Chapter 5
631 Words
The apartment felt different when Kairo wasn’t around.
Not that he talked much when he was but the space felt more still now. Too still. Mira walked into the silence and locked the door behind her twice.
He had left that morning with nothing more than a simple “See you.”
A duffle bag slung over his shoulder.
Black SUV waiting downstairs.
No questions. No promises. No explanations.
Just gone.
Mira dropped her phone on the counter and went to boil water. She hadn’t eaten all day. She wasn’t even sure she was hungry. Everything felt slightly off.
She noticed it first when the kettle clicked off.
Her phone screen lit up.
1 Message. Unknown Number.
She picked it up slowly.
No name. Just a message.
> “You think you can hide, Mira?”
Her stomach dropped.
Another message followed instantly.
> “Elena wants what’s hers.”
Mira’s hands shook.
She dropped the phone, heart racing. Backed away from the counter. Her legs almost gave out as she grabbed the edge of the table.
It couldn’t be real.
She had changed her number. Changed her name.
How did they…?
Her eyes darted around the room.
The windows were shut. The door locked. She hadn’t told anyone except Isabel about where she lived. Not even Rachel, nor Tessy her real life bestie
She picked up her phone again with trembling fingers and opened the message, heart pounding harder with every second.
The third one came seconds later.
> [1 Image Attached]
It was her.
At JFK.
Luggage in hand. Eyes down. Looking small.
The photo was taken from a distance. She hadn’t even noticed anyone near her.
Her mind screamed to run. Again. But where to this time?
She locked the phone and tossed it onto the couch, backing away like it might explode.
Later that evening, she tried to walk around the block to calm herself. It didn’t work. Her legs kept checking behind her. Her eyes scanned every shadow. Every passing face looked suspicious.
When she returned to the building, Dylan Brook was standing by the front entrance, security badge shining under the porch light. He always stood a little too stiff. Watched her a little too hard.
“Evenin’,” he said, arms crossed.
Mira gave a small nod.
He didn’t move to open the door. Just looked her up and down.
“You one of Mr. Stone’s little… friends?”
Mira frowned slightly. “No. I rent a room.”
“He never mentioned you. And he doesn’t strike me as someone who shares space.”
“Well, he did.”
Dylan let the silence hang before finally stepping aside and tapping the access panel. “Just saying… people lie all the time. Especially the ones who don’t belong.”
Mira didn’t respond. She walked past him quickly, heart racing faster now for an entirely different reason.
The hallway upstairs was too quiet. The shadows too long.
She got into the apartment, locked the door, and checked every room. Kairo’s was still shut. The couch empty. Her bedroom was untouched.
She didn’t turn on the light. Just sat on the floor, back against the door, phone in hand.
She should delete the messages. Pretend it never happened.
But her thumb hovered over the screen.
She read the words again.
"Elena wants what’s hers."
She remembered her father’s voice quiet, broken the night he told her what he’d done.
“I had no choice, Mira. You don’t know what she’s capable of. They’ll kill me.”
That was the night she ran. Left behind her name, her mother’s grave, everything.
But it still found her.
Across oceans. Through phone numbers. Through walls.
She changed her life.
But the shadows remembered her.
And they were getting closer.
- Writer
