The Guy in the Dark

ARIA'S POV.

I stood in the hallway outside my room with suitcase that was packed and hidden in my closet, listening to my mom's breath from the room by the next door. She finally slept after the fight she had with me and after she had called me ungrateful and slapped me for the first time in my life.

My cheek was still aching.

"All I've done is sacrifice for you," she had screamed. "And you repay me by lying? By taking pills behind my back? By being weak?"

‘Weak’. That word echoed in my head like a death sentence.

I found her going through my things an hour ago. She'd discovered the medication, the therapist's notes I'd hidden, the rejection letter from Juilliard I'd been too afraid to tell her about.

"You were rejected?" She questioned in shock. "You told me you got in."

"I said they were still deciding…"

"You lied to me. My daughter is a liar and a failure." She wailed.

That was when I told her the truth about everything. About the anxiety, about the panic attack and about how I couldn't breathe.

I was standing in the hallway at 3:15 AM, waiting for Julian's call, waiting to find out if Sage actually showed up and waiting to find out if she was brave enough to go through with everything. I remembered what Julian had told me before he went home about Victoria. “She is planning something for you and I”. He wasn't specific. He just asked me to go and prepare for the switch.

My phone vibrated. Julian's text: “It's done. The car is downstairs, bring only essentials. Leave your phone.”

My heart hammered against my ribs. It was real and happening.

I grabbed my pre-packed bag from the closet. Clothes, toiletries, my anxiety medication and a photo of Sage and me from when we were twelve before everything fell apart.

I took one last look at my room and shook my head. “I don't belong here anymore, maybe I never did.” I thought.

I slipped out the front door, my hands shook as I locked it behind me. The elevator ride down felt like descending into a different world.

The car waiting outside wasn't Julian's BMW. It was a beat-up Honda with tinted windows. The driver's window rolls down.

"Aria Chen?" A woman's voice. She was maybe thirty, dark hair and tired eyes.

"Who are you?" I asked, suspiciously.

"Friend of Julian. Get in. We don't have much time." She said, hurriedly.

Every instinct screamed danger but I thought about my mother's hand connecting with my face, Victoria's threats and about drowning slowly in a life that was killing me.

I got into the car.

We drove in silence for twenty minutes. The city disappeared behind us, replaced by darker streets and older buildings.

"Julian said you're the twin," the woman finally said. "The good one."

"I'm not good. I'm just better at pretending." I said without an expression.

She laughed softly. "You'll fit right in where you're going, then. That neighborhood is full of people pretending everything's fine when it's all falling apart."

"Who are you? Really?" My face was puzzled.

"Someone who owes Julian a favor. That's all you need to know." She glanced at me in the rearview mirror. "But here's some free advice: whatever you think you're getting into, it's worse. Julian St. Claire isn't who he says he is neither is your sister and the people they're involved with?" She shook her head. "They're dangerous."

I felt a cold chill run down my spine. "What do you mean Sage is involved with dangerous people?"

"You really don't know anything about your twin's life, do you?" The woman pulled up in front of a run-down apartment building. "This is your stop. Apartment 3C. Key's under the mat."

She handed me a burner phone. "Julian will contact you on this. Don't use your real phone. Don't contact anyone from your old life and whatever you do, don't trust anyone at Lincoln High especially Cole Morrison."

"Who's Cole Morrison?"

She didn't answer me, she just pulled away leaving me in the dark streets.

The apartment building looked nothing like my mother's beautiful penthouse. The walls were stained. The hallway smelled like cigarettes and something rotting. I climbed the stairs to the third floor.

Apartment 3C. The key was where she said it would be.

I unlocked the door and stepped into Sage's life.

The apartment was small and cluttered. There were empty beer bottles, overflowing ashtrays and a couch with cigarette burns. That was where my sister had been living for five years while I slept in a room that looked like a hotel suite.

I felt guilty. A door opened down the hallway and a man stumbled out, my father. I hadn’t seen him in five years and the shock nearly knocked me over.

He was aged badly with grey hair, thin face, eyes bloodshot and unfocused. He was very drunk.

"Sage?" His voice was slurred. "When did you get home?"

I swallowed hard. That was the first test. Can I pretend to be my sister?

"Just now, Dad." I shook in fear.

He squinted at me and for a terrifying moment, I thought he knew. Then he nodded. "Did you eat dinner?"

