( Raina’s pov)

I got home smiling.

Ethan got the promotion.

Not only that, Zach actually kept his word.

A small part of me had expected him to tease me for days before doing it, just to annoy me. But no. One call from Parallex HQ and Ethan’s entire life had changed overnight.

I leaned against the kitchen counter and took my phone out.

I should thank him.

The line rang once before Zach picked up.

"Hello, Himari."

I rolled my eyes immediately.

"It’s Raina now, Zach."

"Yeah, right. Raina." I could practically hear the smirk in his voice. "Sorry, I kinda liked Himari better. It’s sweet on the tongue."

"Zach."

He laughed softly.

"Fine, fine. What’s up?"

"I just wanted to thank you for getting Ethan promoted."

A pause.

"Who?"

I narrowed my eyes.

"Ethan. My boyfriend."

"Ohhh. The boyfriend." His tone was dripping with fake realization. "Sorry. Slipped my mind."

Motherfucker.

Was he trying to provoke me?

"Anyway," I continued before he could start anything else, "thank you. Seriously. I owe you one."

"Well," he said lightly, "remember that in the future."

"I will."

The call ended.

I dropped my phone onto the couch and let out a small breath.

Seeing Ethan happy tonight had felt...

Nice.

The excitement in his voice earlier when he called me... the way his eyes lit up at dinner... the way he looked at me when he introduced me to his friends.

I smiled without realizing it.

The dinner itself had gone surprisingly well.

Only one problem though.

Marcus.

I had not been in the same room with him since college.

What if he recognized me?

I immediately shook the thought away.

No.

He couldn’t.

I had changed too much since then. Different hair. Different posture. Different makeup. Different clothes. Different confidence.

Back then I had still been trying to become someone else.

Now?

Now I had perfected it....

Still...

My smile slowly faded.

And before I realized it, my thoughts drifted backward.

Back to after Felix died.

Back to the silence that followed.

_________________________________________________________________________________________________

The apartment had been dark for days.

Not metaphorically.

Literally dark.

The curtains stayed closed. The lights stayed off. Half-empty bottles of water sat around the room untouched. Clothes were scattered across the floor. The air itself felt stale, heavy, trapped.

I barely moved.

Barely slept.

Barely ate.

Most of the time I sat in the corner of my bedroom with my knees pulled to my chest, staring at nothing while my thoughts ate themselves alive.

Felix was dead.

And every single time I tried not to think about it, I heard the sound again.

That horrible sound.

The snow globe against his skull.

My stomach twisted violently.

I squeezed my eyes shut.

No.

Don’t think about it.

Don’t think about him lying there.

Don’t think about the blood.

Don’t—

Knock knock knock.

I jerked violently at the sudden sound.

Another knock followed immediately.

"Himari!"

Susan.

"Open up! It’s Susan!"

I stayed silent.

Maybe she would leave.

Knock knockknock.

"I know you’re in there!"

I buried my face into my hands.

God.

She was persistent.

And Susan had this annoying habit of never stopping once she got worried about someone.

Another knock.

Another.

Another.

Ugh! 𝓯𝙧𝓮𝓮𝒘𝓮𝙗𝙣𝒐𝒗𝒆𝓵.𝓬𝓸𝒎

She wasn’t going away unless I opened the door.

Slowly, I pushed myself up and walked toward the entrance.

The moment I opened it, Susan froze.

"Oh my God," she said. "What happened to you?"

I blinked at her tiredly.

"You look like shit."

"It’s nice seeing you too," I replied dryly.

She ignored the sarcasm and walked straight inside.

Then immediately gagged.

"Woah." She looked around horrified. "Your apartment looks worse than you do."

I said nothing.

Susan walked to the nearest window.

"Let’s get some ventilation in here."

"Susan, don’t—"

Too late.

The curtains flew open.

Sunlight poured into the apartment so suddenly that pain shot through my eyes.

I raised my arm immediately to shield them, turning away instinctively.

Ahhh!

I really had not seen sunlight in days.

Susan moved around the apartment opening more curtains, more windows.

Fresh air slowly drifted inside.

"What happened here?" she asked quietly.

"Nothing."

"Himari."

"Nothing happened."

She turned fully toward me this time.

"This isn’t nothing." Her voice softened. "You haven’t come to school in days. You stopped answering texts. I’ve been worried sick."

I looked away.

"Well don’t be."

"Himari—"

"I just needed time to myself."

She stared at me carefully.

Then her expression softened even more.

"What happened?"

There it was.

The problem with Susan.

She cared too much.

And she would keep pushing until she got an answer.

A believable answer.

My mind worked quickly.

