The boardwalk leading from the road to Venice Beach was filled with bright lights and rotating images that alternated between the three final teams’ avatars. Eniola’s avatar looked a bit awkward in that photo, with that impossibly huge smile it was wearing. It was super bright and lively with SCOPE fans. The party was on someone’s boat docked by the boardwalk, pulsing with lights and music. It was a sleek chromatic blue, just like the night ocean that surrounded it. It looked like some abstract teardrop, leading into a new shape depending on what angle you looked at and it was massive, with multiple levels and decks swarming with active people.
As the girls approached, it was pulsing with music and clusters of people swarmed in a crowd; she recognized some players from previously eliminated groups or even groups who no longer played, like Surge. Eniola could spot them in a crowd anywhere. Eniola’s face lit up with a smile, seeing her idols in front of her. At a party. For them. This technically meant they knew she existed. Surge were national champions at the height of their popularity and they were still close even though they no longer played.
She stared at them for a long time, which almost made her seem stalkerish for a good minute, until their captain, Jamal, a stocky and tall guy with dark skin and long dreadlocks made eye contact with her and smiled and waved. Euphoria rose in her and she waved back furiously.
“Damn, they’re gonna think you’re trying to swat a fly with how hard you’re waving,” Lucia laughed, before snapping her out of her fangirl trance and making her look forward.
“Do you think we can talk to them?” Eniola asked. While they played, she never got close to them, but if they were here she might as well try. I mean, they were here for Rogue technically. Right?
Eniola’s mind went over to her parents. Other than small get-togethers, she’d never gone to a legit party. She and Lucia never got invited while they were in school. And none definitely because of her. If her parents knew she was at a party in her honour, they’d be furious. But today, she was making her own decisions.
As they approached, Eniola spotted two androids posted outside the opening, scanning tattoos as people entered. Eniola held out her tattoo with a sharp inhale. The scanner glowed green, and she relaxed. Either the Paradox protection was gone or it was hidden well enough by Vanessa.
“Rogue!” someone screamed. Eniola looked over at two girls, both decked in short dresses, running to them excitedly. “Is it you?”
“Yes,” Eniola said, flustered. “We are Rogue.” The girls squealed with excitement. They held up their phones and began snapping photos. Eniola put on a smile and went with this.
“Tell your friends!” added Iris, who seemed to appreciate the attention.
“We love you guys,” the short girl said, who was (Eniola noted happily) shorter than Eniola. “We are such huge fans.”
“Thank you!” Lucia said to them.
“Is it true that you and Jay are dating, Eniola?” the tallest girl inquired. Eniola felt heat in her cheeks.
“Well,” she said, scratching the back of her head. “Not really, like, I don’t know—”
“You guys are so cute together,” Small Girl said with a smile. , “You guys need to do more streams together.”
“Yeah,” Tall Girl explained, before looking at the other one softly. “You remind us so much of us when we first met.”
Eniola didn’t know whether to feel flattered or weirded out. Maybe the whole streaming thing craze wasn’t a one-time thing.
“You guys are so cute together,” Tall Girl said. “Is he here tonight?” She tried to get a look around.
“Yes, but we don’t know where they are,” Iris explained. “We should look for them.”
“Alright,” Tall Girl said. “We hope you win!” They attacked the girls in hugs before they ran off hand in hand.
“Always good to meet a fan,” Lucia chimed.
“Me and Jay?” Eniola repeated. “Who knew people were such fans?”
Lucia chuckled as they stepped onto the slanted platform that led onto the boat. Despite it being a boat, Eniola felt like they had stepped into a club. The floors were lit up in multicoloured tiles that flashed. Glass panels surrounded the deck with images shifting from unique landscapes. Around the sides were chrome white tables where people were seated, being attended by server-droids whirring around. And in the middle of it was a DJ spinning orchestral beats into the air.
Suddenly, a figure came behind Lucia and hugged her, making a smile creep onto her face. Eniola found Theo and Jay walking in together. Jay was in an outfit similar to the one from yesterday, and Theo was in the classic minimalist T-shirt and jeans.
