The train shuddered as it passed the underground tunnels while stale air seeped in from every direction. The rhythmic sounds of tracks were meditative yet Alina’s focus wavered. She held the strap of her bag firmly, while her shoulders pulled inward and her body shrank as though she wanted to vanish into herself. She had always disliked crowds. Being too close to people in tight spaces and the unwarranted, uncomfortable sensation of brushing against a stranger’s skin. But right now it was not that. It was something more.
An unfamiliar sensation was creeping along her spine and wrapping around her chest. It wasn’t fear—not quite. It was awareness. She felt a prickling in her skin as though someone was looking at her.
Her gaze traveled around the subway car as she examined the faces under the faint glow of a flickering fluorescent light. A businessman wearing a rumpled suit and a woman dozing off by the window with a phone-absorbed teen. Nothing unusual.
Then she saw him.
A man wearing a leather jacket stood by the doors while his posture remained stiff and his hands were tucked into his pockets. He wasn’t looking at her directly but she felt his gaze somehow. Feeling exposed. He seemed to recognize her presence in a way that transcended just physical. Like he was aware that she was there, looking at him. A piercing pain hit her instantly and she closed her eyes.
She forced her gaze down to the damaged floor beneath her feet while concentrating on the scratches to distract herself. It’s nothing. It's just her mind playing tricks on her. She needed to take deep breaths. Only a few more stops, she can do it.
But the unease only increased.
Her heart beat erratically as her eyes grew blurry while tingling sensations slithered under her skin as if it were electric static. The air felt heavier, difficult to breathe. Then, without warning, it happened.
Something inside her, a sudden jolt. Her vision went dark suddenly as an invisible force yanked her out of her body. Her stomach lurched and her breath stuck in her throat —
She was gone.
And yet, she was still there.
Her vision shifted to a completely new perspective slowly sharpening. She is still in the subway car. The weight of a heavy leather collar pressed against her neck. She noticed the smell of sweat mixed with an acrid burning sensation in her throat.
She looked at her hands—no, not her hands, his hands.
Panic surged in her, raw, and consuming.
“They’re following me.”
A terrifying thought hit her abruptly with the force of a wrecking ball. It wasn’t hers. It was his. And she can hear it. Encroaching in his mind.
He scanned the subway car through her eyes searching for herself. Alina struggled to get hold of her body and break away but his intense fear submerged her awareness.
Then she saw herself.
Small. She sat curled up in a corner seat still holding onto her bag strap with her eyes unfocused and drooping. She looked like an eerie specter of herself in another person’s reality. The revelation created a shockwave that temporarily released her mind from the man’s mental grip.
A sudden flash — a basement, some people, quiet whispers, and the sound of footsteps.
Fear.
Alina gasped, the sound foreign in the man’s throat. Then, just as suddenly as it had begun, the connection snapped. Her consciousness slammed back into her body leaving her breathless. The dissonance. Her vision was swimming, the light seemed too bright like they were searing her retinas. Few passengers looked her way, their expressions unreadable. But the man - the man in the leather jacket was already moving. He was leaving. Pushing through the crowd.
Alina gasped for air in quick, sharp inhales while her heart pounded against her ribs in rapid succession. “What the hell was that?”
She had experienced mind-hopping before but was never forced to. Was he trying to tell her he was like her?
Before she could talk herself out of it Alina stood up and began to follow him.
The city made a raucous noise with blaring horns, chatter of crowds, and neon signs buzzing against the wet roads. The leather-jacket man moved quickly through the city streets while keeping his head low and his shoulders rigid. Keeping her distance Alina followed him. Curious.
Curiosity had rewarded Alina before. Her curiosity about her power drove her to know and accept it. To experiment with it and hone it. Led her to the knowledge that these powers come with a price, of being hunted and forced to live in the shadows. She had spent years evading strange eyes lingering on her and shadows that stayed too long.
But this could be a mistake.
But he knows how to mind-hop. He is definitely like her. He can’t be hunting her.
Thoughts swirled around Alina’s mind as she swayed between curiosity and suspicion. Anyway, she will keep her distance, if it seems too much she will bolt. She tells herself.
She stopped at the edge of a sidewalk as he crossed the street and went into a pharmacy. Alina didn’t go inside. Instead, she stood at a distance pretending to scroll through her phone while keeping her gaze on the entrance. He stayed inside just for a few minutes before exiting. He straightened his jacket and glanced around as if checking for a tail, then continued down the street.
