LOGINBelleās POVThe note didnāt move.I donāt know why I expected it to.Maybe because everything else had stopped making sense.Maybe because a part of me still believed this would unravel if I looked at it long enoughālike the words would shift, rearrange, turn into something harmless.They didnāt.Stop digging.Two words. Simple. Clear.Deliberate.I read them again.And again.Each time, they felt heavier. Not louder. Not sharper. Just⦠heavier. Like they were settling deeper into the room. Into me.My fingers tightened around the edge of the paper.āDigging into what?ā I whispered.The question didnāt sound like mine.It sounded small. Uncertain.Like I already knew the answer and didnāt want to say it out loud.My eyes moved slowly to the diary.It hadnāt changed.Not at first glance.Still open. Still quiet. Still pretending to be nothing more than ink and paper.But that wasnāt true anymore.It hadnāt been true for a while.I placed the note down carefully. Not because I was calmā
Belleās POV:Something followed me home.I donāt know when it started.Thatās the problem.If I could trace itāpin it down to a moment, a sound, a stepāI could convince myself it was real.Or convince myself it wasnāt.But it didnāt begin like that.It didnāt begin at all.It just⦠was.Like it had always been there, and I was the one who arrived late to notice it.I didnāt remember leaving the cemetery.Not clearly.There were piecesāfragments that refused to settle into something whole.The sound of gravel under my shoes.The cold that didnāt feel like weather.The way the air pressed too close, like it was watching me instead of surrounding me.And thenāNothing.Just the next thing.My room.My door closing.My back against it.My breath too loud in the quiet.I stared at my hands for a long time.They didnāt look different.No shaking. No blood. No sign that anything had happened at all.But something had.I knew it.Not in a way I could explain.Not in a way I could prove.Just
Masonās POV Night didnāt fall gently. It never did. It crept in like something unwelcomeāslow, deliberate, swallowing the last traces of daylight until the world felt quieter than it should. Mason stood by the window, unmoving. The city stretched beneath him in scattered lights and distant noise, but up here It didnāt reach. Nothing did. That was the point. His fingers rested lightly against the glass, not pressing, not tense. Just⦠there. Still. Controlled. Always controlled. But his thoughts They werenāt. She went back. The words hadnāt been spoken out loud. They didnāt need to be. They lingered anyway, heavy in the silence of the room. Because it wasnāt a question. It wasnāt a guess. It was fact. Belle had gone back to the one place she was never supposed to return to. And somehow That changed everything. Masonās jaw tightened slightly. Not enough for anyone to notice. But enough. Because that placeā It wasnāt just a cemete
Belle POVShe didnāt remember leaving the school.Not the hallway.Not the doors.Not the moment her feet carried her past the gates.One second she was thereāsurrounded by whispers, suffocating under memories that refused to stay buriedāAnd the nextāSilence.Real silence.The kind that didnāt belong in crowded spaces.The kind that lived in places people avoided.Places like this.---St. Paul Cemetery.It stretched farther than most people realized.Rows of headstones lined uneven paths, some straight and polished, others tilted with time, names fading into stone as if even memory had abandoned them.The sky above was dull.Clouds thick, unmoving.The airāStill.Too still.Belle walked between the graves without hesitation.Like she knew exactly where she was going.Like her body remembered something her mind refused to touch.Her steps were quiet against the dry ground.Measured.Controlled.Always controlled.UntilāShe stopped.---A specific spot.Not marked differently.Not
Ethan POVThe hall didnāt look like a place meant for grief.It was too polished.Too arranged.Too⦠intentional.Rows of chairs stretched across the floor, lined with careful precision. White cloth draped over each one like someone had tried to soften the reality of what this was. At the front, a long table stood beneath dimmed lights, covered in candles that flickered quietly, their flames steady despite the weight in the air.And at the centerāA picture.Framed.Smiling.Frozen in a moment that no longer existed.Ethan stood near the back, arms loosely crossed, shoulder resting against the wall. He hadnāt planned to come.Didnāt really care for things like this.Memorials always felt⦠performative.Like people gathered to prove they felt something, whether they did or not.But thisāThis wasnāt about grief.Not entirely.It was about answers.Or ratherāThe lack of them.Voices filled the room in low murmurs. Not loud enough to be disrespectful. Not quiet enough to be sincere.āTh
Ethan POVThree years.It didnāt sound like much when people said it out loud.Just a number.Just time.But in a place like thisāwhere nothing truly died, where rumors clung to walls and people carried stories like weaponsāThree years meant something different.It meant the truth had rotted.Twisted.Changed shape depending on who was telling it.And yetāSome things never changed.Like the name they always whispered when his came up.Belle.Ethan didnāt believe in rumors.Not really.People talked too much.Added details that didnāt exist.Filled silence with lies just to feel important.So he never asked.Never cared enough to.All he knew was simpleāA guy died.And somehowā¦She was there when it happened.That was it.That was all.But todayāToday didnāt feel like ājust a story.ā---The hallway felt wrong.Not loud.Not chaotic.Not normal.It was quieter than usual, but not in a peaceful way.It was the kind of quiet that pressed against your ears.Like everyone was holding s







