When Goodbye wasn't Enough

EPISODE 7: Stranger in the Rain

It started with the porch light flickering.

Just once.

A blink.

Enough to catch her eye.

Jasmin had just put Aira to bed. The storm outside was heavy—thick with wind, thunder rolling like it had something to say.

She stood at the sink, hands still damp from dishes, when the light blinked again.

This time, it stayed off.

She walked slowly toward the window, careful not to disturb the silence of the house.

Outside, the street was empty.

Mont Aria was quiet at night. Too quiet sometimes. A little coastal town with charm by day… and too many shadows by night.

Then she saw it.

A figure.

Standing under the rain at the end of her driveway, just outside the reach of the porch light.

Umbrella lowered.

Face obscured.

Not moving.

Not pacing.

Just… watching.

She backed away from the window instinctively. Her pulse began to hammer.

Her first thought was Damien.

Her second—Amiran?

But something in her gut rejected both.

This wasn’t someone looking to talk.

This was someone reminding her she was being seen.

She grabbed her phone and snapped a photo through the glass. Blurry. The rain distorted the image, turned the figure into a silhouette swallowed in gray.

She turned on the porch light manually.

But by the time she looked again, the figure was gone.

Her phone buzzed.

Unknown Number.

“You were warned.”

Then:

“Some stories aren’t yours to tell.”

Her breath hitched. She locked the door. Then the windows. She checked on Aira again—still asleep, one hand clutching her toy giraffe.

She didn’t sleep.

She sat by the window until dawn, the rain easing into drizzle. But the fear never eased.

Not fully.

By morning, a new message.

This one included a link.

A private forum thread.

Jasmin clicked it.

The thread had only one post.

A grainy photo—Sarah, walking into the Devana Bay clinic with a folder under her arm.

Timestamp: Two weeks before she vanished.

Below it, a comment from an anonymous user:

“She knew. She documented everything. She didn’t run. She was taken.”

Another user responded:

“You’re next if you don’t stop.”

Jasmin closed the browser and walked to her bookshelf.

She pulled out Sarah’s notebook again. The cover felt heavier in her hands this time.

She flipped through the pages, desperate for something she missed.

And then… she found it.

A drawing, tucked between two pages: a crude sketch of a door marked E-103. No explanation.

But underneath, three words:

“Never open it.”

Aira stirred in the next room.

Jasmin placed the notebook down, her hand trembling slightly.

She wanted to pretend this was still something she could walk away from.

But she knew better.

Whoever stood outside her house last night hadn’t come to scare her.

They came to warn her.

But Jasmin Malikha had never been good at backing down.

Especially not when the silence around a woman like Sarah echoed too loud.

She picked up the photo from the night before. Zoomed in.

Blurry. Shapeless. Faceless.

But in the corner of the image, just above the stranger’s shoulder—

A symbol.

Scratched into the nearby electrical box.

A triangle.

With three dots.

The same one Zara had drawn for her.

Her breath caught.

This wasn’t just a story. It was a warning system.

A code.

And she had just stepped into it.

[To Be Continued in Episode 8]

What lies behind Door E-103?

Is the symbol a map—or a threat?

And as Jasmin follows Sarah’s trail deeper, she begins to realize:

Someone is always one step ahead.