From Athan's Papers and Leonard's Notebooks134Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡiQYkFYBh7e
✦ [Undated scrapbook - in unclear handwriting, signed: A.]134Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwn1UWWjNaE
“Every time they rejected what I wrote, they said, 'This doesn't sound like us.'134Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSSg0QrOA5G
But they never said, 'This doesn't sound like the truth.'134Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡREU7h0f7rI
So I gave them the truth, and asked only that it be said in an anonymous voice.134Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPG4EnYyySQ
And I became that voice.134Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXlX3Kk8ie1
And in time, they came to rely on me whenever they wanted to lie in the name of truth.”
✦ [From Leonard's Diary - Second Year of Joining the Circle of Five]134Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeS4YNhpPnr
“Sometimes I feel like I'm not writing anything. I'm just covering up the sentences others write with my own voice.134Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡg3L1pEQ9pG
Athan wasn't a name... he was a gap.134Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡF8ELyMovKt
And we all inhabited it.”
✦ [Letter not sent – folded inside a worn book]134Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVcNYYmJYwg
“Thomas,134Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡidhjwN3pbh
I know you read my last text.134Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2nqBpgkB0l
I know you were afraid.134Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡa9BMLqaKRX
But not of me… but of yourself, because you know I said what you couldn’t.134Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFkDfD4S0B1
If I die, don’t publish anything else under Athan’s name.134Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhBlI7NWCP7
Let him die in me… or let him live if someone finds him worthy.”
✦ [Note in Ella’s handwriting – in the margin of the investigation paper]134Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWdhsfUGbcu
“Athan wasn’t a murderer.134Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4vKOgzNKLK
He wasn’t even a person.134Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCS1xTMIEgI
He was a chokehold in the voice of everyone who wrote, and he was afraid to be attributed with what he believed.”
✦ [Last page of Leonard’s notebook – the day before the incident]134Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7hHoprWwRR
“The lake doesn’t forget.134Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8TFPeS3qTb
Water doesn’t drown those who tell the truth, but those who have no one to listen.134Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBZ6IM7gdxn
I’m going to go to him tonight.134Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡG9O5NOWoiC
And if I come back, I’ll write under Athan’s name… not to hide behind me, but to apologize to him.”
✦ [Epilogue – Unknown handwriting, found inside Leonard's coat fold]134Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVGNLG5IV7j
"No one kills a shadow.134Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxmppU9me1E
But a shadow can decide to follow no one anymore."
Letters from the Circle134Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkLaMT0aFMv
✦ [Letter from Laura Quinn – in ornate handwriting, dated months before the incident]134Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfuc2jBa4AQ
"I thought we were sheltering behind Athan.134Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGmiYLQ80w8
But the truth is, we were hiding behind him, the less we felt.134Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMgTbx7CxgT
I didn't like Leonard much, but he was the only one who wanted to give the Shadow a face.134Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJqk0SnPxly
I was afraid that face would be seen."
✦ [Letter from Thomas Reilly – typed, appended to an unpublished article]134Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXGBtYSFvYp
"If there is a killer, it's time.134Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAvcbSZkGFa
Athan was an experiment… an abstract idea.134Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡa3vS6jpRUg
But Leonard, with his stupid idealism, wanted it to become a tangible reality.134Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡF3o7eUfUj0
And because we don't have the power to give life, we did what cowards do:134Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTZBFFcqgCC
We silenced him, made his death seem like a personal decision."
✦ [Short note from James Holloway – in pencil, just a few words]134Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbUQTEoTAKN
"There were five of us…134Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxBjHW07EYy
Then there were four…134Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡas3RSWvFjk
Then there were even fewer."
✦ Investigator Ella Moore's Final Report134Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡf96ulqz7wr
File: Death of Leonard Wilkes – Cascade Lake, New York134Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEUjBshK2j7
Date: March 17134Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCIfr8c8cRG
Reporter: Department of Special Literary Investigations
🕯️ Narrative Analysis:134Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJ4N6Fl69au
The "Five" literary circle created a fictional literary persona named Athan, which served as a disguise for writing highly daring or identity-blurring texts, published under their real names.
Over the years, Leonard Wilkes, the youngest member, began to give Athan a personal life. He wanted to transform from a shadow into a real author.
This approach was strongly opposed by the members, who feared it would expose the true identities of all those who contributed under that name.
He was subjected to indirect threats and gradually removed from the group.
On the day of his death, a gun was found in his hand, a gunshot wound to his mouth, and his ear was severed, as in some of Athan's self-written stories.
🔍 Conclusion:134Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡc4RC8MNJgD
It was not a pure suicide. Leonard went out to perform a symbolic ritual similar to what was written, hoping to find someone to stop him, to bring him back from his pre-existing madness.
It wasn't a direct murder.134Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ98QHwG2piK
There's no physical evidence of another person at the scene, but the psychological pressure, the symbolic threat, and the literary betrayal were all an invisible bullet.
🧩 The killer?134Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIM88ovjToA
Everyone, and no one.134Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIzl33YgYgS
The circle killed Leonard with its silence, with its cowardice, by making the writing a wall, not a mirror.
📝 Final word:134Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡT6GWcrtswo
Ella wrote:
"Athan may have been just a name... but Leonard was a human being.134Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxWNDuYSrAR
And in the world of literature, when a human being is killed so that the name remains,134Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYyiHFkJJX3
we no longer write... we bury."
✦ End of the novel✦
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