Chapter Thirteen: The Man in the Hallway

My blood turned to ice.

The lumpy linoleum floor beneath my bare feet felt like it was tilting, threatening to drop me into the same icy water Silas said he had pulled me from all those years ago.

The hallway outside Lena’s apartment suddenly felt impossibly smaller through the peephole, the dim yellow lighting casting long shadows across the peeling walls.

Through the distorted glass of the tiny peephole, that man’s face remained terrifying.

The sharp angle of his jaw. The heavy brow. The cold, vacant look in his eyes. It was all identical to the phantom that had haunted the edges of my suppressed nightmares since I was six years old.

He was the man from the wreckage.He looked older than the man i remembered in my dream but the resemblance was still there.

"Vienne."

Silas’s voice was a low, dangerous warning right behind my ear. Before I could flinch, his large, warm hand clamped around my shoulder, forcefully pulling me away from the door.

His large hand wrapped around my waist, pulling my shaking body hard against his chest.

"What did you see?" he demanded, his dark eye boring into mine. He must have felt the violent tremors wracking my frame. "Vienne. Speak to me."

I couldn't. My jaw was locked, my teeth clicking together from a sudden, fierce wave of adrenaline. I just held up my phone, my thumb shaking as I pointed at the glowing text message from the unknown number.

H-him…” I whispered still pointing at my screen. The message glowing on my screen.

DO NOT OPEN THE DOOR. MARISSA DID NOT COME ALONE.

Elias and Lena came closer o look at what was on my screen.

“Who?” Lena asked.

“The man outside.” My voice finally out. My throat tightened painfully. “He was there the night my parents died.”

Silas still glanced down at the screen, his expression hardening into something truly terrifying. "Elias."

"On it," Elias muttered, his sarcastic tone completely vanishing. He was already leaning over the kitchen counter, his fingers flying across his laptop keyboard.

"Tracing the burner number now. Whoever sent this is tapping into the local cell tower grid. Give me thirty seconds."

"We don't have thirty seconds," Silas growled.

BANG. BANG. BANG.

Outside the apartment, Aunt Marissa knocked again. Slower this time.

“Vienne,” she called gently. “I know you’re frightened, sweetheart, but you need to open the door.”

“I saw the news and I was frightened. I didn’t believe that, i just had the belief my princess was going to be here.”

Princess? Aunt Marissa rarely use sweet words for me.

Lena looked between all of us like she was seconds away from a nervous breakdown.

“Okay,” she whispered. “I officially want my old boring life back.”

This time I didn’t even have the time to react to her words. Because sincerely I hated seeing my friend in this state all because of me.

“Let just opened the door?” I said flatly.

“No”! Silas said. “If we do there would be more trouble.”

“Fine! If you do not want us to open this door?” “Who is 'he'?" I finally managed to choke out the words, my voice high and brittle. I grabbed Silas’s forearm, my fingers digging deep into his muscle. "Silas... the man behind her. The one in the dark coat."

Silas froze, his gaze locking onto mine.

"He was there," I whispered, tears finally blurring my vision. "The night the car crashed. The night my parents died. He was standing in the rain, Silas. It’s him."

A suffocating stillness hit the room.

Even Elias stopped typing. He looked up from his screen, his jaw dropping slightly as his gray eyes darted between me and Silas.

Silas didn't look surprised. Instead, a dark, heavy realization seemed to settle over his features, his jaw tightening until the bone looked ready to snap. "Arthur," he murmured, his voice deadly quiet. "Victor’s personal shadow. He was supposed to be overseas."

"Well, he’s not overseas," Elias hissed, sliding his own weapon out from his jacket. "He’s in the hallway with a cleanup crew. Silas, if Vienne recognizes him, it means Victor has been planning this since she was a child. They aren't here to talk. They're here to erase the final evidence."

From behind the bookshelf, Lena let out a whimper, her hands clamped over her ears as she curled into a tight ball. "Vienne... please... I don't want to die. I have a poetry workshop on Tuesday!"

The sheer normalcy of her words briefly broke through my terror. I looked around the tiny, cramped room. This was Lena’s sanctuary. Her cheap rugs, her textbooks, her mismatched mugs. I never wanted my best friend to pass throwing this pain but now…. we had brought a death squad to her front door.

The thought of that suddenly made me press my hand against my temple with a shaky breath.

“Vienne,” Silas said more gently this time.

“I’m fine.”

“You’re bleeding.”

I froze.

Slowly, I lowered my hand from my forehead.

Blood streaked across my fingertips.

Lena gasped loudly. “Oh my God.” Tears already rolling down her cheek.

Suddenly, a loud, metallic scrape echoed from the outside of the door. They weren't knocking anymore. They were picking the lock.

"Elias, the fire escape. Now," Silas commanded, shifting his weight to shield me completely.

"I told you, the alley is a trap!" Elias countered, though he was already moving toward the window by the radiator.

"We aren't going down," Silas said, a grim, humorless smile touching his lips. "We’re going up to the roof. Lena, get over here."

Lena scrambled out from her hiding spot, her face completely pale as she ran toward us. Silas didn't wait. He grabbed my waist, lifting me effortlessly against his chest with one arm, while his other hand kept his gun aimed squarely at the trembling front door.

"The trace on the text message came through!" Elias yelled over the sound of the rattling doorknob. He stared at his laptop screen in utter disbelief. "The unknown number... Silas, it isn't Arthur.

The text came from Evelyn's secure frequency."

My brain short-circuited. Evelyn? The crazy housekeeper who just blew up the mansion sent the warning?

“Why did she suddenly act nice? Silas what going on? Who is Evelyn to you really?”

“Who the fuck is that”? Lena asked.

Before anyone could process the information, the heavy brass deadbolt gave way with a violent snap. The apartment door burst open, splintering against the drywall.

Silas didn't hesitate. He squeezed the trigger twice, the deafening roars of his handgun shattering the small apartment's windows as plaster exploded into the hallway.

"Go!" Silas roared, shoving Elias and Lena toward the window.

But as Elias threw the window open, letting the freezing winter gale howl into the room, I looked back over Silas’s shoulder into the smoke-filled doorway.

Aunt Marissa was standing there, her cream coat splattered with fresh, dark blood. But she wasn't looking at me. She was looking down at her own chest in pure shock.

“No!!!!” I screamed. It felt like the bullet was pierced to my own chest. This wasn’t supposed to happen to my aunt.

“I promise Vienne this was a mistake”. Silas said, his voice carrying a shaky, uncharacteristic sadness.

Behind her, emerging from the shadows of the corridor, the tall man in the dark coat slowly lowered a silenced pistol. He met my eyes through the smoke, completely ignoring Silas, and raised a single finger to his lips in a slow, terrifying gesture for silence.

Then, he reached out, caught Aunt Marissa as her knees buckled, and dragged her collapsing body back into the darkness of the hallway, slamming the apartment door shut from the outside.

We were locked in. The escape route was gone, and the heavy thud of boots began kicking at the window from the fire escape outside. We were completely surrounded.

We all looked outside. he black SUV parked outside Lena’s apartment wasn’t alone anymore. Three more vehicles had pulled into the snow-covered street silently. Men dressed in dark tactical clothing were stepping out one by one.

“No,” Silas said quietly beside me. His voice sounded colder than I had ever heard it before. “They found you.”

Before I could process what he meant, every phone inside the apartment buzzed simultaneously.

Mine.

Elias’s.

Silas’s.

Even Lena’s.

The sound filled the dark apartment like a warning bell.