Lila's POV
When I left the apartment that night, I didn't cry.
Not because I wasn't scared.
But because I'd already done enough crying behind closed doors in bathrooms, on the rooftop, under the covers while Amara was asleep on the other side of the wall.
What I felt wasn't sadness.
It was survival.
It was urgency.
It was the raw knowing that I was officially alone and if I stayed a second longer, I'd become another girl they forget about.
I didn't take much with me. Just a duffel bag with essentials, my laptop, and the folder of evidence I'd printed and hidden months ago. I'd booked a guest room in a small hostel outside town the kind no one asks questions in. The woman at the front desk looked me over once, handed me the key, and didn't smile.
Perfect.
Safe.
At least for now.
The first night, I didn't sleep.
I locked the door and pushed a chair under the knob.
Checked the window. Twice.
Every time a car passed outside, I held my breath.
Every creak of the pipes made my fingers clench.
I kept my phone on airplane mode and removed the SIM. Devon was smart he'd always joked about hacking into things "for fun." I wasn't going to risk being tracked.
But even in the silence, I could still hear his voice.
"You think you're smarter than me?"
"You should stay out of things that don't concern you."
"No one would believe you anyway."
He was wrong.
Amara believed me now. Or she would soon. I'd left enough behind.
I just hoped she found it before he did.
Two months ago, I hadn't suspected anything.
I wasn't snooping. I wasn't jealous. I was just paying attention.
It started with a moment.
I had come home early from class, headphones in, and found Devon in the kitchen except he wasn't on the phone like he claimed later. He was deleting photos from a hidden folder in his phone, fast and nervous. When he saw me, he smiled too quickly.
I let it go.
But something felt off.
The way he always knew where Amara was. The way he'd get defensive over harmless questions. The way his charm sometimes twisted into something colder when he thought no one was watching.
Then I saw the video.
The one of him and Renée.
They weren't hugging.
She was crying. Her lips were trembling. And he had her pinned to a wall.
The footage was from an old security camera behind the art building. It had been recorded weeks earlier, before Renée vanished.
No one had seen it not even Amara.
I copied it. And I started digging.
What I found sent chills down my spine.
Renée wasn't the only one.
There were messages on old campus forums about other girls. Girls who'd gone quiet. Dropped out. Transferred suddenly. One girl even posted a warning anonymously before her account was deleted:
"If you're reading this and his name is Devon ...run."
I screen-captured everything. Kept it in three places:
On my laptop.
On a USB hidden in a lipstick tube.
And in a folder tucked behind the old circuit breaker panel in the art building basement where I saw Devon one night, hiding something himself.
I never told Amara. Not because I didn't trust her.
But because she trusted him.
And love like that blinds you.
The day before I disappeared, he cornered me in the hallway.
His eyes were dark. His voice smooth, quiet but laced with venom.
"Delete what you've got. You're playing with fire."
I didn't flinch.
"If anything happens to me," I said, "Amara will know it was you."
He smiled like the devil himself.
> "And who do you think they'll believe?"
That was it.
The moment I knew I was out of time.
Now here I was, alone in a dusty hostel room, staring at my reflection in a cracked mirror.
I didn't recognize the girl looking back.
Eyes hollow. Skin pale. Heart thudding like a drum that never stops.
I missed Amara.
God, I missed her.
But if I showed my face now, I wouldn't just put myself in danger I'd put her in the crosshairs, too.
And Devon doesn't leave loose ends.
I picked up my burner phone. It was time to send one last message.
I typed carefully, heart pounding.
He's lying. Don't trust anything he says. Check behind the panel in the art building basement. Whatever he hid there it's your proof. Be safe. Please.
I hit SEND.
Then deleted everything.
If she followed the trail, she'd find what she needed.
If she didn't...
Well. Then this whole thing would have been for nothing.
A knock at the door made me freeze.
Three slow knocks.
I didn't breathe. Didn't move.
Then a voice.
"Lila?"
My blood ran cold.
Hi
It wasn't Amara.
It wasn't anyone I knew.
And it was male.
I backed away from the door, heart slamming.
He knocked again.
"Come on. Just open up. You've been a bad girl, Lila."
No.
No.
NO.
He had found me.