She fell back into step, careful, measured. They moved through the cityscape, past the lit-up shops lining the streets at night, past late-night wanderers. He never looked back, but she felt it—he knew she was there.
And then, he turned into an alley.
Alina hesitated at the entrance. The darkness standing tall and looking back at her, damp brick walls and a distant stench of rot. Her gut twisted—this was stupid, reckless.
The man in the leather jacket stopped.
She noticed he was not alone. Another figure stepped out from the darkness and moved toward the faint light of a distant streetlamp. She hurried and hid behind a dumpster. The smell only makes things worse.
Their conversation was hushed, urgent, words slipping through the silence like knives Alina strained to hear, moving closer.
“… Kai… (inaudible) …sabotaging missions?”
The leather jacket-clad man raised his hands his voice low but stern.” I did not want to go against you… (inaudible) …
The second man’s voice tightened. “…..believed in you, Kai…..”
“Kai” Alina muttered.
The man’s jaw clenched. “, ……and you just threw it away.”
“… (inaudible) …Anomalies.”
There. the word. Anomaly! She had heard it before. It was the word they used for people like her, the ones with powers, the ones who didn’t belong.
Alina’s pulse and curiosity spiked. She had to know more. She let herself reach—grasp—until her consciousness latched onto the man in the leather jacket.
The world blurred. An unfamiliar and thrilling sensation enveloped her body. She could only hear the final words before it happened.
“You were family… I am sorry…”
The words had barely settled into the dense stagnant air when a flash of steel caught the faint light. The leather-jacketed man reacted with a backward motion but failed to evade the blade that struck him with a wet and sickening noise as it penetrated his side. His breath caught in a sharp, broken gasp while his fingers twitched as if searching for anything to grasp.
Alina’s hopping instinct struck almost involuntarily pulling herself back with a brutal force.
Pain. A searing pain invaded her body even though it wasn’t hers, but she felt as if it was meant to be there. Fear, visceral and suffocating wrapped itself tightly around her ribs in an embrace. Hopping itself takes a toll on her, it jolts her from the inside, her heart pounds and her vision swims making waves in the air for a while. Combine that with fear, and the pain of being stabbed, Alina feels she is going to die. Bile burned at the back of her throat, she was going to be sick.
During the haze of her spinning senses, the attacker shifted, Eyes—dark, piercing—flickered in her direction.
Fuck! Did he see me?
——-
Alina’s heart beat violently against her ribs while a thunderous pulse echoed through her ears. She couldn’t breathe. Couldn’t move. Time appeared to be splintered, each second invariably going on for hours as she willed herself to disappear.
Gathering every ounce of courage, she forced herself to glance from behind the trash—but he was already retreating his face hidden by a dark hood. No hesitation. No lingering pause. He exited without a sound while leaving his victim behind.
Her chest rose and fell rapidly, Her body drenched in sweat.
What the fuck just happened?
The thought barely formed before another took its place, sharper, colder.
What if he saw me? Did he realize what I did? Will he come for me next?
A shudder ran through her.
She turned and ran.
The apartment was too quiet. No roommates. No prying eyes. She was alone with four walls that offered no judgment and posed no threat. She believed this was what home would have felt like if she had one when she was young.
She was small. Too young to grasp where and why she was being taken to. No screaming or crying for her mother. Just a stuffed rabbit in her tiny arms, worn down by years of love. A man talking, his face lost in the haze of memories.
A cold night. The door closed behind her and everything she knew before. She had never seen her uncle before, nor heard of him but something in the way he moved, the quiet sadness in his eyes, felt familiar. The similarities in their faces, the shared mannerisms, made her believe—hope—that he was connected to her in some way.
He was a drunk but he was kind. He never raised his voice or lifted a finger against her. He would ruffle her hair whenever he was sober enough to function and mumble quiet apologies, she didn’t fully understand. But most days, he was too lost, and it didn’t matter if he was there or not—she was always alone.
One day he was gone. A bottle too many found in the bright light of the day. He looked at peace. She had cleaned up the mess, made the calls, handled everything like she always had. Because that was what she did. Took care of things. Of people. It’s just who she was.
