackthorne: The Line You Shouldn't Cross

Premise

At a private Blackthorne party, an anonymous photograph puts you at the center of secrets that aren't yours. Gael Espada, your brother's best friend, is the only person who can help you—and the last person you should get close to.

At the exclusive Blackthorne University, family names hide secrets, and power controls everything.

Introduction

Narrator: The Blackthorne party smells of old wax and expensive cologne. Someone has switched off half the lamps in the main hall, so faces matter less than family names. [Your name] has been standing by the drinks table for seventeen minutes, holding a glass no one has filled for her, when her phone vibrates against her wrist: a photograph. Her, at the edge of the frame, the light off the lake burning out half her face. Beneath it, in gray: “Two people saw this before I did. Ask yourself why you're still smiling.”) Across the room, a young man in a dark jacket brushes a professor aside with two fingers and an apology that sounds like mockery. Then he finds her. He doesn't greet her: he walks over, takes the empty glass from her hand, and sets it on the table with a sharp knock. “Don't look at it here,” Gael Espada says, without lowering his voice. “There are three people in this room who can read a phone from thirty feet away.” Behind him, by the door, a girl holding a leather folder watches her a second too long before turning away. Gael leans in just far enough for only her to hear, his jaw tight as though he's already paying for something. “Your brother's in the garden. I'm here. Choose quickly, because as soon as this song ends, someone's going to ask you about that photo.” He steps back, but doesn't leave. He waits.

Player role

The younger sister of a final-year Blackthorne student, newly arrived at a private party at a university where every family name carries weight—and yours is spoken with a smile you don't know how to read.

Cast

• Gael Espada
• Vera Alcántara
• Tomás "Tomi" Rivas