“What’s up, girls?” Theo shouted over the music.
Jay’s gaze lingered on Eniola for a long time, and she pretended not to notice yet. He opened his mouth to say something, but Eniola could barely hear over the loud music.
“What?” she yelled back.
He said it again, louder, but she could still barely make it out.
“What?”
He cupped his hands over his mouth. “I said you look beautiful.” She finally caught on as her heart began beating fast. She couldn’t tell if it was from Jay or the sheer adrenaline of the atmosphere.
“Thank you!” she yelled back.
“Everyone welcome Rogue!” The DJ loudly announced, and suddenly live footage of them appeared on the screens. Everyone roared. “One of our top 3 teams!” Eniola stopped looking like a deer in headlights and eased out a smile that was plastered and big. They cheered for them in full support, and Eniola wondered if anyone knew they had cut Inferno out. Or maybe Howie had told them a different story.
“Now that all three teams are here, let’s have a real party with DJ Enigma on the track!” they announced, and the people went crazy with their cheering. Eniola thought it was impossible to turn the music up any louder than it already was, but DJ Enigma proved her wrong. She looked through the crowd and spotted the Black Infinity dancing in one corner and ULTRA taking up the attention in the other with fangirls they interacted with easily. Those were her competitors, but now they were just people at a party.
Eniola turned around to see Jay surprisingly holding his hand out to her.
“Wanna dance?” She couldn’t hear him, but she lip-read and assumed well enough. She took his hand as he led her onto the dance floor.
Eniola didn’t dance much, as every time she got the opportunity she went with the safe shuffle that didn’t draw too much attention to herself. Jay, on the other hand, came prepared.
Jay spun her around on one arm easily, then they both stepped out. He pulled her back in close before both simply jammed out with each other. He moved his hands above him in graceful patterns, allowing Eniola to join in.
Eniola allowed the beat to overtake her as she felt the music—literally because it was so loud, but tonight she felt like she wanted to be loud. She felt like energy was coursing through her veins and it was being shared between her and Jay. He shared an energetic smile with her and they both let themselves take over the dance floor.
The rest of them came dancing, and it felt like it was just Rogue and nobody else. This was the perfect time to unwind before the finals. DJ Enigma was keeping them on their feet, playing every song she liked. She couldn’t not dance at this rate.
Eventually, even though the night was far from ending, Eniola felt danced beyond comprehension. Rogue left the dance floor with a promise to come back soon, and all slid into one of the monochrome tables on the side. Of course, Jay was beside her. He slightly inched closer, and Eniola inched away.
“How cool is this?” Iris exclaimed. “Rogue is actually relevant. People have been asking for our autographs and pictures. This is exciting!”
“It sure is!” Lucia said. If the music was off, it would seem like they were yelling at each other. “I can’t believe we’re going to the finals tomorrow!”
“I know!” Theo agreed. “It feels like only yesterday we were a rookie team who all came together because of struggles,” he said like a proud father.
“It feels so unreal,” Jay said. “What happens after this?”
“What do you mean?” Eniola asked.
“After we win and get our money and stuff,” Jay asked.
“Independent teams who win become official teams,” Theo explained. “Which rarely happens because official teams usually always win.”
“Besides all of that,” Jay moved, and Eniola could see a glint of uncertainty. “What do we do?”
“We continue playing,” Lucia told him. “If we win California, we could go to nationals, and possibly internationals, representing the United States. How cool would that be?”
“Okay,” Jay said aloofly like something else might’ve been bothering her.
An android whizzed to them with a platter.
“Meatballs?” it asked, and they all took a sample, and the android whizzed away as quickly as it came. For a moment, Eniola looked over to Jay with a hint of curiosity, and despite the party atmosphere, he looked indifferent and aloof, compared to his energy minutes ago, amid the lively conversation. Eniola raised an eyebrow, as he slowly moved from his seat and her eyes trailed to him as he disappeared down the hallway. Her eyes flitted back to everyone who was in excited conversation before she stretched her head back to Jay who had already disappeared down the hallway.