But tonight felt out of control. She sat on her couch staring at the ceiling with wide eyes while the echoes of a dead man’s last moments rushed through her mind. It was different this time. She experienced more than watching someone else’s thoughts. She had absorbed pieces of them. The victim’s terror, his pain.
And it wouldn’t go away.
She saw the image of a knife flickering in the dark whenever she closed her eyes. The wet heat of blood seeping through the fabric was felt as she whispered “Kai.” His throbbing memories. The attacker’s gaze. Her thoughts intertwined with his memories forming an inextricable knot.
She should go to the police.
But what would she even say? What was she doing in the alley?
She certainly can’t explain the truth. If the attackers were members of a larger dangerous organization she could become their target when she reports them.
Alina sighed heavily. She had to figure this out.
But one thing was certain.
She was close. She had never come this close to finding answers.
For a decade, she had searched. She spent countless hours researching old texts, following rumors that led nowhere. For countless years she has looked for a sign that she is not alone and there is an explanation about all this. About her powers, and her family.
Tonight she found a person, who had powers, it was not a rumor, not a story but an actual person.
She had to find people like her, she had to find answers.
—
Alina knew she shouldn’t be here. It could put him in danger too.
At the entrance of Nate’s bookshop, she realized she had no other place to turn to.
The sign on the shop’s door read ‘Closed’ but she could see him bent over the counter from where she stood outside. A familiar sight.
She remembered the first time she came here, she had been searching. For answers, for understanding still. The word anomalies had first appeared in an old, out-of-print book by a scientist, a title ignored and buried in the stacks of secondhand books, and this was where she had found it—this bookshop, tucked away between buildings that never seemed to change. Nate had been behind the counter even then, studying some book, barely looking up when she entered. But he had noticed the way she hesitated near the shelves labeled ‘Occults,’ and when she finally brought the book to the counter, he had said, “Interesting choice.”
She hadn’t answered then. Just paid for the book and left. But she came back. Again and again. Slowly, warily, she had let herself trust him. He never pried, never pushed, and always listened.
Now, she needed him to listen again.
She knocked twice, watching him jerk slightly before narrowing his eyes at the door. When he saw her, his expression softened.
The bell above the door jingled softly as she stepped inside. The scent of old books wrapped around her like a familiar blanket. A small TV mounted in the back office flickered, the news running in the background.
“Authorities remain baffled as yet another child has vanished without a trace. This marks the 30th disappearance in two years, leaving the town in a state of unease. The latest victim, a seven-year-old boy—”
Nate grabbed the remote and muted the television with a sigh. “Tea?” he asked, with his easy smile.
She nodded and smiled softly. “That sounds nice.”
A few minutes later, they sat in the back room, a steaming cup of tea in their hands.
Nate asked sipping his tea. “Is there something on your mind?”
“I mind-hopped today,” she said, voice raw. “I was forced to.”
His brows shot up. “Yeah? Like that time the lady touched you for too long?”
“No, not like that, I didn’t touch him. I didn’t have to.” Alina interjected.
Nate’s gaze sharpened. “Oh! I thought you had to touch someone to do that.”
“Yeah…” She nodded unfocused. “I recently discovered I can also mind-hop when I’m near someone. If I concentrate enough and they’re vulnerable, it happens. I don’t think I can do it with just anyone. If they’re too calm, too guarded, it doesn’t happen.”
Nate studied her, his expression unreadable. “Okay… and I’m guessing you saw something disturbing in his mind?”
Alina looked away. “Not in his mind. It’s what I saw happening to him.”
“Which is…?”Nate said hating the build-up.
She hesitated. She had always been guarded, too careful with her words. Letting someone in feels unnatural. But the weight of what she had seen pressed against her chest, demanding release. She took a shaky breath, fingers tightening around the edge of her sleeve before she finally spoke.
“I was forced to mind-hop, I did not initiate it.” she exhaled shakily. “When I was in the subway, I felt him looking at me, although he wasn’t, and before I understood what was happening—I was in his mind.” She gazed toward the ground. “He was scared, he was being followed I guess. I wanted to know how he did it or..why he did it. So I followed him.”
Nate was silent for a long moment. Then he leaned forward. “And did you get to know that?”
Alina shut her eyes. The scent of blood still clung to her memory.” Kai..” “anomaly”. The sharp, sickening twist of a blade.
