Chapter 34: Nowhere Left to Run

The hallway felt like it stretched forever quiet, sterile, wrong.

Ryan’s breath caught in his throat as he slammed the door shut and backed away from it, locking every bolt with trembling hands.

His phone was still on the floor, screen cracked from the fall. His mind screamed call for help, but his body wouldn’t move. Not fast enough.

Another sound.

The soft tread of footsteps outside.

Slow.

Deliberate.

Ryan grabbed the nearest object a heavy bookend from the shelf and clutched it like a weapon. He didn’t care how ridiculous it looked. He wasn’t going down without fighting.

A shadow passed the gap beneath the door.

Then silence.

Until

Tap. Tap. Tap.

Knuckles, knocking gently. As if this was normal. As if Adrien was just a friend visiting in the middle of the night.

“Ryan,” Adrien’s voice called softly through the door. “Don’t be afraid.”

Ryan didn’t respond. He backed deeper into the apartment, heart slamming against his ribs.

“I know you’re mad. I know you’re scared. But you let this happen, didn’t you?” Adrien’s voice was muffled but clear, the kind of eerily calm tone that made Ryan’s skin crawl. “All I wanted was to protect you. And now look. Everyone’s abandoned you but me.”

Ryan looked around. There was no escape. No other exit. Not unless he climbed out the fifth floor window.

He ran to the kitchen and grabbed a knife, replacing the bookend in his shaking hand.

Another knock.

Softer this time.

Followed by a slow, deliberate scraping sound metal against wood. The lock?

No. The door handle.

He had to move.

Ryan bolted into Chris’s room and slammed the door behind him. Locked it. Then dragged a dresser in front of it, hands trembling violently.

The apartment door creaked open in the other room.

He could hear it.

Adrien was inside.

“Ryan,” came the singsong whisper. “You left the door unlocked. Tsk.”

I didn’t, Ryan thought wildly. I locked it. I swear I did.

Then he remembered.

Chris had installed a digital lock recently, one that connected to the Wi-Fi. Adrien was a computer science major.

He could have hacked it.

Adrien’s footsteps were slow. Reverent. As if he were walking through a church.

“I missed you,” he murmured from the living room. “You smell different when you’re scared. More real. Less polished.”

Ryan backed against the window.

His phone.

He needed to call someone.

He pulled out Chris’s old tablet from the drawer. Miraculously charged. He opened the messaging app and typed one frantic message to Daniel:

HE’S IN THE APARTMENT. PLEASE HELP.

He hit send.

And prayed the signal reached.

Outside the bedroom door, Adrien paused. He spoke like a lover at the edge of a honeymoon suite.

“I brought you something else,” he said. “A gift. A piece of your past.”

Ryan held his breath.

“I found your old photos. From high school. With Jake. With your mom. Before the world poisoned you.” Adrien’s voice darkened. “They didn’t deserve you. But I do.”

Ryan’s hands shook as he dialed emergency services. He kept the volume low.

“911, what is your emergency?”

He whispered, “There’s someone in my apartment. He broke in. He’s

he’s obsessed with me.”

The dispatcher asked for his address. He gave it.

“How long ago did the break in occur?”

“It’s happening right now. He’s outside the room. Please, please send someone.”

“Officers are on route. Stay hidden. Do not engage. Can you barricade yourself?”

He was about to respond when the handle to Chris’s bedroom rattled.

“Ryan,” Adrien called again. “Don’t make me break the door.”

Silence.

Then

A loud bang.

He was kicking it.

Ryan held the knife tighter.

Another bang.

The dresser shuddered forward an inch.

And another

Then suddenly sirens.

Faint at first, but growing louder.

Adrien froze.

Ryan could hear his breathing on the other side of the door. Heavy. Frustrated.

“You called them,” Adrien said flatly.

Of course he had.

The front door slammed open followed by shouting.

“POLICE! HANDS UP!”

There was a scuffle. A crash. Then silence.

Ryan didn’t move until someone knocked on the bedroom door.

“Ryan? This is Officer Benya. You’re safe. He’s restrained.”

Ryan’s knees gave out.

He sobbed into the floor.

Relief didn’t feel like joy.

It felt like survival.

Two hours later, Adrien was in custody.

The police found dozens of photos, a thumb drive filled with recordings, and a journal that made even the most hardened officers go pale.

Ryan sat wrapped in a blanket on the front steps, flanked by Chris on one side and Daniel on the other. Chris had gotten on the next flight the second Daniel alerted him. Both refused to let Ryan go anywhere alone now.

“You did everything right,” Daniel said gently. “And now it’s over.”

But Ryan wasn’t sure.

Even as dawn rose over the campus skyline, even as the ambulance lights faded and the apartment was sealed for evidence

Ryan still felt him.

Watching.

Not Adrien.

But the version of him that he’d let in without knowing. The one that saw his kindness as invitation. The one who turned attention into obsession.

He wasn’t just afraid of Adrien.

He was afraid of what came next.

What it meant to be truly seen.

What it cost to survive it.