CHAPTER 33 — THE GHOST IN HER VOICE
Lena woke to the sound of rain tapping her window like fingertips. For a moment she lay still, staring at the ceiling, letting the soft rhythm anchor her. After last night — the message, the photograph, the unmistakable handwriting — she had barely slept. Every time she closed her eyes, she felt that same crawling sensation along her spine.
The feeling of being *seen.*
She pushed herself upright and wrapped her arms around her knees. Her apartment was still dim, the morning light muted by low clouds. Everything looked normal — her books stacked neatly, the mug on her nightstand, her jacket draped over the chair. But normalcy meant nothing anymore. Maya had once slipped through this very room without leaving a trace.
Lena swallowed hard and rose to her feet.
A soft knock at the door made her jump.
Elias.
She didn't need to check; she knew his knock by the gentleness of it.
She opened the door, and he stepped inside, his face drawn with worry. He paused, searching her expression.
"You didn't sleep," he murmured.
Lena shook her head. "Did you?"
"Not really."
He closed the door behind him and stepped closer, stopping just near enough that she could feel the warmth of him but not so close that it overwhelmed her. He had become good at finding that exact distance.
"I believe you," Elias said quietly. "About the message. About the photo. About all of it."
Lena exhaled shakily. "I just… don't understand how. Or why. She's gone. She has to be."
"I know." His jaw tightened. "But something isn't adding up. And someone is trying to make you think she's still in control."
"Someone?" Lena whispered. "If not her, then who?"
Elias hesitated. "Someone who wants to unsettle you. Someone who knew about Maya. Someone who might have watched everything fall apart."
A cold ripple slid down her spine.
"You think someone else knew what she was doing?"
"I think someone was close enough to learn," Elias said. "Close enough to copy her handwriting. Her voice. Her patterns."
Lena's hands trembled before she tucked them behind her back. "Copy it… why?"
"To keep you afraid," he answered. "Or to keep you from healing."
Lena stared at him, heartbeat loud in her ears. The idea that Maya wasn't the only one — that someone else had been lurking in the background — made the walls feel smaller around her.
Elias stepped forward, more firmly this time, and took her hands. "Listen to me. You are not going through this alone. Whatever this is, whoever this is — they don't get to break you."
She blinked fast, trying not to fall apart. "What if they already have?"
He shook his head. "No. You're standing here. You're fighting. That's more strength than most people ever show."
His voice was so steady, so warm, that Lena felt something inside her chest loosen for the first time in days.
A vibration broke the moment.
Her phone.
She froze.
Elias's grip tightened around her hand. "Lena… don't look at it alone."
"I won't," she whispered.
She lifted the phone slowly. A new message. Same unknown number.
She opened it.
A single audio file.
Her breath fractured.
Elias leaned over her shoulder. "Play it," he said softly. "I'm right here."
Lena tapped the screen.
Static crackled. Then—
A voice.
Her voice.
Whispering.
"I never left."
Lena's knees buckled. Elias caught her instantly, steadying her before she hit the floor.
"That's you," she whispered, horrified. "That's… that's my voice."
"Someone edited it," Elias said firmly. "Or recorded it without your knowledge. Lena, look at me — this isn't supernatural. It's not a ghost. It's a person."
"But how did they—?"
"Because they've been closer than we realized."
Lena pressed a shaking hand to her mouth. Her own voice echoed in her head.
*I never left.*
Elias guided her to sit on the couch, kneeling in front of her. "I'm calling Detective Rayner," he said. "She needs to hear this."
But Lena barely heard him. Her gaze had drifted to the window.
Someone could be out there.
Someone who knew her voice. Her habits. Her past. Her connection to Maya.
Someone who had been patient.
Too patient.
A sudden certainty chilled her to the bone.
This wasn't a message left to scare her.
It was a message left to warn her.
Not of Maya…
…but of someone who had been here all along.
And for the first time since this nightmare began, Lena realized:
Maya might not be the most dangerous person in the story.
Someone else was still out there.
Someone who had just introduced themselves.