POV: Ezra Maddox (Elias)
He stood in Sasha Reid's small, sterile apartment, not the archive. He'd found the address in her "personal effects" file. It was as neat and obsessive as her digital lair. Textbooks were stacked by height. Mugs were aligned with military precision. And on a single, narrow shelf above her bed: nine identical framed photos of Avery Knox. Not candids she'd stolen. School photos, the kind anyone could buy. It was the act of framing them, of lining them up like a shrine to a saint she'd never met, that was the truly unhinged part.
He respected the dedication. He really did.
He'd come to finish what he started. An "accident," as promised to Leo. But first, he wanted to understand his new toy better. He rummaged through her drawers. He found notebooks filled not with code, but with dense, looping handwriting analyzing Avery's behavior. 'Subject exhibits a 73% preference for the left window seat when anxious.' 'Frequency of lip-biting increases by 40% in the presence of L.M.' She'd been conducting a clinical study on her obsession. It was brilliant and pathetic.
Under the bed, in a locked box he pried open with his knife, he found something more interesting: a worn, stuffed rabbit. It was old, one eye missing. It didn't fit the clinical aesthetic. A relic of a softer Sasha. He held it for a moment, then tossed it aside. The soft girl was dead. He'd killed her in the archive. What was left was a problem to be solved.
He moved to the kitchen. A gas stove. Simple. Classic. Tragic.
As he began the delicate work of disabling the safety valve and loosening the connection with careful, practiced twists of a wrench, he thought of Leo. His brother was probably at home right now, staring at his wall of photos, trying to convince himself this was all for a greater good, that his hands were still clean. Leo needed his delusions. They were the walls of his sanity.
Ezra didn't need walls. He preferred the open air of chaos.
He finished with the gas. A faint, hissing whisper began to fill the small apartment, the sound of invisible death seeping into the room. He could smell it, sweet and chemical. He walked to the door, pausing by her neat desk. He opened her top drawer. Paperclips, pens, a pad of sticky notes.
He took a pen a normal one this time and a single yellow square. He thought for a second, then wrote in a quick, slashing script
Subject A. Knox is not a variable. He is a conclusion. -E
He stuck it dead center on her monitor.
A final word. A signature. Let her know, in her last moments of consciousness, who had outplayed her.
He left the apartment, leaving the door unlocked. He didn't rush. He walked down the three flights of stairs, his boots echoing in the concrete stairwell. He emerged into the alley behind the building just as the first heavy drops of the forecasted rain began to fall.
He leaned against the damp brick wall, sheltered by a fire escape, and lit a cigarette. He watched her window. He counted in his head.
He didn't need to see the flash. He felt it more than heard it—a deep, percussive whump that vibrated in his chest, followed by the tinkle of shattered glass raining down into the alley. A plume of orange and black billowed from her window, clawing at the rainy night sky.
Sirens began to wail in the distance, approaching fast.
Ezra took a long, satisfying drag of his cigarette, the ember glowing bright in the gloom. The coppery taste of the smoke mixed with the metallic scent of rain and the distant, acrid tang of smoke.
One problem, eliminated. Quietly.
He pulled out his phone. No calls from Leo. Good. He was probably watching the news, his stomach churning with guilt and relief.
Ezra typed a single message.
To Leo: Spring cleaning is done. The garden is ready for planting.
He shoved the phone back in his pocket. The sirens were closer now, lights painting the wet walls of the alley in frantic streaks of red and blue.
He didn't run. He just melted back into the deeper shadows, a ghost himself now, finished with one haunt and already thinking of the next.
Avery was isolated. The digital threat was erased. Leo was compliant.
Phase One of building Leo's paradise was complete.