"Yeah. I'm fine." I tried as much as possible to be normal.

"Good. Good." He swayed slightly. "I'm sorry about earlier, for grabbing you. I didn't mean to hurt you."

Grabbing her? Hurt her? What has Sage been dealing with? I thought in terror.

"It's okay, Dad."

"No, it's not okay. I'm a terrible father. Your mother was right to take Aria and leave me with…" He stopped, looking at me with sudden anguish. "I didn't mean it like that. I love you, Sage. I do."

"I know, Dad."

He stumbled back to his room and closes the door. I heard the sound of another bottle opening.

I stood in the middle of the apartment, surrounded by the wreckage of my father's life, and realized I knew nothing about what Sage had been surviving, nothing about how bad things really were.

The burner phone buzzed. Julian's text: “Are you in?”

“Yes. Where's Sage?” I asked, worriedly.

“There are complications. Victoria's men showed up and we're handling it. Stay inside. Don't go to school until Monday. Use the weekend to learn Sage's life. Check her room for clues about her schedule, her friends and everything.”

“What kind of complications? Is Sage okay?” I asked in panic.

There was no response.

I texted again: “JULIAN. IS MY SISTER OKAY?”

Still nothing.

Panic rose in my throat. “What have I done? I've sent Sage into my world, into whatever danger Victoria represents and now Julian won't respond.” I panicked.

I rushed to what must be Sage's bedroom. It was chaos, clothes everywhere, art supplies scattered across a desk, walls were covered in sketches and angry graffiti-style paintings. A window that doesn't lock properly and a mattress on the floor.

That was my sister's reality. That was what I never knew.

I was searching through her desk for her school schedule when I found something that made my blood freeze.

A notebook hidden under a pile of papers. The first page had one sentence written in shaky handwriting:

“If something happens to me, look for Cameron Morrison. He knew the truth.”

The name meant nothing to me.

I flipped through the pages. They were filled with dates, times, and cryptic notes:

“Party at Marcus's. Money changed hands. Cameron saw.

Cameron asked questions about the pills. I told him I saw someone at school.

Cameron died. They said suicide. I don't believe it.

Someone is watching me. Black car. Same one every day.

Marcus says I owe him. I'm scared.

The last entry is dated three days ago:

If I disappear, it's not an accident. If Aria is reading this, I'm sorry. I should have told you everything but they're watching. They're always watching and now I think they know about you too.” The book read.

My hands shook so badly that I dropped the notebook.

Sage knew someone who died. Someone named Cameron Morrison and she thought it wasn't suicide. She thought someone was watching her.

The burner phone rang. It was an unknown number.

I answered with trembling fingers. "Hello?"

"Aria Chen?" A man's voice was deep and unfamiliar. "Or should I say Sage Chen? It's hard to keep track of which twin is which these days." He chuckled.

Terror shot through me. "Who is this?"

"Someone who's very interested in your family. Your sister has something I need. Information about a boy who died two years ago. Cameron Morrison. I think you just found her notes about him."

I looked around the apartment wildly. "How do you know that?"

"Because I'm watching you. Right now."

I ran to the window. The street below was empty except for one black car parked across the street. It had dark tinted windows and its engine was running.

"What do you want?"

"I want you to bring me those notes. Tomorrow midnight in the old warehouse on Fifth Street. Come alone."

"And if I don't?" I summoned courage.

"Then your sister, the real Sage, currently pretending to be you at Ashford Academy will have an unfortunate accident. Just like Cameron Morrison did." His voice was ice. "Oh, and one more thing. I know about the switch. I know everything. So if you try to run, if you try to tell anyone, both of you die. Understand?"

The line went dead.

I stood frozen in Sage's bedroom with the notebook in my hands, staring at that black car outside.

Someone knows about the switch. Someone wants Sage's information about a dead boy and is threatening to kill us both.

Behind me, footsteps came from the hallway.

A heavy one not like my father's stumbling gait.

Someone else was in the apartment. I spun around as Sage's bedroom door slowly opened.

A figure was standing in the doorway. Tall and a dark hoodie hiding his face.

"Hello, Aria," he said. "We need to talk about your sister and about the murder she witnessed."

He stepped into the light and I saw his face.

Dark hair with intense eyes, dangerous and beautiful at the same time.

"My name is Cole Morrison," he says. "And you're going to tell me everything Sage knows about my brother's death or neither of you will survive this week.”