Chapter Thirty-One - Dad

At 2 AM, Ashley fell asleep on Derek's bed.

Madden curled up on the floor with a pillow and a blanket, her breathing soft and even.

Myles and I sat on his bed, our shoulders touching, our hands intertwined.

"We should sleep," he said.

"In a minute."

"You said that twenty minutes ago."

"I know."

He leaned his head against mine.

"Alexa."

"Yeah."

"Whatever happens tomorrow... I'm glad you're here. I'm glad you came to Westbrook. I'm glad you lied about who you were."

"Even after everything?"

"Especially after everything."

I closed my eyes.

And for the first time in weeks, I felt something other than fear.

I felt hope.

---

My phone buzzed at 3 AM.

I reached for it, groggy, disoriented.

A text from an unknown number.

Check the lake.

My blood turned to ice.

I sat up, my heart pounding.

Who is this?

No response.

I looked at Myles. He was still asleep, his face peaceful, his hand still loosely holding mine.

I didn't wake him.

I slipped out of bed, pulled on my shoes, and walked to the door.

"Where are you going?"

Madden's voice. Awake. Watching.

"The lake."

"Why?"

I showed her the text.

Her face went pale.

"I'm coming with you."

"No. Stay here. Watch Ashley. Watch Myles."

"Alexa—"

"Please."

She hesitated. Then she nodded.

I walked out the door.

---

The lake was still.

The water was black, mirror-flat, reflecting the moon and the stars and nothing else. The pier stretched out into the darkness, empty and waiting.

I walked to the edge of the water.

And I saw it.

A figure. Floating facedown near the shore.

Not moving.

Not breathing.

I waded into the water, the cold shocking, biting. The figure drifted closer.

I grabbed the arm. Turned the body over.

Caleb face stared up at me, pale and frozen and dead. I couldn’t scream, I stared blankly at the body and stepped out of the water.

His eyes were open.

And his lips were blue.

Behind me, a twig snapped.

I turned.

A figure stood at the edge of the trees. Watching.

The same mask. The same black clothes.

"You should have stayed away," they said.

And then they vanished into the dark. But this time I was bent on finding out who it was.

Fear was the last emotion I felt right now.

Too many people I knew had died. Earl. Now Caleb. And somewhere in that freezer, Natalie had been rotting for two years while everyone pretended she'd just run away.

I was tired of it.

Tired of running. Tired of hiding. Tired of letting faceless figures in masks control my life.

The figure disappeared into the tree line, branches snapping in their wake.

I followed.

"Hey!" I shouted. "Stop!"

They didn't stop. They ran faster, deeper into the dark, crashing through the underbrush like a wounded animal. But I was faster. I was angrier. I had nothing left to lose.

Branches whipped across my face. Thorns tore at my jacket. My boots slipped on wet leaves, but I didn't fall. I couldn't fall.

The figure glanced back. Even through the mask, I could see their eyes widen. They hadn't expected me to follow. They'd expected me to stand by the lake, screaming and crying, the way normal people would.

But I wasn't normal.

I was Alice's sister. And I was done being scared.

"You can't outrun me!" I yelled. "I've been running my whole life!"

The figure veered left, toward the old maintenance shed near the edge of campus. I'd seen it before, a crumbling building covered in vines, its windows boarded up, its door rusted shut.

Or so I'd thought.

The figure reached the door and pushed. It swung open.

They disappeared inside.

I didn't hesitate. I ran through the doorway.

---

The shed was dark.

The air smelled like oil and rust and something else. Something familiar.

Cigarette smoke.

The same smell from the greenhouse.

I stopped in the center of the room, my breath coming in hard gasps, my eyes scanning the shadows. Machinery loomed on either side. Old lawn mowers. Broken furniture. Boxes of papers yellowed with age.

And in the corner, a single light bulb hanging from a wire, casting weak yellow light across the floor.

The figure stood beneath it.

"You shouldn't have followed me," they said. The voice changer was off now. The voice was real.

And it was familiar.

"I've been following you for weeks," I said. "I'm not stopping now."

"You don't know what you're doing."

"Then tell me."

The figure reached up. Slowly. Deliberately.

They pulled off the mask.

The face beneath was older than I expected.

Gray hair. Deep lines around the eyes. A jaw that hadn't been shaved in days. He looked tired. Broken. Familiar in a way that made my stomach turn.

But I didn't recognize him.

Not at first.

"Who are you?" I demanded.

He took a step closer. The light caught his face differently, illuminating the shadows, highlighting the shape of his nose, the curve of his chin.

And then I saw it.

Not in his face. Not in his features.

In his eyes.

I'd seen those eyes before. Every morning. Every night. Every time I looked in the mirror.

Those were my eyes.

"Hello, Alexa," he said.

My blood turned to ice.

"Dad?" The word came out as a whisper. A question. An accusation.

He nodded slowly. "Alexa I know you have questions."

I couldn't breathe.

My father. The man who had left before I was born. The man who existed only as a photograph and a name and a hollow absence in every story my mother never told. The man who had missed my birth and my first steps and my mother's funeral and every single moment of my life.

He was standing in front of me.

In a mask.

Before I could say anything more. He grabbed a can from the shelf beside him. Spray paint. And before I could stop him, he sprayed it directly into my eyes.

The pain was blinding.

I screamed, stumbling backward, my hands flying to my face. The chemicals burned, blurring my vision, sending tears streaming down my cheeks.

When I finally blinked enough to see, he was gone.

The back door of the shed was open, swinging in the wind.

I ran to it, wiping my eyes, blinking against the sting.

The forest was empty.

He was gone.

Again.

---

I walked back to the dorm in a daze.

The lake was behind me. Caleb's body was behind me. My father was behind me.

Everything I thought I knew was behind me.

Myles was waiting in the hallway when I returned. His face was pale, his eyes wild.

"Where the hell have you been?" he demanded. "Madden said you went to the lake. That was an hour ago. I've been calling you."

I pulled out my phone. Twelve missed calls. All from him.

"I'm fine," I said.

"You're not fine. Your eyes are red. Your hands are shaking. And you're soaking wet." He grabbed my arms, looking me over. "What happened?"

I opened my mouth to tell him. To tell him everything.

But the words wouldn't come.

How could I explain that my father,the father I'd never known,was the man in the mask? How could I explain that he'd been watching me all along?

"I fell," I said.

"You fell?”

"Into the lake. I slipped. It's dark out there."

Myles stared at me. I could see the disbelief in his eyes. The hurt.

"You're lying," he said.

"I'm not."

"You are. You're doing it again. The thing where you shut down and push me away."

"I'm not pushing you away."

"Then tell me the truth."

“Drop it! Okay. I don’t need you acting like you care.” I walked past him, into the room, and sat down on the edge of the bed.

Myles followed. He stood in the doorway, watching me, waiting.

Ashley was awake now. So was Madden. They looked at me with questions in their eyes that I couldn't answer.

"I need to be alone," I said.

"Alexa…” Madden started.

"Please."

They left. One by one. Madden first, then Ashley, then finally Myles, who paused at the door and looked back at me with something that looked like heartbreak.

"I'm here," he said. "When you're ready to talk."

Then he closed the door.