INT. MARTINEZ DORM ROOM - NIGHT
Rain streaked the window. Martinez was packing a bag, her movements jerky with anger and fear after another day of whispers and averted gazes. Her phone buzzed.
A text from ETHAN's number.
ETHAN (TEXT): Can't talk. Need you. Parking garage under the old physics building. Now. Bring your external drive. I found something. Don't tell anyone.
Her breath hitched. The phrasing was off. Too urgent. Too dramatic for Ethan. But the panic felt real. What if he was in trouble? What if he'd confronted Jamie?
She grabbed her bag and the drive, and ran out into the rain.
INT. UNIVERSITY PARKING GARAGE - LEVEL B3 - NIGHT
The garage was a tomb of concrete and stale air. Flickering fluorescents cast long, nervous shadows. The only sound was the drip of water and the distant rumble of a train.
MARTINEZ
"Ethan?"
Her voice echoed. No answer. A cold dread slithered down her spine. She turned to leave.
A figure stepped from behind a pillar. Not Ethan. One of Jamie's friends, a hulking lacrosse player named BRENDAN. Then another. And another. Three of them, forming a loose circle around her.
BRENDAN
"Hey, stalker. Heard you were looking for a story."
From the shadows, CHLOE emerged, followed by JAMIE. Chloe's face was a mask of serene cruelty.
CHLOE
"You should really check your sources, Martinez. Ethan's probably tucked up in the library, oblivious. He doesn't text like that."
Martinez's blood turned to ice. The trap was sprung.
JAMIE
"You've caused a lot of problems. For me. For Chloe. Time for a little accountability."
He nodded. Brendan stepped forward, grabbing her arm. She fought, twisting, her bag falling, the drive skittering across the oil-stained concrete.
INT. STREET OUTSIDE GARAGE - NIGHT
ETHAN was running. The text had bothered him the moment he'd seen it—Martinez's reply of "On my way" to a message he never sent. He'd tried to call. No answer. A cold, logical fear had ignited in his gut.
He'd used a location tracker they'd jokingly installed on each other's phones months ago. The signal was stationary. Deep underground. The garage.
He took the stairs three at a time.
INT. PARKING GARAGE - CONTINUOUS
Brendan had Martinez pinned against a concrete column. Jamie was in her face.
JAMIE
"You're going to withdraw. You're going to leave Columbia. And you're going to publicly apologize to Chloe. Or this gets a lot worse."
MARTINEZ spat in his face.
MARTINEZ
"Go to hell."
Jamie backhanded her. The crack echoed. Her head snapped to the side, vision blooming with stars.
That's when ETHAN burst onto the level.
ETHAN
"GET AWAY FROM HER!"
He didn't hesitate. He charged Brendan, a textbook-perfect tackle that drove the bigger man into the side of a van. It was all chaotic motion. Ethan was fast, precise, using their momentum against them. He took a fist to the ribs, another to the jaw, but he got Martinez free, shoving her behind him.
JAMIE, furious, picked up a length of rusted metal pipe from a pile of construction debris.
JAMIE
"You wanna be a hero, orphan?"
Ethan stood between Martinez and them, breathing hard, blood trickling from his lip.
ETHAN
"Run, Martinez. Now."
MARTINEZ
"No!"
Jamie swung the pipe. Ethan ducked, but Brendan grabbed him from behind. The pipe connected with Ethan's shoulder with a sickening thud. He cried out, his arm going limp.
MARTINEZ screamed, launching herself at Jamie, claws out. Chloe shrieked, pulling at her hair.
It was chaos. A tangle of limbs and rage.
Jamie, wild-eyed, raised the pipe again, aiming for Ethan's head. Ethan, shoving Brendan off, saw the arc. He had a split second.
He didn't try to block it.
He threw his body into MARTINEZ, who was grappling with Chloe.
He shoved her with all his remaining strength, sending her stumbling clear, out of the pipe's path.
The world slowed.
The pipe, meant for Ethan's skull, missed its target.
But Martinez, off-balance, stumbled into its backswing.
The heavy, rusted end caught her squarely on the left temple.
The sound was wrong. Not a crack, but a dull, terrible thump.
Her eyes, wide with shock, went blank.
She collapsed to the concrete like a marionette with its strings cut. Utterly still.
Silence.
Jamie stared at the pipe in his hand, then at Martinez's motionless form. The blood drained from his face. This had gone too far. Way too far.
CHLOE let out a choked gasp, her hand flying to her mouth. Her revenge had just turned into a nightmare.
ETHAN crawled to Martinez, a guttural sound wrenching from his throat. He touched her neck. A faint, thread-like pulse. Blood was matting her dark hair, stark against the gray concrete.
He looked up at the frozen attackers, his face a mask of bloody, primordial fury.
ETHAN
"She dies, and I will find you. I will end you."
The raw truth in his voice broke the spell. Jamie dropped the pipe with a clang. They turned and fled, their footsteps echoing into the dark.
Alone, Ethan gathered Martinez into his arms. She was a dead weight. So cold.
ETHAN
(Whispering, desperate)
"No, no, no, no. Stay with me. Stay with me."
He lifted her. His shoulder screamed in agony. His vision swam. He ignored it.
He carried her out of the tomb of the garage, into the cleansing rain. He ran. Three blocks. Four. His breath sobbing, his legs burning, her head lolling against his chest.
He burst through the Emergency Room doors, his voice breaking as he screamed for help.
Nurses descended. A gurney. Martinez was taken from his arms.
He tried to follow, but his knees buckled. The world tilted, went gray at the edges. The last thing he saw was her pale face disappearing through swinging doors before the darkness took him, too.