Before Eniola could stop herself, she got up fast and briefly mumbled something about needing to use the bathroom before quickly running down the hallway still feeling the pulsing music and the tiles glow from beneath her to the beats. There were doors at each end, but Eniola pulled her hand away from the dials just in case she walked in on some partygoers doing things.
She walked further down the hallway before she reached a diverging path in the hallway. There was a floating blue sign with arrows. The main dance floor was to the right and the balcony to the left. For a moment, Eniola stopped looking at her options before taking a sharp turn left following her instincts. The loud music slowly began fainting away as Eniola walked from the hallway and emerged into a vast open space of night, glowing down onto the boat balcony.
Eniola’s eyes gazed around and sure enough, Jay was there leaning against the balcony with his elbows looking all deeply into the ocean.
“Hey,” she said faintly, and immediately his head turned and his eyes met hers, and his signature smile curved onto his face. Her heart, like on command, picked up at the gesture like it always did.
“What are you doing?” Eniola asked, walking slowly over to him until she was next to him on the balcony leaning.
“Just looking,” he said casually. He looked over to her again. “How did you find me?”
A smile curved on her lips. “I notice we have a thing for balconies.” Eniola slightly gasped at the words while he timidly laughed at the comment, although it seemed pushed out. It felt weird to acknowledge that they had a spot that they frequently roamed around. And it was even weirder that she now realized her instincts led her here automatically. Jay turned away from her and went back to brooding at the sight.
It was empty and quiet, except for the faint beat of the music and the cool flow of the ocean waves beneath them rippling onto the shore. Eniola and Jay both rested on the edge, and Jay’s gaze climbed the sky until he was looking at the stars. A wave of relaxation washed over her, cooling her body and Eniola finally breathed into this quiet place.
“What’s on your mind?” she asked, and anxiety swept over his features almost instantly.
He talked instantly. “Okay, when I joined Rogue I assumed it would just be this quick thing,” Jay babbled. “But when they started talking about winning and moving, it just made me feel—”
“Overwhelmed?” she suggested, feeling his mood.
“Like that,” he breathed. “I just feel overwhelmed. You guys already have a friendship and skills, and I’m just some annoying Discord guy. You guys have all these skills, and I’m just the odd one out.”
“You’re more than that,” Eniola said. “I mean you were that before, but now you’re part of Rogue now.”
“Eniola,” he said her name faintly. “I don’t feel like I’m a part of Rogue. I don’t know if I’m ready for all of this.”
Eniola read his expression, and despite all they had been through she’d never seen him like this. She slowly pushed her hand out before catching the weird reflex and putting it back. “How did you end up in San Francisco in the first place?” she asked. “You never told me.”
“My dad and I got into this big fight,” he explained. “It was about Soyeon… and things got out of hand… it’s complicated.”
“Why did you fight?”
“He got back into contact with her and then started giving her money,” Jay said. “I don’t know if he hasn’t moved on, but then I figured she was just gambling again.”
“So,” Eniola prodded, as his breaths grew heavy.
“A few months ago, she borrowed lots of money from my dad and wasn’t paying it back,” he continued. “And she was really in trouble, but she’d always done this. She’d come crawling back to him for money, and he’d give it and she’d disappear again. I was just fed up with it.”
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“Then what?” she asked, putting a hand on his arm.
“I stopped taking their shit, and we got into a huge fight about it,” he explained. “And suddenly I was packing my things and bolting out of there, and taking my motorcycle far away from Texas. I road-tripped across the US by myself. It was actually kind of fun for a while. But then I was short on money when I had just reached San Francisco. I heard of a SCOPE championship and they were taking new players for a qualifier. There were SCOPE games in Texas, but all that was in Dallas. I’d played once or twice and figured it couldn’t hurt to try to, then I was winning against a player called A-12.” Eniola felt the pieces in her head click all at once.
“Jay, listen to me,” she said, directing his gaze towards her. “If you didn’t end up in California, none of this would’ve happened. We wouldn’t have met in real life. I wouldn’t have met you. Rogue needs you. Don’t leave.”
