The sound of distant sirens had already begun to creep into the house long before anyone understood what it meant. At first, it had been faint—almost easy to ignore beneath the weight of Damien’s final words still hanging in the air. But then it grew louder, sharper, more insistent, until even the people standing closest to each other began to glance toward the windows with uneasy confusion.Damien was the only one who didn’t look surprised.He stood with his hands loosely at his sides, expression unreadable, as if he had already accounted for every possible outcome of the night. Jared, still locked in the emotional aftershock of Damien’s last threat, slowly lifted his head at the sound, his brows tightening as the sirens stopped directly outside the property. Ethan’s posture shifted immediately beside him, his eyes narrowing toward the entrance as tension returned to his stance.“What now?” Ethan muttered under his breath, but no one answered him.The front door burst open before any

Becky didn’t wait for Jared to agree.The argument had already gone in circles long enough, and Natalie was still standing there in that same unsettling silence, as if the world had simply stopped reaching her. So when Becky gently took Natalie’s hand, there was no resistance—no reaction at all, really—just a limp acceptance that made Becky’s chest tighten more than any words could have.“I’m taking her,” Becky said firmly, glancing back at Jared.Jared’s expression hardened instantly. “No, you’re not.”Becky didn’t stop walking. “Yes, I am.”The bluntness of her response made a few nearby students shift uncomfortably, sensing the fracture widening between them. Jared stepped forward slightly, his jaw tightening as he watched Becky guide Natalie toward the exit.“You’re making a mistake,” he said sharply.Becky paused, still holding Natalie’s hand, but didn’t turn fully back to him. “I’m taking care of my friend.”“She’s not in a condition to be taken anywhere,” Jared replied.Becky f

The next few days felt like a strange kind of silence stretching itself too thin.For Jared, it wasn’t peace—it was interruption without resolution. Every attempt to reach Becky ended the same way: unanswered calls, short replies, or nothing at all. It wasn’t that she had disappeared from his life completely. It was worse. She was present, but deliberately out of reach, like she had drawn a line that couldn’t be crossed no matter how many times he stood in front of it.He stared at his phone more than he admitted, thumb hovering over her name before lowering it again. Each time, the same thought returned—Becky wasn’t ignoring him because she was busy. She was ignoring him because she was deciding how much of him she still wanted in her space.That realization finally pushed him to move.By the time he reached her apartment, the sky had already shifted into a dull evening gray. Jared stood at the door for a second longer than necessary, his expression tight, controlled, as if he was st

The hallway outside the guest room felt smaller than it had any right to be.Jared stood a few steps away from the door, jaw tight, arms hanging loosely at his sides like he was still deciding what to do with them. Becky closed the door behind her more gently than she had opened it, but the sound still carried through the house.For a moment, neither of them spoke.Then Becky turned to him.“What was that?”Jared exhaled through his nose. “You saw what it was.”“I saw you interrogating a traumatized girl like she was on a witness stand.”His eyes sharpened immediately. “I wasn’t interrogating her.”Becky gave him a look that said she didn’t even consider that worth arguing. “You were escalating.”“I was asking questions,” he corrected. “Important ones.”“Jared.” Her voice dropped slightly. “She didn’t answer a single one.”“That doesn’t mean she doesn’t know anything.”Becky stared at him for a long moment, as if trying to decide where exactly the conversation had gone wrong.Then she

Natalie barely slept the night before. Not because she was afraid, at least that was what she kept telling herself. Every time she closed her eyes, she found herself staring at the ceiling again moments later, listening to the quiet sounds of the apartment. By the time morning arrived, she had already changed clothes, packed her bag, and sat waiting on the edge of the guest bed.The alarm on Becky's phone rang at six-thirty sharp.A groan immediately escaped Becky as she reached blindly toward the nightstand, silencing the noise before burying her face into the pillow. A few seconds later, reality caught up with her. She sat upright and blinked several times before noticing Natalie already sitting there.For a moment, Becky simply stared."You've been awake this whole time?" she asked, pushing messy strands of hair away from her face.Natalie looked toward the floor instead of answering.A smile slowly appeared on Becky's face as she climbed out of bed. "You know most people spend at