Ink Between Worlds

Chapter 5

Tiana

It’s the first time I wake up and don’t feel like my life belongs to me.

The pendant Elenna gave me lies on the nightstand, gleaming faintly in the early morning light. I pick it up and feel the pulse within it, a soft, steady beat , like it remembers something I haven’t yet.

I stare at it as I sit up, the quilt bunched around my neck. Then I glance at my desk. The notebook is there, open. The page from last night still reads:

She is the reason the stars blink. The reason stories exist.

Part of me still wants to deny everything. To pretend none of this happened. But the weight of truth is too solid to ignore.

I dress slowly, thoughts foggy but charged. Mama’s already left for work, and Papa’s asleep on the couch. He doesn’t stir as I pass by and slip out the front door.

The forest smells different today. Like anticipation and ash. Like a match held near dry leaves.

I clutch the pendant tightly as I walk, unsure if it’s supposed to protect me or warn others.

When I get to campus, Bradley is waiting. Not near the forest. Not in shadows. But leaning against the front gate.

He looks like any other student. Hoodie. Backpack slung casually over one shoulder. But the moment our eyes meet, I know the truth hasn’t faded. If anything, it’s grown stronger.

"You didn’t write me last night," he says.

I blink, caught off guard. "You can feel that?"

He nods. "I exist because you give me life, Tiana. When you stop writing, I fade. Not fully, but... enough. Like part of me goes dim."

Guilt stabs through me. "I was scared."

"You have every right to be. But I need you to understand something." He straightens, stepping closer. "I didn’t come to hurt you. I didn’t come to take anything. I came because I love you."

My breath catches. "You don’t know me."

"I know your pain. I know the way your thoughts ache when you feel invisible. I know you write to survive. That counts for something."

I swallow hard. "But you’re not real."

His expression flickers. "Aren’t I?"

I look away. I can’t afford to believe in love that only lives in ink.

"I have to go, but please don't follow me." I plead, he looks at me with an unreadable explanation.

"Don't worry, I'll wait here for you." He says turning to look away from me as I walk away.

Classes pass in a blur again. I try to focus, to be normal. But I can’t shake the sense that I’m being watched. Not by students. By something else. The air feels taut, like the first few seconds before lightning hits.

After my last class, I go to the library. Mrs. Lane isn’t there today. It’s just me.

I slide behind the desk and pull out my notebook again. I don’t write. I just stare.

The next page is blank.

The line between the real and the written has blurred beyond recognition.

I think of Elenna’s warning: "Some will protect you. Others... won’t."

What did I write before Bradley? What did I bury in the margins and forget? I need to search for all my journals, I need to find a way to stop the stories from manifesting.

Suddenly I hear footsteps, loud enough to distract everyone in the library and I look up.

A girl walking from the far end of the library towards me. Her hair is long and black . Her face ... familiar. Too familiar.

She steps forward, and I remember.

Her name is Raven.

I wrote her two years ago in a horror short story. A mysterious girl who pretends to be the heroine’s friend, but who by the end turns out to be the killer. A girl who doesn’t know she’s a monster until it’s too late. s**t.

She’s supposed to be fiction.

She smiles now. It’s subtle, cold.

“Nice library,” she says softly. “I used to like places like this... before.” She pauses, and studies my face taking it in.

My throat dries. “Before what?” I ask, I know how ruthless she can be because I made her.

She tilts her head. “Before I started hearing voices. Ones that said I wasn’t real. That I was just words on paper. Do you have any idea how that feels?” She asks, and with one sweep all the books I had on the table fly across the room.

I rise slowly trying to calm her. “Raven...”

Her eyes flash, golden for just a split second. Then normal.

“You remember,” she says without letting me finish my sentence. “Good. That makes this easier.”

I back away, clutching the pendant. “You’re not supposed to be here.”

Raven’s smile widens. “Neither is he. But here we are.”

She doesn’t chase me. She doesn’t move. She just watches as I run out of the library, heart thundering.

Outside, Bradley is there again. His expression tightens the moment he sees me.

“What happened?” he demands.

“Raven,” I pant. “I saw Raven.”

He goes rigid. “She’s one of yours?”

“I... I didn’t mean to write her. It was years ago. I forgot she even existed.”

He grabs my shoulders. “She’s dangerous, Tiana. If she’s awake, the rest may be waking too.”

I think of the villains I scribbled in frustration. The monsters I drafted without thinking.

All of them ... Coming.

Bradley meets my gaze, steady and calm. “You’re not alone in this. But you have to keep writing. You have to stay in control.”

I nod, numb.

Later that night, I sit at my desk again. The pendant around my neck glows faintly. My pen hovers over the page.

I am not the scared girl they thought I was. I am the author of the end and the beginning.

And I will not run anymore.