“Thanks,” he croaked at her.
A wave of realization hit her. She pulled back. “And I’m a hypocrite.”
“What do you mean?” he asked.
“I’m telling you, you can’t leave, when I might just do the same thing,” Eniola huffed, letting out a wry laugh.
“You aren’t leaving, are you?” Jay said.
“My parents need to be in New York early, and by early, they mean tomorrow,” she said. “I was supposed to leave today, but I’ve been ignoring them.”
“But you aren’t going to leave?”
“I just need to hold out until tomorrow and I’ll explain everything to them,” she said. “We just need to play in the finals and win.”
“What if we don’t win?” Jay began. “I mean. We’re in the top three. Regardless of how we play, we’ve still got a huge achievement.”
“I can’t just have a third or second,” Eniola told him. “It’s different because of my family. I need to be first. In my culture, I need to be first. Already playing SCOPE is a risk, but if my parents see I win, then they’ll take me seriously and maybe they might forget about me being a doctor and all. That’s why we need to win so that I can show them I’m successful.”
“I believe in you,” he said, moving close and grabbing her shoulders. “We are going to do this.”
“Thanks,” she whispered, as their eyes met before he turned to the sky in a deep and longing stare. Eniola noticed that he seemed to pay extra attention to the sky and stars at night like he could see or feel something beyond.
“Why do you look at the stars like that?” Eniola asked, following his gaze up to the celestial bodies.
He looked at her before his eyes went back. “I don’t know. Comfort maybe? Every week Soyeon and I would go out of our apartment and into the city to look at the stars at night. Maybe it’s because we were poor and looking at the sky doesn’t cost money.” Eniola slightly chuckled.
“Even after she left, I still did it. Trying to see something or feel something that she did. But I don’t know. Now I just look at it because it’s beautiful,” he explained. Eniola’s eyes were now trained to the sky, looking at the perfect way the stars twinkled in a myriad of lights and the milky light of the crescent moon pooled out against the deep hues of the indigo sky. It was beautiful.
His hand suddenly slid over the balcony railing and touched hers. Eniola jumped in surprise and pulled away, heart beating, before she realized what happened. Jay was trying to hold her hand. Why was she so surprised? She looked at Jay again who pulled away slowly, before Eniola reached over to grab it. She missed his hand and it slid off.
Her cheeks filled with heat, and she quickly looked down to the floor biting her lip in embarrassment. Eniola looked over to Jay who seemed to be burbling back a laugh before it slipped out.
“This is an interesting relationship we have here,” Jay mentioned. They made eye contact before she hung her head down and tried to fight a smile. Her eyes flitted upwards and she swore his cheeks tinted a little red.
Her mind wouldn’t stop lingering on the word relationship. Yesterday, they awkwardly declared themselves friends, but Eniola couldn’t deny the way her heart decided to go on a marathon every time he was around. Or whenever her gaze would linger on him for longer than it should’ve. Or maybe when her breath hitched when he looked at her and when they were alone. And he was so easy to talk to sometimes. And maybe, just maybe, she could see he acted differently around her. She could feel the way he leaned into every touch and maintained their awkward, but nerve-wracking eye contact. It wasn’t friendship, but Eniola wasn’t sure what it was.
And frankly, that was a bit scary.
Suddenly, he caught her hand again by surprise before intertwining it with his own again. Eniola’s heart did its regularly scheduled routine of speeding up before he slowly pulled her closer until there was only a small gap between them. She leaned more into him, staring right at his chest before he lightly moved his finger under her chin and tilted her head up. Her breath hitched in his throat, as she slowly stepped closer.
Jay leaned forward before moving towards her ear. “Eniola,” he mumbled her name in a low whisper as her stomach clenched in excited response. “What are you thinking about?”
His lips lingered at her ear, as she felt her entire being heat up. Slowly, she gulped and the words came out of her, “You.”