Sooner or later people were going to ask questions about Felix.

Sooner or later suspicion would start somewhere.

And if I played this correctly...

I could move that suspicion somewhere else for now.

I lowered my head.

Then forced my voice to crack.

"Felix dumped me."

Susan’s eyes widened immediately.

"What?"

I covered my face with my hands and forced out a shaky breath.

"He said..." I swallowed hard. "He said he felt trapped here. That college was suffocating him." I let my voice tremble slightly. "He wanted to leave Harrington for a while. Said he needed space to figure himself out."

Susan looked genuinely heartbroken for me.

"That asshole."

I should have felt relieved inside that it was working .

Instead I started crying.

Real tears too.

Not entirely fake.

Because somewhere beneath the manipulation and planning and fear...

A part of me was really mourning Felix and the version of myself that existed before that night.

Susan wrapped her arms around me immediately.

"Oh Himari..." she whispered. "I’m so sorry."

I cried into her shoulder while my mind remained cold and alert underneath it all.

Because while she comforted me...

I slipped Felix’s phone into the side pocket of her bag.

The phone had been powered off since the night he died.

I had taken it from his body before Tengu arrived.

At first I planned to destroy it.

But then I realized something smarter.

If suspicion ever landed near me, evidence needed somewhere else to point.

Not enough to fully frame Susan.

Never that obvious.

Just enough to create confusion.

Enough for investigators to question timelines.

Question stories.

Question people besides me.

And God help me...

A part of me resented Susan anyway.

Because if she had never gotten involved with Ethan...

If Ethan had never looked at her that way back then...

If I had never gotten jealous...

Maybe I would never have dated Felix just to distract myself.

Maybe none of this would have happened.

That darkness inside me had already started growing back then.

I just didn’t understand it yet.

Susan stayed almost the entire day.

She helped clean the apartment.

Forced me to shower.

Forced me to eat.

And all the while guilt kept clawing at me from the inside because she truly believed she was helping me.

Eventually I returned to college.

Acted normal.

Smiled when I had to.

Answered questions carefully.

But I never moved back into the dorm.

I told Susan commuting from my apartment helped me clear my head and thankfully she accepted the excuse without pushing further.

Three weeks passed.

Then one afternoon there was another knock at my apartment door.

I opened it expecting Susan again.

Instead I saw Ethan.

And beside him—

Malcolm.

The sight of him immediately tightened something inside my chest.

"Ethan," I said carefully. "What a surprise."

"Hey Himari." He smiled weakly. "Sorry for showing up unannounced."

Then he gestured toward the man beside him.

"This is Malcolm."

Malcolm stepped forward.

"Hi," he said. "I’m Felix’s brother."

And there it was.

The moment I had been preparing for.

I widened my eyes slightly.

"Oh. Yeah... Felix talked about you before."

"You mind if we come in?" Ethan asked.

"Of course."

The three of us stepped inside.

Malcolm looked terrible.

Not physically.

Emotionally.

His eyes kept moving around the room anxiously like he expected Felix to suddenly walk out from somewhere.

"I’ll get straight to the point," he said finally. "I’m trying to find my brother."

I forced confusion onto my face.

"What do you mean?"

"He’s missing."

I blinked slowly.

"Missing?"

"He stopped answering calls weeks ago," Malcolm explained. "Nobody’s heard from him."

I carefully lowered my gaze.

"That’s impossible."

"What?"

"Felix broke up with me weeks ago." I shook my head slightly. "He said he wanted to leave Harrington for a while and clear his head."

Malcolm stared at me.

"He told you where he was going?"

"No." I let frustration enter my voice naturally. "I’ve been trying to call him too. He stopped answering me completely."

That part at least was true.

I had continued texting his phone almost daily after his death.

A precaution.

If police ever checked phone records, it would support the idea that I believed he was still alive too.

Malcolm’s composure started cracking right in front of us.

Fear slowly replaced denial.

"And he never mentioned anything else?" he asked quietly.

I shook my head.

"Nothing."

"You should go to the police," Ethan told him carefully.

Malcolm nodded slowly.

"Yeah..." His voice sounded distant now. "Yeah, I think I will."

"I’ll come with you," Ethan said immediately.

Part of me hated him for that.

Because even back then Ethan was good.

Too good.

Always helping people.

Always trying to save everyone.

I stepped forward slightly.

"I can come too if you need support."

"No," Ethan said gently. "It’s okay. Stay here."

I nodded slowly.

"Alright."

Malcolm looked exhausted.

"Thank you for your time," he said quietly before heading toward the door.

I smiled softly.

"I hope you find him."

And God...

The scariest part?

For a second I almost sounded sincere.