~š¤
---
The rock hit the floor with a sharp thunk that echoed through the silence.
Maya stared at it, heart rattling in her ribs. Something about the shape ā the weight ā felt violent, like a threat from the past thrown through the present.
She moved to grab it, but Elias was faster.
He crouched, fingers curling tightly around the stone. Rain clung to its surface, darkening the paper wrapped tightly around it. It had been taped, deliberately, as if someone wanted to make sure the message inside couldn't get wet ā or be ignored.
Maya's voice was barely a whisper.
"Open it."
He didn't answer.
Just stood, slowly. The lines of his shoulders were sharper now ā rigid and coiled, like he was bracing for a storm much worse than the one outside.
He peeled the tape away with too much care, like he didn't want to damage what was inside. Like part of him already knew what it was. Knew it was the beginning of the end.
When he unfolded the paper, the black ink bled into the page in thick, angry strokes:
> You think you're the monster, Elias?
I know what you did to her.
Maya stopped breathing.
A cold stillness fell between them ā worse than any scream.
"Eliasā¦ what does that mean?"
He said nothing.
Didn't move.
Didn't blink.
Just stared at the paper like it held his ruin in its hands.
Her voice came out again, harder this time. "What did you do to Mira?"
Finally, he looked at her.
And the fear in his eyes made her knees weaken.
"I didn't kill her."
"Then what are you so scared of?"
"I was there," he said, quietly. "That night. She called me. Said she had something she needed to confess. Something that would ruin everything. She was crying. I've never heard her cry like that before."
Maya's hands trembled. "What did she do?"
"I don't know," Elias said. "By the time I got there, the paramedics were already wheeling her body away."
"Why didn't you tell anyone?"
"Because you were already in hell," he said, stepping toward her. "And I was halfway into mine. What good would it have done, Maya? The only person who knew the truth died."
"Then what the hell is Jax talking about?!" she snapped. "What does he know that we don't?"
Elias hesitated.
Then looked her dead in the eye.
"She kept a diary."
The air fled her lungs.
"You're lying."
"I wish I was."
Maya's chest caved inward.
"Why didn't you say anything?"
"Because I didn't want it to change how you saw her. Or how you saw me."
"What was in it?"
"I don't know," Elias said. "I only saw it once. I never opened it."
"Then where is it now?"
He was quiet.
Too quiet.
"Elias. Where's the diary?"
"I buried it."
Maya reeled. "You what?"
"I didn't know what was in it, but the way she clutched it that nightā¦ it scared me. She kept saying, 'I can't carry this anymore.' And when they took her away, I found it under her pillow. I didn't want anyone else to see it. Not the police. Not your parents. Not you."
"So you buried the one thing that could've explained everything."
His jaw clenched. "It wasn't just hers, Maya. Whatever was insideā¦ it involved me. You. And Jax."
She backed away slowly, her breath shallow.
"Jax found it, didn't he?"
Elias nodded, jaw tight.
"And now he wants revenge."
"No," Elias said, his voice lowering. "He wants power."
There was a long pause.
Then Elias said something she didn't expect:
"He was in love with Mira."
Maya's world tilted.
"No."
"Yes."
"He wasāhe was just a friendā"
"No," Elias said firmly. "He wanted her. Always did. But she never looked at him the way he wanted. So when she died, he didn't just lose a friend. He lost the girl he was obsessed with. And now?"
Maya swallowed. "Now he blames us both."
Elias nodded grimly. "That diary? It's not just a confession. It's ammunition."
A flash of lightning lit the room, followed by the deep growl of thunder. The kind that felt personal.
"Then I need to see it," Maya whispered. "If I don'tā¦ I'll never know who she really was. Or what I am in all of this."
Elias moved closer, brushing his fingers gently against her wrist.
"If you read that diary," he said, "you may never come back from it."
"I already haven't."
---
The next day
The rain had finally stopped, but the sky was still a bruise. Maya didn't go to school. Couldn't. Her head was spinning with too many ghosts.
Elias had left during the night.
No note.
No goodbye.
Just the lingering warmth on her pillow.
At 3:07 p.m., her phone buzzed.
JAX [1 new message]
> "Meet me at the abandoned auditorium. I have something that belonged to your sister."
Attached was a photo.
Her fingers hovered above the screen, paralyzed.
The image was grainy but unmistakable:
A leather-bound journal with a silver name engraved across the front.
Mira Lane.
---