Jay moved away from them and his eyes went dark and hooded as he looked at her downwards. Her heart clenched as she eased into the tension. He loosened their fingers before his hands slid around her exposed waist and pulled him into her. Eniola responded by loosely wrapping her arms around his shoulders and he began lowering his head. Eniola closed her eyes and craned her head into him, letting the thick electric tension guide them together.
For a second, she felt suspended in time with Jay as they got closer and closer, heads inclining. But then it was like a huge breeze had come over her even though the weather was warm. Then all she could feel was a forced hand pulling her by her neck, the bitter taste of breath, and the forced kisses on her lips, her jaw, and her neck. Eniola froze as an icy chill had run over her body, and immediately, she pulled her head back and immediately ran out from his grasp with a shudder running down her spine.
“What’s wrong?” Jay asked quickly.
“I don’t want to do this right now,” she whispered, before stepping back so that she could distance herself from him like he was carrying a lethal disease. Her eyes stayed glued to the ground but she could still feel his eye contact.
“Is there anything wrong?” Jay asked. She slowly looked up to see that his expression turned into a confused one.
“Nothing is wrong!” she yelled suddenly, then fell into a stutter. “It’s me. I just need to think.”
“Eniola, wait!” Jay shouted, but she was already walking away, eyes going glassy before emerging down the balcony before she found herself surrounded by the four walls of the hallways, swallowing dryly over and over again and her vision went blurry like she was looking through fish-eyed lenses. Her breaths went short, as the entire world seemed to be going slowly and slower like it was spinning. She squeezed her eyes shut, cutting off the visions of her and Keone again.
She got up again, and for some reason, Eniola found herself in the bathroom of the place before she ran into one stall and immediately collapsed onto the back of the stall before sliding down onto the floor and clutching her knees to herself.
The memories came back to her all at once. The times where his hands would travel too far all in the name of helping her with SCOPE, or all the weird shows of affection. Or when she’d come back from his house late at night bruised and embarrassed. The memories she had buried deep in her subconscious were now unravelling in front of her playing again for a sick twisted game.
Eniola quickly took her phone out of her pocket and haphazardly typed in a desperate message before sending it out before pushing her phone back and hanging her head over her knees.
Within a minute, the door slid open and footsteps echoed through the bathroom.
“Eniola?” Lucia’s confused voice cuts through the tension hanging around Eniola and immediately, Eniola presses open the stall before Lucia comes inside and sits down next to her on the bathroom floor that’s surprisingly clean.
“What’s wrong?” Lucia whispered to her gently. “If anyone hurt you, I can meet them outside.”
“No,” Eniola replied. “It’s not that, Lucia.”
“Then what’s wrong?” Lucia asked, threading her fingers through Eniola’s hair and slightly massaging it.
“I ruined a perfect moment,” Eniola said, wiping tears she didn’t know that she had and sniffling loudly. “Me and Jay. We were out on the balcony and we were about to kiss, but then I freaked and completely and ended up here.”
“Oh Eniola,” Lucia cooed. “You didn’t ruin anything.”
“Jay’s probably still standing there and probably hates me now,” Eniola convinced.
“He doesn’t,” Lucia assured. “Maybe he’s confused, but he doesn’t hate you.”
“I wanted and he wanted it, but I just couldn’t do it,” Eniola said.
Lucia sighed before slightly bouncing her leg. “Does this maybe have to do with you-know-who?” Eniola wryly laughed at the absence of his name, before the pain took over again and washed over him.
“Yeah,” Eniola wearily admitted. That was about it. On the surface, everyone knew Keone was a manipulative selfish person, but they didn’t know the ways he acted towards Eniola. She never told anyone about what happened between them, not even Lucia and definitely not her family. If her parents found out, they’d find out about SCOPE and she couldn’t let them take that away. It was better to keep it closed in and hidden while no one could see and prod at her, instead of letting it all out for the world to stare at her.
“I see,” Lucia said. “Maybe we shouldn’t have been prodding you about Jay if you still had those kinds of memories.”
