Chapter 5: Evidence
889 Words
Maeve's Pov
I stayed on the floor. Completely engulfed in silence and
the creeping darkness, the flash drive staring back at me like it had a pulse of its own.
He cleared the file. Deleted everything. It was finally over.
But why?
Why did I have to find this?
It changes the whole story.
I brought the flash to my face, deliberating whether to open it.
“No j…just break it and n…o…one of this will matter. He thinks he destroyed everything… and he’ll probably leave my life now right?”
I convinced myself.
But part of me knew… somehow, somewhere, he wasn’t going to leave. Not even without the evidence binding us together.
But how did I know?
I don’t.
I actually don’t.
Two options laid down right in front of me.
Close it. Delete it. Break it. Then move on like none of this ever happened. Everything will be fine… back to the way it had always been.
I guess.
Or…
I held it tighter, dragging my hair in panic as I tried to decide what to do.
Biting the bullet, I stood up and inserted the flash into an old laptop.
Then a folder appeared.
It sat there staring back at me.
I could have closed it. I could have destroyed it and ended all of this.
But one part of my brain refused to listen.
I clicked it.
0%
17%
52%
I leaned in without realizing it.
Then, the video opened.
At first, chaos. Shaky movement. My breathing trapped inside the audio.
I was forced to relive that moment again, only now I was watching it instead of surviving it.
Then, a gunshot.
I flinched so hard I almost dropped the laptop.
My eyes widened in horror as I watched a man fall, and everyone around acted like it was routine.
Even in the video, I heard my voice.
Then something shifted.
The camera angle tilted.
I leaned closer.
My phone must have slipped that night… I remember now. Turned upward without me noticing.
And then I saw him.
Lucian.
Cold. Still. Gun in hand.
The tattoo. The presence. That same suffocating calm.
Then his eyes… cutting straight through the darkness like he already owned it.
He turned and walked into the shadows.
But the camera caught something above my line of sight.
I froze.
The rooftop.
A dark silhouette sat there, coldly blended with the darkness. Then I saw it.
Something metallic.
My fingers went cold as I clicked replay.
“What… what… is that…”
The video played again… slower this time.
A red dot.
A sniper.
Aimed directly at me.
“No… no… no way…”
“That was aimed at me…” I whispered, like the room owed me an answer.
Then I saw it.
Lucian tilted his head.
Not toward me. Not toward the body.
Up.
Exactly toward the rooftop.
Like he knew.
Like he had always known.
My breath stopped.
Then, the red dot vanished.
Just like that.
“He… stopped it.”
My voice cracked.
My life could have ended there. Right there.
I could have been killed and no one would’ve even known I existed in that moment.
But he didn’t let it happen.
In the background, the camera never stopped recording.
I heard his voice again… that same voice that seemed to rewrite the night my life changed direction.
“Are you threatening me…”
A pause.
Then, a low laugh echoed through the recording.
“Run, little mouse…”
“Don’t let me catch you… because if I do—”
The video ended.
My fingers trembled on the trackpad.
I opened it again.
Replayed it.
Again.
Again.
That same moment. That same rooftop. That same tilt of his head.
The moment I should have died.
Murdered… in cold blood.
A sniper aimed at me one second…
Gone the next.
The truth remained:
He didn’t spare me because he needed to.
He did it because he chose to.
The reason I was still breathing.
“No… no… no…”
My hand slammed the laptop shut.
Silence.
For half a second.
Then, the screen flickered back open through the crack like it refused to die.
“What the hell…?”
I grabbed it and threw it across the room.
It hit the floor hard.
But it didn’t go off.
It kept playing.
Broken.
Glitching.
RUN IT BACK. RUN IT BACK. RUN IT BACK.
I pulled the flash drive out with shaking hands.
Yanked the charger out.
The room finally went silent.
Too silent.
Then, the laptop lit up again.
Violent now.
Distorted audio crawling out of it.
“R…u…n… li…ttle… mou…se…”
“Don’t… let me catch you…”
I backed away.
My back hit the wall.
My chest wouldn’t slow down.
I reached for the door.
Locked.
I twisted it again.
Nothing.
My hands were shaking too much to make it move properly.
Then, I smelled it.
Faint tobacco.
My head snapped toward the window.
Nothing there.
But the smell stayed.
Like he had just left it behind on purpose.
The laptop went quiet.
One final flicker. Dim. Broken.
“R…”
Then, a gunshot.
The screen died.
Silence returned.
But the room didn’t feel empty anymore…
Because something in it… was still breathing.
And then the laptop flickered once.
Like it was answering me.
- Writer
