Chapter 3: "Tomorrow"
1817 Words
"Tomorrow"
Elena stood behind the circulation desk, staring at the message on her phone.
Tomorrow has already been written.
She read it again.
Then a third time.
Nothing changed.
The message was still there, sitting beneath the name of a number she didn't recognize. No profile picture. No other messages. Just those six words.
“Okay,” Elena whispered. “This is really insane.”
She looked toward the front doors. The rain was still falling outside, and the glass reflected the empty library back at her. For one strange second, she wondered if someone was standing behind her in the reflection.
She turned.
Nothing.
Elena let out a slow breath and looked back at her phone. She had already considered calling the number, but something stopped her. She didn't even know why. Maybe because whoever had sent the message seemed to know exactly what she had seen.
And maybe because the notebook was still in her bag.
She pulled it out and placed it carefully on the desk.
The black cover looked completely ordinary now.
Too ordinary.
Elena ran her fingers over it, then opened it.
The page where Adrian's name had appeared was still there.
Tomorrow, Adrian Cross will disappear.
She swallowed.
The sentence didn't changed.
She flipped to the next page.
Blank.
Another page.
Blank.
“Okay,” she said quietly. “Tell me this is some kind of joke.”
Nothing happened.
She stared at the page for several seconds before closing the notebook again.
Her phone buzzed.
Elena jumped.
She looked down.
Another message from the unknown number.
Don't let anyone know this.
Her stomach tightened.
She immediately looked toward the library entrance.
Empty.
She typed back.
Who are you?
She waited.
Nothing.
She sent another message.
How do you know me?
Still nothing.
Elena stared at the screen until it went dark.
“Great.”
She shoved the phone into her pocket and grabbed her bag. She didn't care about her assignment anymore. She didn't care about the party on Friday or Noah's history project or the bread her mother had asked her to buy.
She just wanted to go home.
Before leaving, she looked once more toward the west wing.
The chained entrance looked exactly as it had before.
Dark.
Silent.
Normal.
Almost.
Elena locked the front doors and stepped outside.
The cold rain immediately hit her face.
“Perfect.”
She pulled her jacket tighter and hurried toward the bus stop.
The entire ride home, she kept thinking about Adrian.
Tomorrow, Adrian Cross will disappear.
It didn't sound real.
Maybe the notebook was predicting something harmless. Maybe "disappear" meant he'd miss class. Maybe he'd decide not to come to university for a day. Maybe whoever had written it had simply wanted to scare her.
That had to be it.
There was no way a notebook could actually predict the future.
And yet, it had predicted her.
At exactly 11:53.
By the time Elena got home, it was nearly one in the morning. The house was quiet, and all the downstairs lights were off.
She slipped inside as quietly as possible.
“Elena?”
She stopped.
Her mother's voice came from the living room.
“You're home late.”
Elena turned the corner and found Margaret sitting on the couch with a blanket around her shoulders.
“Sorry. The library was busy.”
Margaret glanced at the clock.
“At midnight?”
Her mother looked at her for a moment.
“Are you okay?”
Elena forced a smile. “Yeah.”
“You look pale.”
“I'm tired.”
Margaret nodded slowly.
“Well, go get some sleep. You have class tomorrow.”
“Good night, Mom.”
“Good night.”
Elena started upstairs, but Margaret called after her.
“Elena?”
She turned.
“Don't forget to bring bread home tomorrow.”
Despite everything, Elena laughed.
“I won't.”
When she reached her room, she locked the door.
She dropped her bag on the floor and took out the notebook.
For a moment, she simply stared at it.
Then she placed it on her desk and opened her laptop.
She searched for the name of the west wing.
Nothing useful came up.
She searched Blackwood University's west wing.
Again, nothing.
Then she tried the library's history archive.
That gave her more than she expected.
Old newspaper scans appeared across the screen.
Elena clicked through several articles until one caught her attention.
WEST WING CLOSED AFTER 1968 LIBRARY FIRE
She sat up.
A fire?
She opened the article.
The report was short. A fire had started in the west wing late one February night in 1968. Several rooms had been damaged, although there had been no reported deaths. The university had closed the wing afterward.
Elena kept reading.
Then she saw a familiar date.
Feabruary 17.
The same date as the old photograph.
Her eyes narrowed.
She searched again.
February 17, 1968, Blackwood library fire.
Another article appeared.
This one was much older.
The headline read:
STUDENT MISSING AFTER BLACKWOOD LIBRARY FIRE
Elena's heart started beating faster.
She opened it.
The article described an eighteen-year-old student who had disappeared on the night of the fire. His name had been partially faded in the scan, but Elena could make out the first name.
Adrian.
She stared at it.
“No.”
She moved closer to the screen.
The last name was difficult to read.
Cross.
Elena leaned back.
“That can't be real.”
She read the article again.
The missing student was Adrian Cross.
Eighteen years old.