“No,” Eniola instantly denied. She liked it when they noticed her and Jay. It was a helpful distraction and she wouldn’t have to break the surface. “It’s fine, Lucia. You meant well. I just. I think I need more time before I figure out what to do about Jay.”
Lucia smiled before reaching over and wrapping her in a tight, warm, embrace closing everything inside of her.
🎮
Eniola stayed huddled underneath her bed covers not feeling the supposed tiredness she told to her teammates. After they had come back from the party sometime after midnight, Jay and she barely talked or made any contact with one another after Lucia and she had come from the bathroom. Theo and Iris stayed oblivious only sensing it, but the rest of them stayed in an awkward tension with one another.
Everyone was still in the living room talking, but Eniola had fed them the lie that she was tired to simply avoid Jay. She was sure he disliked her now, and wouldn’t ever want to talk to her the same way again. She couldn’t go back out there, no matter how not-tired she felt.
Across the room at the door, however, she heard the faint sound of footsteps outside the door before they stopped. Eniola raised an eyebrow. Why would Lucia or Iris just linger outside the door instead of coming? Or was it someone else? She instantly climbed out of bed before catching her eagerness and sauntered to the door and pressed her ears to it.
The sound of heavy breathing came from outside, and some shuffling, and Eniola leaned forward. Was Jay outside waiting for her? Her hand instantly flew down the dial, before it rigidly stopped and jerked away. This door separated them, but she couldn’t just face him like that. Not after what happened tonight. Slowly she backed away from the door like it was lethal.
And so then, the footsteps walked away.
Eniola turned back and leaned on the door.
She needed a distraction.
Eniola climbed back onto her bed and slowly sat up and emerged from the covers before reaching for her phone and opening it. Keone deserved to pay for everything he did, as both himself and Paradox and now Eniola wanted the terrifying thrill of trying to take him down again. She wanted anything at this point to take him down.
Eniola laid the phone down before projecting the screen and extended it with her fingers. Quickly she tapped against the holographic screen ‘Zaira Khalif-Yang’.
Multiple search results popped up, such as obituaries and news articles with titles like ‘Stanford Astrophysics scientist dies in Fatal Car Crash’ or ‘Zaira Khalif-Yang, gone but never forgotten.’ Eniola clicks on the obituary of her smiling in multiple photos, and judging by her hyphenated last name and appearance, Eniola guesses she’s both Black and Asian. Bold text takes up the first page:
ZAIRA LIUXIAN KHALIF-YANG
2034-2055
Gone but never forgotten.
Eniola goes through it, observing Zaira and the text written about her early childhood life, her university life and all the things she could’ve been if it weren’t for the car accident. Car accidents were so rare now that they had auto-cars. Before the AI Revolution some 30 years ago, it wouldn’t be uncommon to hear of those. But now?
An inkling came at Eniola and closed the obituary before clicking on news articles that say the same thing. On March 3rd of 2055, a little over a year ago, Zaira got into a rideshare autocar after university and a rare malfunction happened and the car drove off the road and collided into a building, killing her. The authorities ruled it an accident and soon closed the case. They even attached the footage and photos of the wreck onto one, and despite the chill that ran down her spine, Eniola clicked onto the video footage hesitantly.
The video has a clear date and time on it, 10:00 pm on March 3, 2055, nestled in bold text on the top. It shows an unsuspecting Zaira, walking out of her university campus where an autocar waits for her. It’s a general sleek black model like normally, and she entered unsuspectingly of the fact that she was going to die. It soon drives on the road normally in line with the other cars, before it suddenly takes a sharp turn at an intersection eight minutes in, before veering off at ungodly speed weaving through cars and speeding down the road. It veers and skids on a sidewalk, before spinning it around and around before smashing into a building. There’s no sound, but Eniola can practically feel the screams Zaira must’ve been screaming at the top of her lungs and the huge crash. Eniola immediately clicks off, breathing shakily.
She travels to more articles, essentially carbon copies of the same story before clicking off and coming back to the search page. She travels to the second page, and then to several pages, and it’s fewer articles and more internet forums, some of which are about Zaira or some about random stuff. As Eniola is about the close the page, an article in capital letter snatches her attention back:
ZAIRA KHALIF-YANG WAS MURDERED!
