Chapter Thirteen - The Lake

I turned.

Myles Clay stood a few feet away, a stack of books in his arms, his brown eyes fixed on me. He wasn't close enough to have seen the napkin,I didn't think, but his gaze was watchful, curious.

"Sorry," he said. "Didn't mean to startle you."

"You didn't."

He tilted his head, a small smile playing at the corner of his lips. "Your hands are shaking."

I curled my fingers into fists. "It's cold here."

"It's seventy-two degrees." He shifted the books to one arm and leaned against the table. "You're a bad liar, Nova James."

"I'm not lying."

"Everyone lies." His smile faded. "The question is why."

We stared at each other. The library hummed around us,fluorescent lights, distant whispers, the shuffle of pages. The air felt thick, charged with something I couldn't name.

"Do you need something?" I asked.

“I just want to apologize for the way things kind of escalated the last time we met, you know at the dining hall.”

“Okay then,” I folded my arms. “I’m all ears.”

“What?”

“You said you wanted to apologize.”

“But I just…ohhh.” He let out a nervous laughter. “I haven’t exactly apologized, I’m really sorry, I was just in my emotions and I just kind of let it all out on you. Can we call a truce?” He brought out his hand for a handshake.

This time I took it.

“Truce it is, Myles.”

He glanced at the empty chair where Madden had been sitting, then back at me. "I saw you talking to Madden." He nodded toward the exit where she'd disappeared. "She's not exactly friendly."

"Yeah I noticed."

"She isn’t always like that, trust me.” Myles's voice softened. "Before Alice died, she was different. Laughing. Loud. She and Alice used to stay up all night in the dorm, watching terrible movies, eating popcorn until they got sick."

A crack in the armor. A glimpse of the boy beneath the grief.

"Why are you telling me this?"

"Because you're here asking questions." He set down his books and crossed his arms. "But Madden isn't the only one who's changed since Alice died. This whole campus is different. People are scared. And scared people do dangerous things."

"Like what?"

Myles leaned closer, his voice dropping to a whisper. "Like the person who broke into your room."

I went still. “Please don’t tell me the whole school knows about that?"

"Campus security talks. Word gets around." He held my gaze. "Welcome to Westbrook." He carried his books and shifted them to his side. "Be careful who you trust around here."

Yeah no shit.

He walked away before I could respond.

---

I walked outside the library and saw Madden again this time on a bench near the entrance of the school off campus dorm.

Her nose was buried in a textbook. I approached slowly, keeping my expression casual.

"Hey."

She looked up. Her dark eyes were unreadable. "You again."

"I had more questions about your friend."

"Which friend?"

"Alice."

Madden's jaw tightened almost imperceptibly. Then she relaxed, shrugging. "I don't know what to tell you. She was nice. Smart. Drowned in the lake. End of story."

"Some people still think it was an accident."

"Some people think a lot of things." She turned a page. "Doesn't make them right."

I leaned against the table. "What do you think?"

She was quiet for a long moment. Then she looked up at me, her expression carefully blank.

"I think you should be careful asking questions about things that don't concern you." She stood, tucked her book under her arm, and walked away.

She passed me, her shoulder brushed mine.

I didn't react. I waited until she was gone, then slipped into an empty carrel and pulled out the napkin from earlier.

Be at the lake tonight at 11pm. She was going and so was I.

---

The sun set at 6:47 PM.

I watched it from my window, the sky bleeding from orange to purple to black. Ashley was at the library again,studying, she said. I didn't ask questions.

At 9 PM, I ate a granola bar. At 10 PM, I checked my phone. No messages from Detective Cross. At 10:30, I lay on my bed and stared at the ceiling. Different thoughts ran through my head, could it really be Madden.

I pulled on my jacket and slipped out of the dorm

The walk to the lake took twelve minutes.

The path was dark, the old-fashioned lamps casting weak pools of orange light on the gravel. The trees pressed close on either side, branches like skeletal fingers. The air smelled like cold water and fallen leaves and something else…something metallic, sharp.

The lake appeared through the trees, black and mirror-flat, reflecting the sliver of moon above. No students. No couples on the pier. Just silence and darkness and the soft lapping of water against the shore.

I stopped at the edge, my boots sinking into the damp ground.

No Madden.

I waited. Five minutes. Ten. The cold seeped through my jacket, through my skin, into my bones.

A twig snapped behind me.

I spun.

No one was there.

But something was floating on the surface of the lake. A piece of paper, drifting toward the shore, pushed by a current I couldn't see.

I waded into the water up to my ankles, the cold shocking, biting. The paper brushed against my leg. I grabbed it.

It was a photograph.

Alice. Alive. Smiling.

And on the back, written in the same red substance, the same uneven letters:

You should have stayed away.

My blood turned to ice.

The water rippled behind me.

I turned.

A figure stood at the edge of the trees. Black jacket. Gloved hands. Face hidden in shadow.

The figure raised a hand.

And waved.

Then it turned and vanished into the dark.

I stood in the freezing water, the photograph clutched in my hand, my heart pounding so hard I could feel it in my throat.

You should have stayed away.

Behind me, a voice spoke in the darkness. Low. Female. Ice-cold.

"Hello, Nova."

I spun again.

No one was there.

But the laughter echoed across the water, soft and terrible, and I knew I wasn't alone.