Excelsior Academy produces perfect transcripts, perfect reputations, perfect citizens—or, at the very least, students who can fake perfection under pressure. But the cracks are there, right under the surface, waiting for the right moment to split open.
That moment arrives the day a group of friends finally snaps under the weight of a teacher’s cruelty. Their revenge prank feels clever, righteous even—until it detonates in their hands. From then on, nothing inside the group feels safe. Conversations grow stiff, trust thins like paper, and every lingering glance carries the question no one wants to ask: Who’s going to fold first?
Alex tries to keep his cool, but jealousy turns him inside-out. Melissa is hurting in ways he doesn’t know how to fix, and someone else is getting the version of her he always wanted to be worthy of. His emotions blur into something sharp, and that sharpness becomes its own kind of danger.
Meanwhile, the students start reviving the folklore of the Grim Cojuelo, not as a literal beast, but as a story that explains the dread in the air. Blame the Cojuelo for the guilt. Blame the Cojuelo for the paranoia. Blame the Cojuelo because it’s easier than facing the mirror.
The school’s response makes everything worse. Adults tighten surveillance. Administrators demand answers. The walls close in. And the kids learn, in real time, that Excelsior doesn’t nurture its students—it preserves its image.
As pressure builds, emotions warp. Friendships buckle. Teenagers make decisions that would terrify their future selves. And the truth—whatever version each student is clinging to—becomes the most dangerous thing any of them carry.
Mortal Vengeance is a slow-burn Dominican thriller about guilt, envy, trauma, and the way a single choice can unravel the lives of kids who were never given room to be kids in the first place. The darkness isn’t supernatural—it’s human.
And it doesn’t blink. $2.99 on Kindle.
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