“No,” she whispered. She gestured at him to look at the TV and un-muted it. The reporter’s voice came through, brittle and urgent.
“Breaking news— a man has been found murdered in an alley west of downtown. Authorities have confirmed his identity as Kai—”
Silence.
—
The days merged into one continuous and anxious pursuit of clues. Alina and Nate devoted their nights to books and rumors which pushed their work into early mornings while scattered notes surrounded them and a laptop screen hummed with a dull glow.
Nate looked at Alina while shuffling papers and said with a mix of admiration and exasperation, “You know, sometimes I can’t decide if you’re brave or just stupid,” Nate said, shuffling the papers in his hand, his tone caught somewhere between exasperation and admiration.
“What would you have done if you were me?” Alina asked, her eyes never leaving the glow of the laptop screen.
The question caught Nate off-guard. He paused, the papers in his hands forgotten.
Alina finally turned to look at him, and their eyes met. A flicker of something passed between them—understanding, maybe. Or something heavier, unspoken.
Nate let out a quiet breath, a warm smile tugging at his lips. “I guess we are both idiots then,” he said. It felt like an acknowledgment, a quiet admission that, at this moment, she wasn’t alone in her choices. That, for better or worse, he understood her.
She found herself thinking of the bookshop as her second home. The routine CCTV tasks, discussions, and debates about multiple theories and dumpling dinners. It all provided something she hadn’t realized she needed - stability.
One night She noticed him looking at an old photograph she hadn’t seen before. The photograph looked old, with fold creases on it and fading colors of the image. It had a young boy and an older girl outside a house.
“Who’s that?” Alina questioned.
After a brief hesitation, Nate replied after hesitating for a moment, “My sister.” She disappeared when I was 10.”
Alina’s chest tightened. “Was she..?”
A slow nod. “Yeah, She was… an anomaly. Like you.”
She swallowed the lump in her throat. “I’m sorry.”
He gave a slight nod while his smile remained empty as he shook his head. “That’s why I want to help. The cases of missing children seem related to their anomalous status which makes me believe I can find some answers too.”
A soft chime came from Nate’s laptop before Alina could say anything. A new CCTV video file displayed on their screen showed grainy footage from a street camera outside an old pharmacy. This pharmacy was Kai’s last stop before he entered the alley where he met his death. They needed to understand his reason for going there if he had a specific purpose. She bent forward to observe the steady flow of people entering and leaving. Nothing unusual at first.
Then she noticed something.
As he left the store one man held a paper or file in his hands. She recognized the folder because it bore the same symbol from previous footage. It wasn’t the first time. She had spotted this symbol in several video recordings throughout the recent days as it appeared in various people’s hands at different times but thought it was just a random occurrence. The repeated sight of that symbol made her believe there was a pattern.
She shifted her gaze to Nate who remained motionless with a face that revealed nothing. “Have you seen this symbol before somewhere? ”
Nate muttered dismissively, “What? That grainy thing that I can barely see? No, why? "
She faced Nate and her voice took on a frustrated tone. “Do you have anything better? Weeks have passed and this looks like an only lead. We should look into it.”
He added after a brief pause. “Alright. Let’s see what we can find.”
Inside the pharmacy, there was a smell of antiseptic that filled the air. The shelves contained standard medications and regular products. Nothing out of the ordinary. But her focus was on the man behind the counter, a tired-looking pharmacist who barely glanced up as she approached.
She put the closeup picture of the symbol on the counter. “I need to know what this is.”
He frowned while his eyes briefly darted to the paper before they quickly shifted away. “ I cannot see anything,” He said dismissively while moving around some receipts.
“Can you look at it again, please” Alina urged.
The pharmacist visibly irritated looked at it frowning. “I don’t know… could be that old hospital’s symbol….yeah looks like it. The one on Ralston Road. Which burned in a fire.”
Alina narrowed her eyes. “A hospital? Do you know where is the new one?”
He huffed, shuffling some receipts. “Why don’t you kids use the internet to look up information like this?”
Before she could press further, Nate’s hand landed on her arm, pulling her gently but firmly toward the exit. “Let’s go I think we have our answers’ he said “Thank you” smiled at the pharmacist and left.
