It’s been a month, and surprisingly she actually made it out alive. Not like she nearly died four times while waiting for her time to go out.
Nearly got shot. Aaron was drunk. Then he gave her coffee, and it turns out she has a really big tolerance for pills. Or at least the strong ones. She didn’t even know she could dodge glass. Maybe this really was a game of survival. Nearly got shot again, this time on purpose. She couldn’t stay in here, at least she’d be at school for today. Away from Aaron, even if he would always keep an eye on her.
“Alex, hurry. Elijah is coming to pick you up.” Aaron called from down stairs, Alex sighed, finishing her hair and walking down the stairs. She put on her shoes.
“I’m ready.” She muttered, Aaron turned around to look at her smiling. He ran a hand through his beard, and walked over to her.
“You look unrecognizable. That’s good.” He said, patting her shoulder watching as she flinched slightly. The same black sleek car pulled up by the driveway. She walked out the door, her hand hesitating to close the door, scared that it might explode if she closed it. She was going to be out of this house, out of hell. She was just going out of the devils’ lair into the chambers of darkness. Westmore was that darkness, as happy as it looked, as happy as it sounded when people talked about it, it still had secrets, lies.
Two teenagers who ‘died’. A mystery that no one had uncovered, except for Alex in her desperate attempt to clear his name, and now he was here waiting for her. Taking her to school, as if nothing had happened. As if no one had gone through so much trouble, just for it to come down to this.
“Morning, Alex.” Elijah muttered, voice strained. His jaw was tense. He kept his eyes on the road, as Alex climbed into the car, closing the door afterwards. She put her bag on her lap, and buckled her seatbelt.
“Good morning.” She said, her voice also strained. She looked down at where her bag was, sighing. The world around her turned dark, and it was just them, in this car, alone. Her eyes drifted towards him, her eyes searching his face for any other emotion, but all she saw was walls. Walls built around that facade.
“Same school as always, right?” He asked.
“Yeah, it’s the only school around here, except for the one here locally in St. Bernard.” She muttered, the car started. She stared at the house, the windows staring back at her. As if all of this was her fault, because it was her fault. If she hadn’t done this project, if she hadn’t been so desperate.
No, she was letting Aaron get in her head. She did the right thing, right? Elijah was here, alive. Alice was also alive, and she wasn’t dead. She wasn’t dead, that was her whole goal. Not to die, at least not yet.
“So, you found the recording, right?” Elijah said, breaking through the silence. Alex nearly flinched at hearing his voice, maybe because she hadn’t heard his voice in about eight years. Maybe because she felt like he was a ghost, and all of this was just a fever dream. Maybe she was still dreaming about that night, before her mom woke her up. Before she went to the plaza with Katie and Andrew, before Max came back. Before she even got those notes, and weeks before she sent that email to the principal.
“Yeah, I found it. I showed it to Andrew. I also found your backpack.” She explained, Elijah hummed.
“You know that backpack was put there two minutes before you found it, right? That recording was made an hour and a half earlier, and all you found was staged. Aaron threatened us into it. Said he’d hurt Alice if we didn’t do it. So of course I said yes, I wasn’t going to let him lay a finger on her.” He replied, making a left turn and down West High St.
“Right, of course. Everything is staged out now, everything is planned. Just like your death, and Alice’s death. How about you just get a book called ‘The Art of Dying’ while you’re at it.” She said sarcastically. The school building became more and more visible as they kept driving. He went into the student parking and stopped.
“I don’t really think there’s a book for that, but OK,” he said, tapping his fingers on the steering wheel.
“Anyway, have a good day at school. I’ll pick you up after, take you home. And then take you to Aaron’s. He said you needed to talk to your mom about something.”
Alex stepped out of the car, putting her backpack on. The door closed behind her, as she started walking towards the entrance. She walked to the front office, smiling down at the overly cheerful lady greeting her.
“Name?”
“Layla Simpson”
“OK, I see your dad registered you. Aaron Leon?”
She grimaced at the word, at his name. Having to pretend like he was her dad.
“Right, uhm. I just moved from London, so.” She muttered, looking at the floor. She smiled, typing something into the computer, looking back up.
“Good, I love how you talk. I’ll get one of the seniors to show you around really quickly before the first bell.” She grabbed the phone and called ‘Andrew Song’ through the intercom. Alex blinked, she would finally be able to see him. Perfect.
He walked through the door, looking at her as if he had never seen her before.
“Andrew, this is Layla. She’s new here, make her feel at home.” She smiled, as he nodded. He gestured for Alex to follow him, as they entered the hallway, Andrew guided Alex towards an empty hall, turning to look at her, he didn’t even give her time to say a thing before going in and hugging her like his life depended on him. She blinked, smiling softly. He hugged him back, as he pulled away.
“You had me scared, half to death. Are you OK, are you hurt? Did he do anything to you?” He kept asking questions, making Alex dizzy with answers. She wanted to tell him everything, but she couldn’t, not yet. She would the moment all of this ended, the moment everything was back to normal. She was terrified that Aaron would find Andrew and he would hurt him too, she couldn’t risk that.
“Yeah, I’m fine. He didn’t do anything to me, see? I’m OK, I’m always OK.” She smiled, fixing her hair, he sighed, placing his hands on her shoulders nodding.
“You sure?”