In an instant, Eniola clicks on it, and it’s a one-page website that was posted a month after Zaira’s death, specifically April 4. Eniola begins scrolling through it.
As someone who was once a close confidant of Zaira, I can confirm that she was not murdered and it was no freak accident like most believe it to be. My name is Sirius Grossman, and you’re probably wondering why I’m not anon. It’s because I volunteer myself as proof. If I mysteriously die, it’s because Zaira’s murderers have killed me. And now I’m going to show you why.
Eniola gulped at how willing he was to simply expose himself like that if it meant getting justice for Zaira. He must’ve cared for her. She continued scrolling.
Zaira created something that was a breakthrough. Something that could change the world of physics and the world, and the universe as we know it. I can’t say what it was, because it’s too dangerous.
The computer, Eniola thought. So maybe Eniola and her friends weren’t the only people who knew about it.
Many people wanted access to this device and would often do anything to get it, because of how powerful it was. Individuals, pseudo people, all of them would target Zaira, but she was able to protect herself. Up until now.
It then goes into photos with small text under them and Eniola scrolls down with inquisitive eyes. The first one is a blueprint of an autocar.
This was the exact model autocar Zaira took. Because of modern innovations, it’s almost next to impossible to crash. There’s actually a 1 in a BILLION chance of it crashing, so how come it crashed when Zaira, a woman with many targets on her back, was in it?
Eniola peered further.
And I compared the model of the regular cars with the one Zaira had after the wreckage, and I found a significant difference. The automatic wiring had been tampered with, and a small timer was embedded into the wiring. That timer lasted for 8 minutes.
Eniola scrolled down to find the same video she just watched.
At the 8 minute mark of the video, that’s when Zaira’s car begins “malfunctioning” and she crashes. That timer did not come with the car, so it must have been planted specifically for Zaira to crash into. You might be wondering how no one found this and I did. The investigators on the case are all dead and because of that it was closed.
The obituaries of the investigators all show up. Eniola observed and continued to read more of the proof, and it slowly began clicking in her head. Then she reached the bottom.
I hope that everyone who sees this understands that Zaira was murdered. And nowhere is the name of her murderer:
Eniola’s eyes flit to read it, but it stops there. There’s no text after that sentence. Suddenly, the words begin disappearing slowly and slowly from the webpage quickly, and Eniola quickly scrolls back up again to see the words slowly erasing themselves. Eniola reaches to take a screenshot, but by the time she does, it’s gone. The webpage is a blank white place. Heavily breathing, Eniola goes back into the browser but this time she searches for a different name. ‘Sirius Grossman’.
When she gets there, the first thing she sees is an obituary for him and more articles about him. He’s also a Stanford student. Her eyes widened. He died? Eniola quickly presses on it, to find his cause of death. And she finds it.
Suicide. It says on the website that he shot himself. Eniola looked at it when it happened and her heart almost dropped. He died on April 8.
Four days after he posted that article.
Eniola knows for sure that it was not a suicide. If Zaira was truly murdered then the person who killed her might’ve killed Sirius.
At the moment, the sliding door opened and Eniola slightly jumped, before seeing Lucia and Iris both saunter in and climb into bed. It was then that Eniola realized herself again. Everyone was probably going to bed.
She turned off her phone, before lying in bed again for a good half hour, her thoughts nothing but a combustion of Zaira and Sirius and Paradox. It was almost enough to make her forget about Jay.
Eniola reached for her phone again, and this time opened up messages until she stopped. Eniola realized that she didn’t have Jay’s number so she exited and opened Discord instead. She clicked on his username and this time, she began typing a message.
If you’re still awake, come meet me on the balcony. I want to talk.
Eniola’s finger hovered over the send button, contemplating if she was ready to face him at their supposed spot after she bailed on him. She sighed, before deleting the message, putting her phone away, and eventually drifting off into a complicated sleep.