chapter 7
755 Words
The words “someone died” were still echoing in my skull when Rian snatched the folder from my hands and slammed the locker shut.
I wanted to scream. To demand answers. To shake him until the walls he’d built around himself crumbled.
But then
Footsteps.
Fast. Sharp. Getting closer.
Rian’s expression shifted in an instant playful arrogance replaced by something raw and feral.
He grabbed my wrist and yanked me into the shadowy corner behind the lockers, one hand pressed firmly against my mouth.
“Don’t. Make. A sound,” he breathed against my ear.
My heart was a war drum in my chest.
Two figures appeared at the end of the hallway. Aryan… and Priya.
Priya.
Her face was pale, her voice hushed but urgent.
“She’s getting too close, Aryan. Raha’s… asking questions.”
I felt my entire body go cold.
Aryan smirked, hands in his pockets like always.
“Relax, princess. That’s exactly what I want. If she finds out on her own, she’ll have no choice but to pick a side.”
Priya’s voice cracked.
“You don’t get it! If Rian finds out what we did”
Aryan stepped closer, so close I thought he’d kiss her. Instead, he whispered something that turned my stomach to ice.
“He already knows. That’s why he’s dangerous.”
Rian’s grip on me tightened. I could feel the tension radiating off him like heat.
The footsteps faded. They were gone.
I shoved Rian’s hand off me and glared.
“WHAT. THE. HELL. Was that?!”
He didn’t answer. Just grabbed my hand and pulled me out of the building.
Ten minutes later, we were standing in the old cemetery behind the school.
Yeah. A freaking cemetery.
Because apparently, this night wasn’t dramatic enough.
Rian paced in front of me, running a hand through his hair like he was seconds away from combusting.
“You’re in the middle of something you don’t understand, Raha,” he said, voice sharp. “And if Aryan drags you any deeper, there’s no coming back.”
I folded my arms, refusing to flinch.
“Then explain it to me. Because I just heard my best friend talking about ‘what we did’ like she helped bury a body.”
His jaw flexed. For a long moment, he said nothing.
And then…
“It wasn’t an accident,” he whispered.
I blinked. “What wasn’t?”
“The night everyone thinks was just a fire. It wasn’t. Someone… started it.”
I stared at him, unable to process his words.
And then it clicked.
“The rumors,” I breathed. “The whispers about the abandoned east wing… The fire that ‘killed someone.’”
Rian’s gaze locked on mine, hard and unrelenting.
“Not killed,” he corrected. “Murdered.”
Before I could react, my phone buzzed.
A message from Priya.
“Meet me. Alone. Behind the library. I’ll tell you everything.”
I showed it to Rian, expecting him to say don’t go.
But he just shook his head, eyes dark and unreadable.
“Go,” he said flatly.
“What?!”
“Go. Hear what she has to say. But don’t believe a single word.”
The library was deserted when I got there.
Priya was waiting, fidgeting, her eyes darting around like she expected someone to jump out of the shadows.
When she saw me, her shoulders sagged with relief.
“Raha,” she whispered, reaching for my hand. “I swear I didn’t want you involved. I tried to keep you safe”
“Safe from what, Priya?” I snapped. “From the truth?”
Tears welled up in her eyes, but she didn’t answer my question. Instead, she said the one thing I wasn’t prepared for:
“Stay away from Rian.”
I froze. “What?”
“You don’t understand,” she whispered, voice trembling. “He’s not who you think he is. That night… the fire… the person who died…”
She looked straight at me.
“It was Rian.”
The Impossible Truth
I stared at her, my brain short-circuiting.
“That’s impossible. I just talked to him!”
Priya’s voice cracked.
“You think you did. But the boy you know as Rian? He shouldn’t exist.”
Before I could demand answers, a loud crash echoed from somewhere behind us like glass shattering.
Priya’s eyes widened with terror.
“They found us,” she whispered. “RUN.”
The lights flickered.
And then… everything went black.
- Writer