“Positive.” She said. 16Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡU7ZIaravrR
Andrew nodded, but the worry in his eyes didn’t leave. Alex could see it. She felt it. It crawled under her skin like guilt, like a shadow she couldn’t shake.
“I’ll walk you to your first period,” he offered. “You’re in AP English, right? I checked your schedule earlier. Sorry, I just—wanted to know you were really coming back.”
Alex nodded slowly, grateful for the distraction. The hallway was still mostly empty, lockers humming faintly from the clattering of morning routines, but it felt like every footstep echoed.
“You didn’t tell Max?” she asked quietly.
He hesitated. “No. I wanted to. He’s been asking. But I didn’t know what would happen. I didn’t know if you’d… if he’d…”
“If I’d be a body instead of a new student,” she finished. Her voice wasn’t bitter. Just flat. Observational.
“Yeah,” Andrew whispered.
They reached the classroom door. Students inside were already chatting, taking their seats, pretending everything in the world was fine.
“I’ll see you after class,” he said.
Alex paused. “Hey, Andrew?”
He turned, one foot already backing away.
“Thanks. For not treating me like I’m a ghost.”
He smiled softly. “You’ve never been a ghost to me, Alex. Just a girl stuck in a nightmare.”
Then he was gone.
—
First period passed in a blur. Second was worse.
She didn’t remember what the teacher said. She didn’t remember what she was supposed to write. She just stared at the lined paper and thought about how surreal it was to hold a pencil again.
At lunch, she didn’t sit with anyone. She grabbed a tray, walked outside, and found a bench behind the library no one used. The cold air hit her skin and felt more real than anything else had in a month.
Her phone buzzed.
Unknown Number: Check the locker. 305. Top shelf.
She froze.
Alex’s breath caught in her throat. Who the hell—?
The phone buzzed again.
Unknown Number: Don’t make me repeat myself.
Her palms itched with sweat. She stood up slowly, heart racing, and made her way back into the building, keeping her eyes low. The hallway near 305 was empty, and the metal locker practically hummed under the fluorescent lights.
She opened it.
Inside was a flash drive. And a note:
“Trust is earned in blood. Play this before tonight.”
Her stomach twisted.
—
She waited until she was back home—or what they called home.
Aaron was out. For now.
She locked her bedroom door. Plugged the flash drive into her laptop. Hit play.
Grainy footage appeared. A security cam angle. Low-res. The date in the corner: October 15th, 2002. The night Alice Cortez died.
Alex leaned in. It was silent at first—then voices.
A young Aaron. Arguing with someone. Yelling. Something about “finishing what you started.” Something about “the body.” Something about Elijah.
Her throat tightened.
There was movement in the background. A shadow. Someone with long hair. Alice?
The footage glitched. Cut to black.
Then another clip loaded.
This time it was recent. A phone video. Shaky. Shot from a car.
Aaron. Dragging someone into a house.
That someone was her.
She shut the laptop, breathing hard.
Someone was watching. Someone had this the whole time.
And someone had just handed her the first real piece of power she’d had since this whole nightmare began.
—
That night, when Elijah picked her up, she didn’t speak at first.
“Everything okay?” he asked, glancing over.
“No,” she said. “But I think I know how to end this.”
His hands tightened on the wheel. “You sure?”
She nodded, pulling the flash drive from her coat pocket.
“I’m done playing by their rules. It’s time we made our own.”
He looked over at her for a long second—longer than he should’ve.
And for once, there was no wall in his expression. Just fear. And maybe… maybe a sliver of hope.
They drove into the night, toward whatever waited next.
The sky outside was dark, but not the soft kind of dark. It was the choking kind—the kind that pressed against the windows and made everything feel like it was closing in. Alex kept her fingers wrapped around the flash drive like it might disappear if she let go. She wasn’t ready for that. She wasn’t ready to be powerless again.
“Where are we going?” Elijah asked quietly.
She glanced over at him. “Andrew’s.”
He raised a brow. “You think he’s ready to know?”
Alex let out a dry laugh. “I don’t even know if I’m ready. But I don’t think we have time to wait for that.”
They drove in silence for a minute. Elijah’s jaw was tight again, like it had been earlier, like it always was when she mentioned anything that touched too close to the past. Like he still flinched at ghosts. Or maybe at the parts of himself he hadn’t buried deep enough.
“What if this doesn’t fix anything?” he said suddenly. “What if it just… ruins more?”
Alex looked out the window. “Then at least it ruins the right people this time.”
That quieted him.
When they pulled up to Andrew’s house, she hesitated before getting out. The porch light was off. Everything was still. She didn’t know if it meant safety or danger anymore. She didn’t know what safe was.
They knocked twice, soft. The door opened immediately. Andrew stood there in a hoodie and basketball shorts, looking half like a boy she used to trust and half like a stranger trying to pretend nothing had changed.
“It’s time,” Alex said. No hello. No small talk. Just the truth.
Andrew’s expression didn’t change. He stepped aside and let them in. “I figured it would be soon.”
Inside, the house smelled like cinnamon and cleaning spray. Too normal for what they were about to do. Elijah closed the door behind them, locking it quietly.
“Tell me everything,” Andrew said, arms crossed, eyes locked on Alex. “No more half-truths. No more ‘I’m fine.’ I want it all.”
Alex sat down slowly at the kitchen table and placed the flash drive in the center like it was a weapon. Maybe it was.
“Okay,” she whispered. “Then let’s ruin everything.”
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