CHAPTER TEN
465 Words
Amelia did not reply to the message.
She stared at the glowing screen until the words seemed to blur into something unreal.
YOU REMEMBERED TOO MUCH .
For the first time, she did not feel afraid.
She felt angry.
Oxford had taken something from her — her past, her love, her truth — and wrapped it in silence. If remembering was dangerous, then perhaps danger was exactly what she needed.
She closed her phone and opened her notebook.
The blank page waited.
Slowly, deliberately, she began to write.
IF THEY ERASED ME ONCE ,THEY UNDERESTIMATED ME .
The moment she finished the sentence, her head throbbed violently.
She gasped, gripping the edge of the desk as images flooded her mind.
Not fragments.
Not dreams.
Memories.
She saw herself in the Bodleian Library, younger, laughing with Edward as they argued over a manuscript.
She saw late nights in the auxiliary archive, their heads bent together over forbidden files.
She heard her own voice whispering:
“If we expose them, everything will change.”
Then another memory surfaced — darker, sharper.
A room she did not recognise.
Men and women in formal clothes, their faces obscured by shadow.
A voice speaking calmly:
“Miss Hart, you have discovered information that cannot be allowed to circulate.”
Her breath quickened.
She felt again the fear she had felt then.
“You have two options,” the voice had said.
“Forget everything — or disappear entirely.”
Amelia staggered back from the desk.
Her heart raced.
She remembered.
Not everything.
But enough.
The next morning, she went to see Edward.
He was waiting near Magdalen Bridge, as though he had known she would come.
“You’re remembering,” he said quietly.
She nodded.
“I remember them,” she said. “The Custodians.”
Edward’s expression tightened.
“I remember the choice,” she continued. “I remember standing in front of them.”
He watched her carefully.
“And?” he asked.
Amelia lifted her gaze.
“I remember why I refused to disappear.”
Edward’s eyes widened slightly.
“Why?”
She took a slow breath.
“Because I realised something they didn’t expect,” she said.
The river flowed silently beside them.
Edward waited.
Amelia looked at him.
And spoke the words that changed everything:
“Because I wasn’t the only one who knew their secret.”
Edward froze.
“What do you mean?” he asked.
Amelia’s voice was steady.
“I wasn’t the first student to find the truth,” she said. “And I won’t be the last.”
Edward stared at her.
“And the others?” he asked.
Amelia looked toward the ancient towers of Oxford, her expression resolute.
“They’re not gone,” she said.
“They’re hidden.”
- Writer
