The Echo Within

Chapter Eleven - The Dreamers Note

The rain had returned. A steady, cold drizzle slicked the streets outside the CIU headquarters as the team moved about in a rare lull. No pressing cases, no red strings on corkboards, no blood-stained photos begging for resolution. The lull felt eerie to Jace Marlon. Too quiet, like the calm before the inevitable chaos.

The events surrounding the copycat’s murder had left the team frayed at the edges. Even though the case had been closed, Maya Kwon hadn’t stopped watching surveillance feeds, obsessing over body movement and timestamps. Ellis Vale was quieter than usual, even for him. He moved like a shadow, eyes distant, burdened.

The day began with the usual shuffle. Eric Langley was sorting through reports, trying to re-establish routine. Ross barked about protocols and requisitions, trying to fill the atmosphere with something resembling order. But beneath it all, an air of hesitation lingered. The events had shaken everyone.

That morning, Rayna came into the office with a file clutched in her hand like a secret too important to trust to a drawer.

"This was slipped into my locker," she said, laying it on the table in the middle of the conference room.

Everyone gathered around.

Inside the file was a journal—spiral-bound, half-burnt at the edges, with pages crinkled from water damage. On the front was a name scribbled in smudged ink: Seth Halden. He had been presumed dead by Echo's hand three months ago. But apparently, Seth had survived long enough to write.

“Where the hell did this come from?” Ross muttered.

“It was hidden in the break room locker section,” Rayna said. “But Seth was never brought here. He was transported directly to the hospital after being found.”

Jace opened the first page. The handwriting was erratic. Sharp, fragmented thoughts filled each line:

I think someone’s following us. Not Echo. Someone else. Someone inside.

They know what we’re doing. Know what we’re missing.

Maya was right. There’s more to this.

The notes were filled with paranoia, but also startling detail. He wrote about voices outside his hospital room window, about CIU members who acted differently once the lights dimmed.

Eric leaned in. “He mentions a coat. CIU regulation. Said he saw someone in it twice, lingering around the ambulance bay the night he was brought in.”

“Wasn’t that when…” Maya began but trailed off.

Everyone remembered. The copycat murder had happened just days after Seth was found. It was too close.

They turned the page.

Dreams. They’re not dreams. I think it’s real. I think I know who it is but my mouth is stitched shut.

“Jesus,” Ross muttered. “He was delusional.”

“No,” Maya said. “No, he wasn’t. Look here—he drew the symbol.”

In the center of a page was a rough sketch: a single eye with an X through it. The same symbol carved into one of Echo’s earliest victims. The one never released to the press.

“How would he know that?” Jace whispered.

“Only someone inside CIU would,” Rayna said.

A long silence followed. Everyone looked at Ellis, who had yet to speak. He simply stared at the sketch, then at the window, rain still ticking against the glass.

Ross closed the file and looked at his team. “This doesn’t leave this room. Understood?”

Everyone nodded.

That night, Maya sat alone in her apartment, Seth’s journal open on her lap. There were phrases scribbled in the margins—ones she hadn’t noticed before. Some were disjointed, some in Latin, others full of dread.

The mirror has two faces.

He walks among them.

Mistaken identity is the devil’s playground.

She highlighted the line: He walks among them.

Her phone buzzed.

A message from an unknown number:

You’re reading his dreams. But some dreams are memories. -E

Her blood ran cold. She immediately dialed the number. It rang once. Twice. Then dead silence.

Maya stood, went to her wall of photos and notes, and added a new headline: The Dreamer’s Notes. Below it, she wrote one question in black ink:

Is Echo in the room with us?