Chapter Fourteen - A Dream

I woke up gasping.

The ceiling. The water stain. The lung-shaped shadow. My hands were tangled in the sheets, my heart pounding, my skin slick with cold sweat.

A dream. Just a dream.

The lake. The photograph. The figure in the shadows. The voice whispering "Hello, Nova" across the black water.

None of it was real..

The clock on Ashley's nightstand read 6:15 AM. She was still asleep, her back to me, her breathing soft and even. The cracked laptop sat on the floor where she'd left it. The fairy lights hung dead above her bed.

I pressed my palm to my chest and closed my eyes, waiting for my heart to slow.

Just a dream.

But the warning echoed anyway, carved into the inside of my skull: You should have stayed away.

I didn't sleep again.

At 7:00, I got up, pulled on clean clothes, and sat at the small desk by the window. The campus was waking up outside,students shuffling toward the dining hall, a groundskeeper trimming hedges, a jogger circling the quad.

Normal life. The kind of life where girls didn't drown in lakes and strangers didn't leave warnings written in blood.

I pulled out my phone. A message from Detective Cross: CHECK IN WHEN YOU CAN.

I typed back: EVERYTHING FINE. BUSY WITH CLASSES.

A lie. But what else was new?

---

At 7:30, Ashley stirred.

She sat up slowly, her dark hair a mess, her eyes still half-closed. "Morning," she mumbled.

"Morning."

"You look terrible."

"Thanks."

She stretched, yawned, then looked at me with something like concern. You’re up early…Bad dreams?"

"You could say that."

She didn't push. Instead, she swung her legs over the side of the bed and pulled on a sweatshirt. "So…." She looked at me. "You want to get breakfast with us? Myles suggested we meet at the dining hall at 8 and he’s buying."

I hesitated. Breakfast meant conversation. Conversation meant questions. Questions meant lies.

But Ashley was watching me with something that looked almost like hope.

Maybe getting closer was exactly what I needed.

"Okay," I said.

Ashley's face lit up. "Really?"

"Really."

“Yayy!” She quickly stood up from the bed and rushed to the restroom.

---

The dining hall was busy when we arrived.

Myles had claimed a table near the windows, and to my surprise, Madden was with him. She sat hunched over a cup of coffee, her dark hair hiding her face. She didn't look up when we approached.

"Glad you came," Myles said, pulling out chairs.

He nodded at me. "Nova."

"Myles."

I sat across from Madden. She still didn't look up.

Ashley filled the silence, chattering about classes and professors and the terrible coffee in the dining hall. Myles laughed at her jokes, asked questions, and kept the conversation moving. He was good at that,making people feel comfortable. Making them forget they had secrets.

I watched Madden.

She hadn't touched her coffee. Her hands were wrapped around the mug, but her knuckles were white, tense. Her eyes were fixed on something outside the window,the lake, maybe. Or the trees beyond.

"Madden." I said her name softly.

She blinked. Looked at me. "What?"

"You okay?"

"Fine." She picked up her coffee and took a sip, her expression closing like a door. "Didn't sleep well."

“Join the club.” I said jokingly.

Ashley sat across from him, launching into a story about her broken laptop and the IT department's incompetence. Myles laughed. He asked questions. He kept the conversation moving.

I watched Madden.

She hadn't touched her coffee. Her hands were wrapped around the mug, white-knuckled. Her eyes kept drifting toward the window, toward the lake.

"You okay?" I asked her quietly.

She blinked. "Fine. Didn't sleep."

"Join the club.” I said jokingly.

For a moment, something flickered across her face. Not suspicion. Something softer. Almost like recognition.

Then she looked away.

---

After breakfast, Myles fell into step beside me.

"You're quiet," he said.

"I'm always quiet."

"No, you're watching." He glanced at me. "You notice things."

"So do you."

He smiled. It was small, almost shy. "Maybe that's why we get along."

"We just met."

"I know." He shoved his hands in his pockets. "But I've got a good feeling about you, Nova James."

I didn't know what to say to that. So I said nothing.

He didn't seem to mind.

The rest of the day was different.

Ashley saved me a seat in English Lit. She passed me a note with a crude drawing of a cat and the words DID YOU KNOW MYLES CAN'T WHISTLE? I almost smiled and folded the paper back.

Soon the class was over and I decided to spend most of my time in the library.

Madden found me in the library around 2 PM.

"Hey," she said, sliding into the chair across from me.

"Hey."

She was quiet for a moment. Then she said, "I was harsh before. When you asked about Alice."

"You don't owe me an explanation."

"I know." She picked at a hangnail. "But you're not giving up. Most people would have by now."

"I'm not most people."

She looked at me. Really looked. "No. You're not."

She didn't say anything else. But she stayed. Sat with me in silence while I pretended to read. It wasn't friendship. Not yet. But it was something.

Then Myles appeared at 4 PM, outside the library.

"Walk you back?" he asked.

"I know the way."

"Humor me."

We walked in silence. The path was crowded with students heading to dinner, their voices a low buzz around us. The sun was low, the shadows long.

"Ashley thinks you're hiding something," Myles said.

"Ashley thinks a lot of things."

"She's not wrong." He didn't look at me. "But I don't care what you're hiding, Nova. I just want to make sure you're safe."

"Why?"

He stopped walking. "Because someone should."

I snickered, “So let me guess, that someone is you.” A hint of mock in my voice.

“I mean…” he extended his arms sideways “I’m the only one with you right now.”

“Fair.”

We walked the rest of the way in comfortable silence.

That night, the four of us sat on the grass near the quad.

Ashley had insisted. "We need a study group," she'd said. "Or at least a snack group." So we gathered on a blanket, eating chips from a bag, watching the stars blink on one by one.

Madden was quiet, but she wasn't hiding. Ashley talked enough for everyone. Myles leaned back on his elbows, his face tilted toward the sky.

"Tell us something," Ashley said, pointing at me. "Something true. No true crime stuff."

I hesitated. "I don't like thunderstorms."

"That's it?"

"I used to hide under the bed. Every time."

Ashley laughed. "That's adorable."

Myles smiled. Even Madden's lips twitched.

For a moment, it almost felt normal. Like I wasn't hunting a killer. Like I wasn't lying to everyone around me.

Like I could almost belong here.

Ashley fell asleep on the blanket, her head on Myles's jacket. Madden stared at the stars, her cast resting on her knee.

Myles looked at me.

"You're not hiding under any beds here," he said quietly.

"No," I said. "I'm not."

And for some reason, that felt like the most honest thing I'd said all day.