Elena couldn’t quite explain why she had chosen not to tell Theo about David’s text. Maybe there was a part of her that craved a secret of her own, something she didn’t have to share with anyone. Or maybe it was the simple need to reclaim a piece of her life, a reminder that there were still parts of her world that belonged only to her. Either way, it wasn’t a lie, not really. She did have an exam to oversee, the artifact was waiting in her office, and she did need to reconnect with the outside world, if only to make sure it still existed.

The late afternoon sun poured through the narrow classroom windows, casting slanted beams across the desks where her students worked intently on their final exams.

The room hummed with tension, the weight of their collective fear and anxiety so palpable it felt like a living, breathing entity stalking the room.

“Ten more minutes,” Elena announced, her voice shattering the stillness.

In ten minutes, she would go to her office, retrieve the artifact, and finally head to meet David.

When the exam had finished and Elena reached her office, the familiarity of it all hit her. Everything was exactly as she’d left it—the desk cluttered with papers, the bookshelf lined with well-worn volumes, the faint scent of old books lingering in the air. It was almost surreal. What had she been expecting? The normalcy felt jarring against the backdrop of the chaos her life had become. Her entire world had been turned upside down, yet here was her office, untouched and indifferent, as if nothing had changed.

It seemed almost unfair that the rest of her life bore no visible scars, no tangible proof that the very fabric of her reality had come undone in the span of a single evening.

Elena’s fingers hovered for a moment over the cluttered desk as she took it all in, the weight of recent events pressing harder on her chest. She took a deep breath and crossed to the bookshelf, her eyes scanning the rows of familiar spines before settling on the box where she had hidden the artifact. Her fingers traced the edges of the wood, feeling the cool smoothness of it, before she tucked it safely into her bag.

As she stepped back outside into the dimming light of the late afternoon, the streets seemed oddly quiet. The world hadn’t fallen apart like her life had. People still walked by, going about their lives as if nothing had shifted beneath their feet. She tried to focus on the normalcy of it, the way it grounded her, but instead, her mind was already racing toward the meeting with David.

David.

It had been years since they had really spoken—since before their parents had died. Her heart tightened at the thought. She couldn’t help but remember him as he was before all of this. The protective brother who always had a plan, always knew what to say to calm her fears. But something had changed after their parents died, something neither of them had spoken about. And now, after all this time, they were about to face each other again. She wasn’t sure what she expected, but part of her feared that she wouldn’t recognize him anymore.

The path to their meeting place felt both too long and too short. Her mind was buzzing, filled with questions and a growing tension in her chest, a knot that wouldn’t loosen. The city seemed to blur around her as she walked, her thoughts fixed on the face she hadn’t seen in far too long.

When she reached the park, the shadows were lengthening. There, sitting on a bench beneath an old oak tree, was David.

He rose when he saw her, his silhouette sharper than she remembered, his posture tense, as if he was bracing himself. The soft wind tugged at his brown hair, and for a moment, he looked so familiar it hurt. But when their eyes met, something unspoken passed between them, a quiet acknowledgment of the time that had stretched and frayed the bond they once had.

“Elena,” he greeted her softly, his voice cautious, as if testing the waters.

“David.” Her voice cracked slightly, betraying the flood of emotions swirling inside her. She felt an overwhelming urge to hug him, but she hesitated, unsure if that was still the right thing to do.

David studied her for a moment, his gaze scanning her face as if he were seeing the years written on her skin. “You look... good,” he said, though there was a slight strain in his voice.

Elena smiled, but it didn’t quite reach her eyes. “You, too. I... wasn’t sure what to expect.”

He nodded, running a hand through his hair, an old habit she remembered well. “I guess neither of us really knew how this would go.”

There was an awkward pause, both of them standing there, unsure of how to bridge the years of silence. Eventually, David motioned to the bench. “Do you want to sit?”

She nodded and followed him, lowering herself onto the bench. The distance between them felt heavy, filled with unsaid words and lingering memories.

“How’s the job?” David asked after a beat, his attempt at light conversation sounding forced but genuine.

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“It’s... fine,” she replied, her eyes drifting across the park. “Busy. Stressful. You know how it is at the end of the semester.”

David smiled faintly. “Still molding young minds, huh? You always liked that. I remember when you used to talk about being a professor.”

She let out a soft laugh. “Yeah, well... life didn’t exactly go as planned, did it?”

“No, I guess not.”

The silence stretched again, but this time, it felt different—more reflective than uncomfortable. Elena stole a glance at him, noticing the slight shadows under his eyes, the way his jaw tightened every now and then. He had changed. The boyish charm she remembered from their youth was still there but buried beneath years of something darker, something that had hardened him.