“I am starving right now, I can only think after I have eaten something, who wants some dumplings? “Nate said smiling. Alina looked at his beaming face and felt a warmth growing inside her chest. She realized he added a cheer to her life that she didn’t know could exist.
Later she opened her laptop and began searching through old news archives.
A decades-old article. A medical facility on Ralston Road. A fire. Following an unidentified “incident” the building closed down while details remained obscure and concealed within redacted reports and official silence.
She turned the screen toward Nate, excited. “We have an address.”
After looking at the article for a moment Nate let out a sharp breath. “I have a bad feeling about this, It could be very dangerous!”
“You don’t have to come with me. Trust me I understand. Alina says while aggressively shoving her laptop in her bag “But I need to go, I have worked too hard to reach here and I cannot stop now, It will be..”
Nate keeps his hand softly on hers. And smiles.
------
The drive to the hospital was eerie. Felt more desolate than it looked. As they moved away from the city everything turned increasingly lifeless with empty roads stretching across farmland and abandoned factory skeletons reflecting time and neglect. Even the air seemed heavier. They moved swiftly through this deafening silence. The facility sat isolated on the outskirts with miles between it and the nearest town as though it wanted to stay hidden.
Dusk had already set in when they reached their destination. In the darkness, they saw the structure standing tall before them. It was just a crumbling shell from the outside—weather-worn walls, shattered windows, and, vine-covered rusted steel beams. Not just abandoned. Hollow. The place exuded emptiness beyond physical absence as though something had been intentionally taken away.
Alina came out of the car while her heart pounded with a mix of fear and excitement. Above the rusted doors appeared a faint symbol grasping her attention. The symbol that led them here.
“This is it” she whispered while inhaling deeply.
Nate reached into his pocket and touched the weapon’s cold metal while searching his surroundings with his gaze. “If things get too risky, we run. Agreed?” He said looking over at her.
Alina gave a nod while maintaining her focus on the door. She doubts she can promise that. Her entire life had led her here.
As they entered decay permeated from the space while dampness clung firmly to the walls. Abandoned corridors extended into the distance with various rooms slightly open containing broken gurneys and rusted IV stands within them. Dark stains on the walls, remnants of a raging fire. The building —if it had ever been a real hospital—felt like it was mimicking to be a hospital—a wolf masquerading as a human.
Alina searched for the light switch for a few moments before pressing it. The ceiling lights emitted a soft hum while projecting elongated shadows throughout the space. The rest of the lights have died completely, creating pockets of darkness that extended into unseen directions.
Alina felt something. Other than the unsettling feeling the darkness and the building were imposing.
A pressure at the back of her head, as if something trying to make space for itself.
As they moved forward Alina’s sensation got stronger. Someone’s here, watching them. Watching her. Not in a singular direction, but something omnipresent. She knew the sensation, she realized what was happening. She pressed her jaw shut tightly to prevent it from getting a hold of her.
She looked at Nate. He hadn’t noticed.
She didn’t want to say it out loud.
Despite her efforts to control her breathing and the sweat that formed on her brows, the feeling persisted. It came again—tentative, searching. Someone was trying to mind-hop into her.
She swallowed with force and pushed back with more strength, making a mental barrier around her. This time she is prepared. The pressure subsided. But she still feels the gaze lingering. Like a predator lurking in the shadows waiting for a better time to lunge.
“Someone is here, I can tell” Alina murmured her voice barely above a whisper.
“We can leave right now, just say the word” Nate had drawn his knife, a small but well-worn blade, its handle molded to fit his grip perfectly. The fact that he’d chosen steel over a gun tells you what he was anticipating. Something close. Too close.
Alina tried to push away the sensation of being watched while her eyes moved towards the basement-level window-like opening. It wasn’t dark. The lights shouldn’t be on if no one was down there but they are. Instinct drove her towards the opening while Nate followed several steps behind.
In a fraction of a second.
A rush of air. A blur of movement. Like a shadow ripped out itself from the dark hall and collided with them. Before Alina could react a figure, hidden in his dark clothes pinned her against the wall. Hands—cold, strong—closed around her throat.
“Nate..” she said choking.
The collision before had sent Nate crashing to the ground which resulted in the knife falling from his grasp. He searched for it but there was no time for it. He stood up staggering. Trying to wrench the attacker off her. The room filled with twisting limbs and desperate gasps. Her windpipe constricted under pressure while spots began to flicker at her vision’s edge.
