POV: Leo Maddox
Mila Voss operates under the delusion that kindness is a strength. She thinks her loyalty is a shield. It's not. It's a vulnerability I have cataloged and am prepared to exploit.
She was so easy to track, a frantic little pulse of fear moving through the sleeping suburbs. I let her think she had agency. Let her believe the shadows were her allies.
Then I closed the distance.
My hand clamped around her wrist, a vise of silent intent. She gasped, a pathetic, strangled sound, her body twisting in a futile attempt to break free.
"What the hell, Leo?!"
I pulled her into the alley's mouth, pressing her against the cold brick before a scream could form. The stench of damp concrete and garbage filled the air.
"I warned you," I murmured, my voice a soft, intimate counterpoint to the violence of my grip.
"You're insane!' she choked out, tears of pain and terror welling in her eyes.
A cold, quiet laugh escaped me. "I'm not insane. I'm inevitable. You're just a minor character who forgot her place, Mila."
I felt the fine tremors running through her. Good. The abstract fear was now a physical reality.
I relaxed my grip, just enough to let hope flicker. "Go home, Mila," I whispered, my lips close to her ear. "You really, really don't want to see me angry."
She stumbled back, clutching her bruised wrist, her breath coming in ragged pants.
"I'll protect him," she vowed, but the words were hollow, her voice shaking.
The fear in her eyes was a tangible thing. A delicious, potent thing.
I watched her flee, a wounded animal returning to its burrow. The moment she was swallowed by the darkness, I took out my phone.
One text. To Avery.
Unknown Number: Don't worry. Mila won't be a problem for us anymore.
A faint, cold smile touched my lips.
The board was set. The pieces were moving.
POV: ???
Blood is so… honest.
It's not like people. It doesn't lie. It just spills. Thick and warm and so, so red in the moonlight. Prettier than any secret.
I crouched beside the girl. Mila. Not moving much anymore. A shame. She'd put up a fun little fight.
"Tsk. You weren't supposed to scream," I told her, dragging my fingers through the sticky red darkening her sleeve. "Now my brother's gonna be pissed at me again."
I tilted my head, considering the mess.
Then I laughed. A short, sharp sound in the quiet woods.
"Whatever. He's always mad."
Leo and his rules. "Stay away from Avery." "Don't follow that girl." "Don't make a mess."
So boring. So… controlled. Love makes you weak. It makes you careful.
I'm not weak.
I picked up Mila's phone. The screen was lit with a missed call from Avery -3. I crushed it under my boot heel, the plastic cracking like a bone.
Then I grabbed her ankles and started dragging her deeper into the trees. She was heavier than she looked.
"I'm not doing this because Leo told me to," I whispered to her limp form, my breath fogging in the cold air. "I'm doing it because he's in love, and love makes you stupid. It makes you soft."
A wide, genuine grin split my face.
"And I really, really hate soft things."
POV: Avery Knox
Silence has a weight. By 2 a.m., the silence from Mila's end of the phone was a physical pressure on my chest. I'd called. Texted. Pleaded into the void.
Her last message was a sentinel of dread: Don't answer your door tonight.
Now, it was hours later, and the world had gone quiet.
I didn't sleep. I was a statue in my locked room, every groan of the house a threat, every whisper of the wind a voice. And my mind, a traitor, kept circling back to Leo Maddox. His calculated glances. The way problems had a habit of disappearing around him.
Even Mila… he warned her.
But that was crazy. Right?
The morning sun felt like an accusation. Mila's mom had posted in the neighborhood chat, a digital cry for help that made my blood run cold: "Has anyone seen Mila? She didn't come back last night."
I stared at the message until the letters blurred. I had to do something. I had to know.
And the only person who seemed to have any answers, however terrifying, was the one my instincts screamed at me to avoid.
Leo Maddox.
He was a portrait of calm under the old oak tree, headphones on, foot tapping to a silent rhythm. As if the world hadn't cracked open. As if a girl hadn't vanished.
When he looked up and saw me approaching, the smile he offered wasn't warm. It was a key turning in a lock.
And my stomach plummeted through the earth.
POV: Leo Maddox
He sat three rows ahead, a study in beautiful anxiety. Avery Knox. Today, the usual rhythm was gone. His shoulders were tense, his head constantly turning toward the door, his phone a desperate, secret comfort in his lap.
Perfect.
I let the class end, let the herd begin to move, before I made my approach. I stepped into his path, a quiet, immovable object.
"Hey."
He jumped, his head snapping up. His eyes were wide, the fragile green of sea glass. He looked… haunted.
"Uh… hi," he stammered, clutching his backpack to his chest like a shield.
"You okay?" I asked, tilting my head in a show of concern. "You seem… distracted today."
"I—I'm fine." A pathetic, transparent lie.
"I noticed you kept checking your phone," I pressed, gently. "Still no word from your friend?"
His eyes narrowed, a flicker of suspicion cutting through the fear. "…How did you know about Mila?"
A thrill shot through me. A misstep, so easily corrected. "People talk. I overheard something near the office." The truth, bent to my purpose. I had lingered, after all, to watch her mother weep.
"Oh," he mumbled, the fight leaving him. "Yeah. She… she didn't come home."
The worry in his voice was a symphony. The tired loneliness in his eyes, a masterpiece.
I gave him my softest, most reassuring smile. "I'm sure she's okay."
He didn't believe me. The distrust in his eyes was more valuable than any blind faith.
"You shouldn't let it eat you up," I said, brushing past him, letting my arm barely graze his. A casual, calculated touch. "Sometimes people just… leave."
I didn't wait for a reply. I had already planted the seed.
His fear. His confusion. And my voice, the only one offering any semblance of an answer, now echoing in the silence I had created.
POV: Avery Knox
The violation started small. My locker. The combination worked, the door swung open, but the internal geography was wrong. My math folder, always behind literature, was now in front. A tiny, impossible shift. A fingerprint on the soul of my routine.
I stood there, frozen, my heart a frantic bird against my ribs. This wasn't paranoia. This was proof.
At lunch, Mila's absence was a crater at the table. I scrolled through our texts, a digital tomb. I looked up-
And the world stopped.
Leo Maddox was across the cafeteria. Not talking. Not eating. Just sitting. And his eyes, dark and unblinking, were fixed directly on me.
The second our gazes connected, he glanced away, as if it were a coincidence.
My phone felt like a block of ice in my hand.
The final confirmation came after school, tucked inside my bag. A folded square of paper. The hallway was empty. My hands shook as I opened it.
No words. Just a photo.
Of me. From behind. At my locker this very morning.
I dropped it, the paper fluttering to the floor like a dead thing.
That night, sleep was impossible. The wind was a constant, nagging whisper. I checked the window locks again. And again.
The crumpled photo lay on my desk, a silent scream.
A soft scrape from outside.
I was at the window in an instant, peeling back the curtain a sliver.
A figure stood across the street. Hooded. Motionless. A statue of pure intent, facing my house. Facing my window.
I could feel its gaze, a physical pressure against the glass, seeping into my skin.
I blinked, my heart in my throat.
And it was gone.
I stumbled back from the window, my blood roaring in my ears. My mind screamed a single, terrifying name, the one I didn't want to believe, the one that now felt inescapable.
Leo.
But as the adrenaline faded, a colder, more complex horror dawned. The figure hadn't moved with Leo's controlled grace. It had felt… different. Wilder.
And the thought that followed was somehow worse: What if I'm not being hunted by one person?
What if there are two?