"The Message In The Dark"
681 Words
Lila stood frozen.
Her eyes locked on the phone screen.
RUN, LILA. ETHAN CAN’T PROTECT YOU ANYMORE.
Her grip tightened instantly.
Behind her, Ethan was already moving.
“Don’t read it,” he said sharply.
Too late.
“I already did,” she whispered.
The mysterious man stepped closer.
“Who sent it?”
Lila shook her head quickly.
“I don’t know. It’s unknown number again.”
Ethan’s expression darkened immediately.
“Delete it.”
Lila looked up at him.
“No.”
Silence.
Even the rain outside seemed to pause for a second.
Ethan narrowed his eyes slightly.
“You’re choosing messages from strangers over me now?”
Lila scoffed.
“I’m choosing information over silence.”
That hit something.
For a moment, Ethan didn’t respond.
Then quietly:
“You think I’m the threat.”
“I don’t know what you are,” she snapped back.
The mysterious girl hugged herself tightly.
“We need to leave now,” she said.
The strange man nodded.
“They’re closing in on this sector.”
Lila frowned.
“Why do they want me so badly?”
Ethan stepped closer again.
This time, slower.
Careful.
Like he was choosing his words.
“Because of your father.”
Her heart tightened instantly.
“That’s all anyone says,” she whispered.
“But nobody tells me why.”
Ethan looked at her for a long moment.
Then finally—
“Because your father didn’t just know them.”
A pause.
He took a breath.
“He built part of what they are.”
Lila’s mind went blank.
“That’s impossible…”
Ethan shook his head once.
“It’s the truth.”
Thunder cracked loudly outside.
The greenhouse walls trembled slightly.
The mysterious man checked the broken entrance quickly.
“We’re out of time.”
But Lila wasn’t moving.
Her thoughts were spiraling.
Her father… involved in this?
In this nightmare?
“No,” she whispered. “He was a good man.”
Ethan’s voice softened slightly.
“He was.”
That confused her even more.
“Then why is all of this happening to me?!”
Ethan’s jaw tightened.
“Because you’re the only thing he left behind that they couldn’t control.”
The words hit her harder than she expected.
Something about them felt… personal.
Too personal.
Suddenly—
A loud beep came from the mysterious man’s device.
His eyes widened.
“They breached the outer gate.”
Ethan turned instantly.
“How many?”
The man hesitated.
“…Too many.”
The lights outside the greenhouse flickered violently.
Red emergency glow filled the broken glass walls.
Lila’s stomach dropped.
“What does ‘breached’ mean?”
Nobody answered her.
Instead—
A distant explosion echoed across campus.
The ground shook.
Students screamed somewhere far away.
Scarlett—
Lila suddenly thought of Scarlett.
Her chest tightened.
“My roommate—she’s still in the dorm!”
Ethan grabbed her wrist immediately.
“No.”
She jerked her hand away.
“I’m not leaving her!”
For the first time, Ethan looked frustrated.
“She’s not the priority right now.”
“That’s not true!” Lila shouted.
The mysterious girl grabbed her arm gently.
“Lila… please.”
But Lila wasn’t listening anymore.
Everything inside her was breaking.
Her father.
The locket.
The warnings.
The monsters.
And now people she cared about might be in danger.
She stepped back.
And stared directly at Ethan.
“If you won’t help her… I will.”
Ethan went still.
Dangerously still.
Then softly—
“You don’t understand what’s out there.”
Lila lifted her chin.
“Then show me.”
A long silence.
Rain hammered the glass.
The alarms screamed across campus.
Then Ethan finally spoke.
“…If I take you there, you don’t leave my side. Not even for a second.”
Lila hesitated.
But only for a moment.
Then nodded.
Ethan exhaled slowly.
Like he had just accepted something irreversible.
“Fine,” he said.
And for the first time since meeting him…
His voice didn’t sound like control.
It sounded like fear.
- Writer
