From Athan's Papers and Leonard's Notebooks136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvomRao2Obm
✦ [Undated scrapbook - in unclear handwriting, signed: A.]136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQlB385q0Yc
“Every time they rejected what I wrote, they said, 'This doesn't sound like us.'136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpc4fAz49Bn
But they never said, 'This doesn't sound like the truth.'136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzY0Xa9vgHr
So I gave them the truth, and asked only that it be said in an anonymous voice.136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHgzAqiRBFu
And I became that voice.136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOn4NY6bbPM
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]136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡB0Ke0i9J8k
“Sometimes I feel like I'm not writing anything. I'm just covering up the sentences others write with my own voice.136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8ycCh31i3Q
Athan wasn't a name... he was a gap.136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6idf1CdRyt
And we all inhabited it.”
✦ [Letter not sent – folded inside a worn book]136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0yyvp2lQFl
“Thomas,136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPg1EqEiq9v
I know you read my last text.136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ38tPK42Cr3
I know you were afraid.136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOd61Imw3UW
But not of me… but of yourself, because you know I said what you couldn’t.136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRhjX3o7yJK
If I die, don’t publish anything else under Athan’s name.136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkNuGVrc9WM
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]136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6mnBj68DL6
“Athan wasn’t a murderer.136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdZQwbXxKbz
He wasn’t even a person.136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡO7TTL3tPCU
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]136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOBhd3o65qz
“The lake doesn’t forget.136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSQI32e2dN9
Water doesn’t drown those who tell the truth, but those who have no one to listen.136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgFixKJ73Z5
I’m going to go to him tonight.136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtieSIOJMWX
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]136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyjfAgl0PTK
"No one kills a shadow.136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6hLJsvMjT9
But a shadow can decide to follow no one anymore."
Letters from the Circle136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6908ksECNK
✦ [Letter from Laura Quinn – in ornate handwriting, dated months before the incident]136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrskMhiJ6ET
"I thought we were sheltering behind Athan.136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYIhLy9P3BE
But the truth is, we were hiding behind him, the less we felt.136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUm97uHG7Xj
I didn't like Leonard much, but he was the only one who wanted to give the Shadow a face.136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2xI0wotpPN
I was afraid that face would be seen."
✦ [Letter from Thomas Reilly – typed, appended to an unpublished article]136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWCFavzN0yC
"If there is a killer, it's time.136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1gkTD02qQR
Athan was an experiment… an abstract idea.136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡI0czxoZ1JF
But Leonard, with his stupid idealism, wanted it to become a tangible reality.136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqqXRUbsktl
And because we don't have the power to give life, we did what cowards do:136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGiiDUiy4YD
We silenced him, made his death seem like a personal decision."
✦ [Short note from James Holloway – in pencil, just a few words]136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUJoCsQjkhl
"There were five of us…136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡc7TgERBoZg
Then there were four…136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLGoHSs0Ozc
Then there were even fewer."
✦ Investigator Ella Moore's Final Report136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWyjpO2Kx3b
File: Death of Leonard Wilkes – Cascade Lake, New York136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡws29lfp4CY
Date: March 17136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzFlKttUp7H
Reporter: Department of Special Literary Investigations
🕯️ Narrative Analysis:136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxsVGnYWIMh
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:136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡl2ab0w03bT
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.136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2rpKYIKrOm
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?136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfpVCDftbys
Everyone, and no one.136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3cdldiQovo
The circle killed Leonard with its silence, with its cowardice, by making the writing a wall, not a mirror.
📝 Final word:136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZxG5dTwuue
Ella wrote:
"Athan may have been just a name... but Leonard was a human being.136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtEsj3ZX5ZK
And in the world of literature, when a human being is killed so that the name remains,136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡH9i70YoxEs
we no longer write... we bury."
✦ End of the novel✦
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