History student.
Last seen inside the library shortly before the fire.
Elena closed the webpage.
Her phone buzzed.
She looked at it.
Sophie.
Sophie: You alive?
Elena smiled weakly.
She typed,
Elena: Barely.
Sophie replied almost immediately.
Sophie: What happened?
Elena stared at the message.
Her first instinct was to tell her everything.
Then she remembered the warning.
Don't let anyone know this.
She typed,
Elena: Long night at work.
Sophie replied: You better be ready tomorrow because I'm dragging you to lunch.
Elena smiled.
Elena: Deal.
A second message came.
Sophie: Also, Daniel asked about me again.
Elena shook her head.
Elena: Of course he did.
Sophie: See? I told you.
Elena laughed quietly.
For a few moments, everything felt normal again.
Then another message appeared.
Not from Sophie.
From an unknown number.
Unknown: You found the article.
Elena's smile disappeared.
She stared at the screen.
Her fingers moved quickly.
Elena: Who are you?
The answer came almost immediately.
Unknown: Someone who tried to change it before.
Elena's heart skipped.
She typed:
Elena: Change what?
No response.
She sent another message.
Elena: What happened to the other Adrian Cross?
The typing indicator appeared.
Then disappeared.
Then appeared again.
Finally, one message came through.
Unknown: Exactly what will happen tomorrow.
Elena dropped the phone onto the bed.
“No.”
She paced across the room.
This couldn't be happening.
She had spent the last half hour trying to find a logical explanation, but every answer only created another question.
The notebook knew her name.
It knew she would enter the west wing.
It knew Adrian's name.
And now there was a newspaper article about another Adrian Cross disappearing in the same library on the same date decades ago.
Elena stopped at her desk.
The notebook was still open.
She hadn't left it that way.
She walked closer.
A new sentence was written on the page.
You shouldn't have looked.
Elena stared at it.
The pen wasn't there.
But another line appeared.
You have until tomorrow night.
Elena's pulse quickened.
“Until tomorrow night to do what?”
The page remained still.
She waited.
Nothing.
Elena looked at the clock.
1:36 a.m.
She was exhausted, but there was no chance she was going to sleep.
She grabbed a piece of paper and wrote down everything she knew.
West wing.
Notebook.
1968 fire.
Adrian Cross.
Tomorrow.
She added another word beneath all of it.
Why?
Then she crossed it out.
W̶h̶y̶?
It wasn't the question she needed answering.
She needed to know how to stop it.
The next morning came far too quickly.
Elena woke to the sound of her alarm and immediately reached for her phone.
For a second, she forgot about everything.
Then she remembered.
Adrian.
She sat up.
7:02am.
Her first thought was to check the notebook.
She reached for it.
The desk was empty.
Elena froze.
She looked around her room.
Her bag was on the floor.
Her laptop was still open.
But the notebook was gone.
She jumped out of bed and searched under the desk, beneath her books, and inside her bag.
Nothing.
“No, no, no.”
She checked the floor again.
Nothing.
Then her phone buzzed.
Elena grabbed it.
A message from the unknown number waited on the screen.
Unknown: You were never supposed to take it home.
Her stomach dropped.
She typed back immediately.
Elena: Where is it?
The reply came.
Unknown: Back where it belongs.
Elena stared at the message.
The library.
Of course.
She hurried downstairs without even fixing her hair properly.
Margaret was already in the kitchen.
“You're up early.”
“I have to go.”
“You haven't eaten.”
“I'm not hungry.”
Margaret frowned. “Elena, what's going on?”
“Nothing. I just forgot something at school.”
“Your bag?”
“No. Something else.”
Noah looked up from his cereal.
“Is it the bread?”
Elena stopped halfway to the door.
“Noah, I swear, if you mention bread right now—”
He grinned. “Okay.”
Margaret handed Elena a piece of toast.
“At least take this.”
Elena grabbed it.
“Thanks.”
“Don't stay out too late.”
“I won't.”
She rushed outside.
The bus hadn't even arrived yet.
Elena checked the time.
7:28am.
She had less than an hour before her first class.
She pulled out her phone and opened her messages with Adrian.
There was one new message from him.
Adrian: Hey. Are you on campus already?
Elena stared at it.
Her fingers hovered over the keyboard.
She typed:
Elena: Not yet. Why?
His response came quickly.
Adrian: Just wondering.
Then another message.
Adrian: I had the strangest dream last night.
Elena's heart began pounding.
She typed: What happened?
There was a long pause.
Then Adrian replied.
Adrian: I was in the library.
Elena stopped breathing for a second.
Another message appeared.
Adrian: There was a door I'd never seen before.
She stared at the screen.
Then Adrian sent one final message.
Adrian: And someone was calling my name from the other side.
Elena looked toward the road.
The bus finally appeared in the distance.
She had a terrible feeling about what was waiting for her at Blackwood University.
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