LOGINThe campus felt louder than usual that morning.Not in the normal way, not the careless laughter or music spilling from someone’s speaker, but in the low, uneasy buzz of people trying to pretend nothing had happened while talking about nothing else.Cecil moved through the main hallway with her usual lowenthusiasm when no one was paying attention to her.Her bag slung over her shoulder, expression calm. Students clustered in tight circles, voices dropping when others passed too close.“…I swear I heard it, like an actual gunshot.”“No way,” another girl said. “Security said it was a car backfiring.”“My roommate saw police lights near the south gate.” the first girl added again“They said someone got hurt.”Another voice cut in from behind a row of other people. “My cousin heard a wolf howl after. Like, a real one.”A nervous laugh followed.Cecil didn’t slow. She walked past walls plastered with flyers and announcements, past groups leaning against walls with their phones out, scroll
The inside of Archie’s car smelled like perfume and leather.Sharp and clean.Piper sat curled slightly into the passenger seat, her hands resting in her lap, fingers still faintly sticky from dried blood that wasn’t hers. The night air blew through the half-opened window, cool against her skin, but it didn’t touch the tight heaviness in her chest.Archie drove in silence.His knuckles were pale against the steering wheel, streaked with faint rust-colored stains that hadn’t fully washed off.The muscles in his jaw flexed every few seconds like he was holding something back, anger, grief, blame or maybe all three.Behind them, the guard's lifeless body was lying there, looking like he was only asleep. No one spoke.The hum of the car filled the space between them.Piper focused on small things instead of the faint ticking sound from the dashboard, the way the headlights stretched long shadows across empty streets, and the lingering smell of gunpowder that clung faintly to Archie’s jack
Cecil’s fingers hovered over her phone, eyes glued to the screen as it had betrayed her. Package secured. One casualty. Target survived.” she reread out loud.She blinked, swallowing hard, trying to steady her breath. Her plan had been clean and clear. Cecil’s mind raced, refusing to pause long enough for rational thought.It was supposed to be just Piper. Just her. How did it end up like this? With someone dead.Her hand balled into a fist, the knuckles white beneath the soft glow from the moonlight.She had been careful. She had been patient. Everything had been planned to perfection. And yet, someone had died.Her thoughts shifted involuntarily to Celeste, the woman one she’d called earlier, the one who had ordered the operation in the first place.The woman whose voice could slice through steel and leave blood in its wake, whose cold, precise control had never wavered, and whose wrath she had experienced before.The memory crept in un: the hospital, sterile white lights, the shar
Cecil didn’t look back after she turned the corner.She kept walking like she had somewhere important to be, swinging her bag against her hip, and humming under her breath like nothing in the world mattered to her.But the moment she was out of sight, her smile faded.Something had been off back there.The way Piper held her bag and the way Ember watched her too closely.The strange tension that had settled between them like a secret they were scared to say.Cecil pushed through the glass doors of the campus café, warm air wrapping around her instantly. The place was unusually loud for a cafe.Students talking over each other, smoothie glasses clinking and someone laughing too loudly near the soda machine.She ordered takeout without thinking too much about what she picked. Anything fast, anything that gave her an excuse to leave quickly.While she waited, she leaned against the counter and scrolled through her phone, pretending like she wasn’t replaying the last ten minutes over and
Archie stepped out, eyes sharp, scanning the street fast, first Piper, then his guard standing in front of her, tension obvious even from a distance.“What the hell is going on?” he demanded, already walking toward them.The guard’s shoulders stiffened. “You shouldn’t be here,” he muttered under his breath, not turning fully around.Archie ignored him completely and focused on Piper. “You disappeared, and he,” he said, pointing at the guard, “left without saying anything. I followed because something felt off.” His eyes narrowed at the distance between her and the guard.“Now I find you standing in the middle of the road looking like you’re about to pass out?”Piper opened her mouth, but her words refused to form. Her heart was still racing too fast, adrenaline flooding every nerve.Behind Archie, another car rounded the corner, the headlights brighter than Archie’s own.The two shadowed figures shifted slightly, staying just outside the direct beam of light.The guard’s posture staye
Piper stopped in her tracks. The street was quiet except for the distant hum of traffic, but the person ahead made her stomach drop.He was standing there, hands in his pockets, just watching quietly.“Piper,” he said, his voice low, sounding almost casual. “We need to talk.”She squeezed the strap of her bag, still pressing the vial against her side. “Who are you?” she asked, trying to sound braver than she felt.The person didn’t answer right away. He took a slow step closer, the shadows from the streetlight cutting across his face, obscuring just enough.“You already know more than you should,” he said finally, “And I can’t let you keep going without understanding the consequences.”Piper felt her heart beat faster than ever. “You, what do you mean? About the professor?”He tilted his head slightly, studying her. “Yes, and about the vial, and everything else you’ve touched tonight.”Every instinct screamed at her to run. But she stayed frozen. Something about him, something about t