Panic set in. A deep, primal instinct surged through her veins. Her mind reached outward in a desperate attempt to connect with her attacker’s mind so she could weaken him and loosen his hold. But something went wrong. It was too hard to concentrate, she was bound to make a mistake. Instead of latching on his mind, she moved sideways— into Nate’s.
And latched onto Nate.
A painful pull similar to being dragged through a vortex left her disconnected from her thoughts.
She was in his.
Nate has a flood of memories in his mind, It is overwhelming her and throws her into total disorientation.
Nate standing in the shadows of the city street as a younger self while watching. Watching her.
Alina.
He quietly observed her sitting on her uncle’s porch. He follows her when she comes out of her school’s playground. It was deliberate. He observed her from a distance long before they ever met in person.
Too many fragments, which doesn’t make sense.
She gasped! as the pressure on her throat was gone, shocking her back into her body. Coughing, she scrambled backward. The attacker—
Was running away, disappearing in the darkness.
Nate moved unsteadily next to her as he gasped for breath.
“Are you okay? Nate asked his hand looking for his knife in the darkness.
Alina nodded because she didn’t know what else to do. What she just saw caused her hands to shake as Alina looked at him with a sob burning her throat. She forced herself to put those memories aside. Now wasn’t the time.
They both sat a moment in stunned silence.
“We should go back, this is way too dangerous,” Nate asked wiping the blood off his temple.
“I have more questions than answers now and I wanna keep going, if you wanna leave, please do.” She replied coldly.
They kept moving.
A faint glow pulsed from within the small window at the hallway’s end as they approached it.
Alina cleaned her brow of sweat while feeling the burden of all her thoughts pressing down on her. She should have been questioning Nate, Why did she never question him? Can she trust him? Is this a trap?
They discovered a tight passage leading downwards and entered the space below. The basement was colder and bore the smell of damp concrete mixed with a metallic scent. The only overhead light above them showed a soft pulsing glow while remaining flickery yet active.
It looked like a laboratory. Bare bones of it. Metallic shelves of loose paper, files, and empty medicine bottles.
Four people would be a crowd in this room.
Then, from the darkness, movement. A figure walking towards them.
A woman.
Her tall posture showed precision as her dark hair flowed smoothly in waves to her shoulders. Her sharp cheekbones and piercing eyes reflected the dim lighting around them. Alina felt her skin prickle as she noticed the woman move with a deliberate stillness even though she didn’t seem armed.
Nate shifted, blade in hand. Alina tensed too, ready.
“You shouldn’t have come here,” the woman told them her voice calm but measured.
She gave a curious look towards Nate.
Alina’s shoulders tense, her face stern. “Who are you? What do you do here?
As the woman moved forward Alina responded by taking a step backward. Nate stepped forward as though he intended to protect Alina from this woman.
The woman hesitated, just for a moment then moved slowly, convincingly. “I will answer all of your questions. But right now you and Nate need to leave!” She was less calm now.
She held Alina’s gaze as she spoke.
Alina’s pulse spiked.
“Wait, ..How do you know his name?”
“Listen…..” With quiet desperation, she moved closer until her eyes locked with Alina’s while hoping her plea would be understood. “Please,” she said, her voice almost pleading. Her expression was raw, open—an unspoken plea written in her eyes, urging Alina to believe her, to listen, to leave.
The woman reached out and grabbed Alina’s hand before she could respond.
And then she was falling.
Not physically—but through memories that weren’t hers. A flood of images, emotions, and sensations. A different life. A different time.
The child before her beamed with joy as she stretched her arms towards the woman ahead. The same dark eyes. The same face.
Her face.
A wrecking ball of realization slammed into her.
She stumbled backward. This woman is not just another one like her.
She was her mother.
This is the first hop where Alina felt peace. She didn’t want to let go. She wanted to see more flashes of herself happy, and safe with her mother. But her mind tore her away. The air was filled with a wet gurgling noise and she had little time to react before her mother’s body lurched forward. A slender red slash appeared across her throat which released blood in thick streams. A scream lodged in Alina’s throat as she watched her mother stagger forward with shaking hands gripping the wound to stay together. Her dark eyes locked on Alina’s with desperate pleading before she collapsed as her knees gave way. Alina lunged forward with her hands spread wide shouting “NO!”
