The things we never said

THE THINGS WE NEVER SAID A St. Aurelia Academy Story Genre: Young Adult • Romance • Mystery • Suspense • School Drama • Betrayal Setting: St. Aurelia Academy Main character: Amara Vale, 17, scholarship student Sometimes the most dangerous secrets aren't the ones people tell. They're the things everyone agrees never to say. PROLOGUE 394 Days Earlier The last thing Elliot Hayes ever said was my name. Not Amara. Not Vale. Just— “Don't trust him.” Then the lights went out. I remember the exact sound of the door slamming. I remember the rain hitting the windows of St. Aurelia Academy hard enough to drown out almost everything else. I remember running. And I remember Noah Blackwood standing at the end of the corridor. Watching me. He didn't chase me. He didn't call my name. He just stood there beneath the flickering hallway light, his school blazer soaked from the rain, his expression impossible to read. Then the fire alarm sounded. Everything after that became a blur. Teachers screaming. Students being pushed toward the main staircase. Security guards running in the opposite direction. And Elliot— Gone. By morning, the school had a story. Elliot had left. That was what they told everyone. He had supposedly climbed over the east gate sometime during the night and disappeared. The police came. They searched the grounds. They questioned students. They searched his room. Nothing. No body. No bag. No phone. No explanation. Just an empty bed. And one sentence repeated over and over again by the administration: “Elliot Hayes is no longer a student of St. Aurelia Academy.” Nobody questioned it. At least, nobody publicly did. But I knew they were lying. Because three days before Elliot disappeared, he had slipped something into my locker. A photograph. I kept it. For 394 days. Until today. The Girl Who Came Back St. Aurelia Academy looked exactly the same. That was the first thing I noticed. The enormous iron gates still carried the school's golden crest. The old stone buildings still climbed toward the grey sky. The perfectly trimmed hedges still lined the driveway like someone had spent hours measuring every leaf. And students still walked around like they owned the place. Some things hadn't changed. Some things had. I tightened my grip around the handle of my suitcase as the car stopped. “Here we are,” Mum said quietly. I stared through the window. ST. AURELIA ACADEMY. The words were carved into the stone arch above the entrance. For a moment, I considered telling her I couldn't do this. That coming back was a mistake. That I didn't want to spend another year surrounded by people who had spent the last twelve months pretending Elliot Hayes never existed. But I'd already made the decision. I opened the door. Cold air rushed over me. And immediately, I felt it. That strange sensation of being watched. I looked up. Students were everywhere. Some were unloading luggage. Others were hugging friends they'd spent the summer away from. A group of girls near the fountain stopped talking when they saw me. One whispered something. The others looked over. Then looked away. I sighed. “Welcome back, Amara.” I turned. A familiar voice. Maya Collins. My best friend. She ran toward me and practically crashed into my arms. “Oh my God!” I laughed despite myself. “Maya—” “You're actually here!” “Yes, apparently.” She pulled away and looked me up and down. “You look different.” “I've been gone for a year.” “Exactly.” She grabbed my suitcase before I could protest. “Come on. I have approximately four hundred things to tell you.” “I'm scared already.” “You should be.” We started walking toward the dormitories. For the first few minutes, I allowed myself to relax. Then Maya suddenly stopped. I nearly walked into her. “What?” She wasn't looking at me. She was looking across the courtyard. I followed her gaze. And there he was. Noah Blackwood. Standing beneath one of the old oak trees. Black blazer. White shirt. School tie loosened slightly. Surrounded by three boys from the senior prefect council. He looked older. Not dramatically. Just enough for me to notice. His eyes moved across the courtyard. Then they found mine. Everything inside me went still. Noah didn't smile. Neither did I. Maya whispered beside me. “Don't.” I swallowed. “Don't what?” “Whatever you're thinking.” “I wasn't thinking anything.” “You were staring.” “So was he.” “That doesn't make it better.” Noah said something to the boys beside him. Then he started walking toward us. My heartbeat picked up. Maya grabbed my arm. “Amara.” “I know.” He stopped a few feet away. For a second, none of us spoke. Then Noah looked directly at me. “Welcome back.” Two words. That's all. But there was something underneath them. Something I couldn't understand. I forced a smile. “Thanks.” His eyes stayed on mine. Then he quietly said: “You shouldn't have come back.” My smile disappeared. Maya looked between us. “What?” Noah didn't answer. Instead, he turned and walked away. I watched him disappear into the crowd. Then my phone vibrated. Unknown Number I frowned and opened the message. There was only one sentence. You promised you'd never come back. My blood ran cold. I hadn't told anyone about that promise. Not Maya. Not Mum. Nobody. I looked around the courtyard. Hundreds of students. Dozens of teachers. Everyone going about their morning as if nothing had happened. Then another message appeared. Unknown Number: But you came back anyway. A second later, a photograph arrived. My hands started shaking. It was an old photograph. Taken inside St. Aurelia. I recognized the room immediately. Room 17. The room that had been sealed since Elliot disappeared. And standing inside it— was Noah Blackwood. The date printed beneath the photograph read: September 14, 2025. Three hundred and ninety-four days ago. The exact night Elliot Hayes disappeared. I stared at the photograph. Then at Noah's retreating figure. And for the first time since coming back to St. Aurelia, I understood something. Elliot hadn't simply disappeared. Someone had made sure he did. And somehow— I was next.