CHAPTER 3: The Scar That Remembered
230 Words
Elara’s POV
The cold never bothered her.
But tonight, the chill settled under her skin like a whisper she couldn’t shake. Elara stood alone in the lab, the overhead light flickering softly, bathing the room in sharp white then gray. Her eyes scanned the autopsy notes again, obsessively.
She had written everything in precise detail.
Everything except the feeling.
The body had been clean—too clean. And then that Polaroid showed up like a ghost with a timestamp that shouldn’t exist.
She touched her neck, a nervous habit she hadn’t indulged in for years. Not since that night. The scar on her collarbone throbbed, though she hadn’t thought about it in years.
She turned sharply.
Something moved in the reflection of the freezer glass. Not a person. A presence.
“Elara.”
Raen’s voice behind her made her jump. His eyes flicked to her hand still on her scar.
“You don’t believe in fate,” he said.
“No,” she replied. “But I believe in deja vu.”
He handed her the new photo—the one that showed her, terrified, in this very room.
And the number 8 scrawled beneath it.
"You're next,” Raen said flatly.
Elara stared at the image. That wasn’t just fear in her eyes—it was recognition. Whoever took this photo, she had seen them before.
Or… she will.
- Writer
