Ghosts don’t stay buried

Maria woke to the sound of rain.

It drummed softly against the cabin roof, steady and relentless, like a countdown she couldn’t see. For a moment, she lay still, her body heavy, every muscle aching as if she’d been pulled apart and stitched back together wrong. Then memory slammed into her Leonardo’s voice, the gunshot, darkness.

She bolted upright.

Pain flared along her ribs, sharp enough to steal her breath. She clenched her teeth and forced herself to focus. The cabin was dim, lit only by a lantern hanging from a nail in the wall. The air smelled of antiseptic, damp wood, and blood.

“Easy.”

Elias’s voice came from the corner. He was seated at a small table, cleaning his rifle with slow, deliberate movements. He didn’t look at her, but somehow she knew he was watching her reflection in the darkened window.

“Where’s Marko?” she demanded.

“Alive,” Elias said. “For now.”

That was not reassuring.

Maria swung her legs over the side of the mattress, ignoring the dizziness that followed. Marko lay on the floor nearby, bandaged heavily, his skin pale, lips tinged blue. His chest rose and fell, shallow but steady.

She knelt beside him, pressing her fingers to his neck until she felt a pulse. Only then did the tightness in her chest loosen slightly.

“He won’t last long without proper care,” Elias said. “Bullet missed anything vital, but infection will finish the job if Leonardo doesn’t.”

At the sound of that name, Maria stiffened. “He shot me.”

Elias finally looked at her. His eyes were sharp, assessing. “Grazed your side. You passed out from shock, not blood loss.”

“So Leonardo just… left?” Her voice shook. “That’s not like him.”

“No,” Elias agreed quietly. “It isn’t.”

Silence stretched between them, thick and uneasy. Outside, thunder rolled in the distance.

Maria stood, turning to face Elias fully. “You showed up at the perfect time. That makes me nervous.”

It should have offended him. It didn’t. If anything, a bitter smile tugged at his mouth.

“Good,” he said. “You should be nervous.”

She crossed her arms. “You knew Marko.”

“Yes.”

“And he knows you?”

“Oh, he knows me,” Elias said. “He just hoped I’d stay dead.”

Her blood ran cold. “What does that mean?”

Before Elias could answer, Marko groaned.

Maria rushed back to him as his eyes fluttered open. They were unfocused at first, then sharpened when they landed on Elias.

Everything changed.

Marko’s body went rigid, his hand twitching toward the knife that was no longer in his boot.

“You,” he rasped.

Elias stood slowly. “Hello, Marko.”

The air between them crackled with something far more dangerous than gunfire.

“You shouldn’t be here,” Marko said, struggling to sit. “I watched you burn.”

Elias’s jaw tightened. “You watched me get blamed.”

Maria looked between them, heart pounding. “Someone explain. Now.”

Marko laughed weakly, a harsh, broken sound. “You really don’t know who saved you, do you?”

Elias stepped closer. “Don’t.”

“No,” Marko insisted. “She deserves the truth.”

He met Maria’s eyes. “Elias was my partner. Best I ever had. Until a mission went wrong.”

Elias’s hands curled into fists.

“They needed a scapegoat,” Marko continued. “Someone expendable. Someone who’d already lost everything.”

Maria turned slowly to Elias. “Your sister.”

Elias flinched.

“She died because of an order,” Marko said. “An order I followed.”

The words hit like bullets.

“You told me it was intelligence failure,” Maria whispered.

Marko looked away. “I told you what kept you from running.”

Elias moved so fast Maria barely saw it. He grabbed Marko by the collar, hauling him upright despite the wound.

“You let them pin it on me,” Elias snarled. “You let them erase her.”

“I didn’t have a choice!” Marko shot back. “They would’ve killed you if I fought it.”

“So you let me die instead.”

Thunder cracked overhead, shaking the cabin.

Maria stepped between them, shoving Elias back with more force than she knew she had. “Enough!”

Both men froze.

“You don’t get to tear each other apart while Leonardo is still breathing,” she said. “Because I promise you he didn’t walk away last night out of mercy.”

As if summoned by her words, a low rumble drifted through the trees.

An engine.

Elias’s head snapped toward the door. He moved to the window, peering through a crack in the boards.

“What is it?” Maria asked.

“Too many,” he said grimly. “At least three vehicles.”

Marko’s face drained of color. “He brought a team.”

Elias turned back to them, eyes hard. “This cabin won’t hold.”

Maria swallowed. “Then we run.”

“No,” Elias said. “We fight.”

Marko laughed weakly again. “With what? One rifle, one knife, and a half-dead man?”

Elias reached into his jacket and pulled out a small device, placing it on the table. Maria recognized it instantly.

A detonator.

“I planned for this,” Elias said. “Leonardo doesn’t forgive loose ends.”

Marko stared at the device. “You were going to kill us.”

“I was going to make sure he didn’t take you alive.”

Maria’s chest tightened. “Is that still the plan?”

Elias met her gaze. Something unreadable passed between them in regret, resolve, maybe both.

“No,” he said. “Now the plan is worse.”

The engines grew louder. Tires crunched over gravel.

Marko reached for Maria’s hand, gripping it tightly. “If this goes wrong”

“It won’t,” she cut in, though fear clawed up her spine.

Elias opened the cabin’s trapdoor, revealing a narrow passage beneath. “Get him down there. When I say move, you don’t hesitate.”

“And you?” Maria asked.

Elias chambered a round. “I settle old debts.”

A shadow passed across the window.

A familiar voice echoed through the trees, smooth and amused.

“Maria,” Leonardo called. “Come out. Let’s talk.”

Elias’s finger tightened on the trigger.

And outside, a safety clicked off.

The first shot shattered the silence

but it didn’t come from Elias’s gun.