“Where have you been, David?” she asked, her voice quieter now. “All this time... after Mom and Dad, you just... left.”

David shifted, his gaze dropping to his hands. “I couldn’t... stay,” he admitted. “There were things I had to deal with. Things I couldn’t explain. I didn’t want to drag you into it.”

Elena frowned. “Things? What things? You just disappeared, David. You didn’t even come to their funeral.”

He winced, the guilt clear on his face. “I know, and I’m sorry for that. I really am. But I couldn’t... I couldn’t be there.”

“That’s it?” Elena’s voice wavered with the frustration that had been building inside her. “You just couldn’t be there? I buried them alone, David. I was there, going through all of it alone, and you just vanished.”

He looked away, his jaw clenching. “I had no choice.”

“Bullshit,” she snapped, her emotions finally spilling over. “You left me, David. You left me when I needed you most.”

David’s shoulders slumped, his expression tightening with a mix of regret and something else she couldn’t place. “You don’t understand, Elena. I wasn’t abandoning you. I was trying to protect you.”

“From what?” she demanded, her frustration rising again. “You’re still not telling me anything! You say you want to protect me, but you won’t even explain what’s going on.”

David’s eyes darkened, and for a moment, she saw a flicker of something in them—something dangerous, something heavy. “You’re in danger, Elena. Real danger. That’s why I need that book. I left it for you to keep safe, but now... it’s not safe with you anymore.”

Elena shook her head, her frustration boiling over. “What are you talking about? What danger? Are you really only here to give me some vague warning about danger and to tell me you want your stupid book back? Why can’t you tell me what’s going on?!”

David stood abruptly, running a hand through his hair again, more agitated this time. “Because it’s not something you can just hear and be okay with, alright? There are things... things you don’t know about this world.”

“Then tell me! Stop hiding behind these cryptic warnings and tell me the truth for once!”

“I’m trying to protect you!” David’s voice rose, sharper than she’d ever heard it before. He stopped himself, breathing heavily as he stared at her, his eyes filled with a mixture of anger and something deeper—fear.

The tension between them was thick, both of them breathing hard as the weight of years of unsaid things pressed down on them. Elena felt the sting of tears behind her eyes but refused to let them fall. She couldn’t break, not now.

“I don’t need your protection,” she said finally, her voice tight. “I need answers. And if you can’t give them to me, then I’ll find them myself.”

She turned to leave, her heart pounding in her chest. David’s voice called after her, but she didn’t stop.

“Elena, where are you going?” His tone was softer now, almost pleading.

“I’m going to get answers,” she threw over her shoulder, her voice sharp with determination.

Elena stormed away from the park, her pulse quickening with each step. The frustration that had been building inside her during her conversation with David was now bubbling over, and she could feel it prickling just beneath her skin. She couldn’t believe he’d refused to tell her anything after all these years. After everything.

Her breath came in short, sharp bursts as she walked, her shoes striking the pavement with a force that echoed her emotions. The cool air nipped at her cheeks, but she barely felt it. Her mind was too clouded with anger and disappointment.

How could he just vanish? she thought bitterly. How could he stand there, after all this time, and still keep secrets?

She had hoped for more. After all the years of silence, of wondering where he was and why he had abandoned her, she had thought there would be answers. Something to make sense of the gaping distance between them. But instead, there had been more cryptic warnings, more vague promises of danger—without a single explanation.

She clenched her fists as she moved through the quiet streets, the memories of their conversation replaying in her head. David had been so frustratingly vague, dancing around the truth without ever stepping into it. He had warned her of danger, yet refused to tell her what that danger was. And then there was the book—his book. He had asked for it back, but for what reason? Why had he left it with her in the first place?

The more she thought about it, the angrier she became. At David, for abandoning her. At Theo, for keeping her in the dark about so much. She was tired of the secrets, tired of being the one left guessing while those around her held all the pieces.

Her frustration simmered, a rising tide that seemed to build with each step. Everyone thinks they know what’s best for me, she thought bitterly. But they never actually tell me anything. How am I supposed to protect myself if I don’t even know what’s going on?

By the time she reached Theo’s house, the sky had fully darkened, and the air was cooler. The house loomed ahead of her, the stone exterior bathed in the soft glow of streetlights. She hesitated for a moment at the front door, her hand hovering over the doorknob as her thoughts raced. The frustration she felt toward Theo was no less potent than what she felt for David. He had promised to protect her, yet he, too, was keeping things from her.

Her hand gripped the doorknob, and she shoved it open with more force than she intended. The door creaked as it swung inward, and she stepped inside, her heart still racing with the remnants of anger and confusion.

She would confront Theo. She needed answers. And this time, she wasn’t going to walk away empty-handed.