I woke up to the smell of espresso and a strange sense of... stillness.
Not the peaceful kind. The kind that felt loaded. Heavy. Like the calm before someone starts yelling your full name in all caps.
I blinked through the haze of sleep, the morning light slicing through the tall windows of the mansion, catching the golden trim along the ceiling.
“Why is it so quiet?” I mumbled, sitting up. “Where’s the laughter, the snoring, the… oh.”
I turned my head.
Maya was gone.
Blankets messily folded. No sign of life except for an empty coffee cup on the nightstand and a sticky note in her chaotic, cursive scrawl:
“Don’t freak out. There’s coffee downstairs. Also… Dario’s back. Like back back. - M”
My heart skipped like it had no idea which beat to follow.
Back?
Like actually in the house