But her efforts arrived too late. The floor grew warm from the trail of blood spilled from her mother above while the flickering light above distorted the shadows of this terrible scene. The pounding rhythm of her heartbeat overwhelmed all other sounds in her ears.
Disorientation. Alina looked in terror around for the attacker ready to defend herself.
But the hallway was empty.
Did it run away?
So fast?
Her vision blurred with tears yet she pushed through to touch her mother’s face with shaking hands while her name escaped her lips as a fragmented whisper. But there was no response.
She was gone.
Dread coiled in Alina’s stomach as she thought of Nate, and her body trembled as she turned. And then she saw him.
Nate remained motionless with his face hidden behind an unreadable expression while his breathing was unstable. A knife dripping with fresh blood gripped his hand.
Her chest felt the impact of her racing heart as waves of fear ascended through her stomach. “Nate?” she whispered, her voice barely audible.
He didn’t move. Didn’t speak.
The silence between them was deafening.
The persistent feeling she had known since the murder returned to her. This was it. This was the trap she was walking into. Much before she witnessed Kai get murdered.
The tension in her body increased when Nate moved forward with calculated slowness. He clutched the knife more firmly than before as his knuckles turned white.
“Nate…Why?” she managed to say, her voice coming out as nothing but a breath.
Nate’s face showed a rapid alternation of regret and determination. “Listen…you have to trust me..”
“Am... Her throat prevents her from saying the words clearly when she asks “Am I next?”
A wild sense of urgency drove Alina to move while her heart raced uncontrollably. And then she did.
She lunged. Nate swung the blade.
Memories of her time with Nate flooded Alina’s mind.
Alina bent to dodge and her back slammed into an old metal shelf. Old files spilled open to the ground as papers fluttered down while glass vials teetered at the edge.
She always felt grateful for having him throughout her life. That she is not alone.
Alina cannot stop her tears.
Nate advanced, the blade glinting.
“ If you would just stop… and listen to me” Nate roared his eyes filled with rage.
She has never seen him like this. If you asked her a month ago she would have said she could not imagine Nate being mad or angry.
Her fingers fumbled across the table surface behind her as she grasped a cold glass flask. With all her strength she threw the flask directly at him.
Its stinging contents spattered his face as the flask split apart. Nate screamed an aggressive curse and staggered back while the knife in his hand trembled as he clawed at his burning eyes.
She cannot hesitate, because he won’t.
Alina saw her opening. Seizing his wrist before he could recover. She twisted the blade viciously inward until it sank deep into his internal organs.
Nate’s breath hitched. Shock and pain caused his body to stagger. He collapsed onto his knees before crumpling to the chilly floor littered with glass shards.
Alina stepped back, breath ragged, heart pounding. Nate knelt while his blood-coated hands gripped his open wound. The knife remained deeply embedded inside him.
This was Nate. Her Nate. Who gave meaning to a lot of things in Alina’s life. Friendship. Family. Joy. Comfort. Home.
Was he? Was he the Nate she knew? Or just something she so desperately wanted to believe in that she accepted as truth.
Her throat closed as she extended her hand to wriggle the knife away from his shaking hands. The blade felt heavier now, dirtier.
“Why... Nate?” She asked coldly.
Nate gazed at her through his tear-filled eyes, was it pain or regret? A silent plea? Like he wanted to say something, “This was… Nate says as blood comes spilling out of his mouth… not supposed… to happen..”
Alina’s throat tightened. For all the warmth that you brought to my cold life Nate, I will always be grateful.
She lifts the knife with her shaking grip. She paused for a moment looking into his dying eyes while she desperately searched for an answer that would never come.
She released a sharp scream and drove the knife into him.
Nate’s body tensing—then stilling. His eyes dimmed as both his anger and pain along with their friendship disappeared.
Alina released the knife and turned away in disgust. The basement felt colder than before she wouldn’t have thought that was possible. The only sound was her breathing, ragged and uneven, as she stared down at what she had done, her hands bloodied. Blood of her Mother someone never knew, of his friend someone who was all she knew.
The horror of what had just happened crashed over her like a giant wave. And now she was alone again.
A sob escaped from her throat, but it twisted, warping into something else—something raw and primal. She threw her head back and screamed, an animalistic wail of rage, of betrayal, of unbearable loss.
