Zara's breath caught in her throat.
Theo's eyes were wild, darting from shadow to shadow like he expected someone to leap out at any second.
"You're the next one on their list," he said. "I saw the file."
"What file?" she demanded.
He glanced over his shoulder, then motioned for her to follow. "No time to explain here. Come with me."
Zara hesitated. Every alarm in her head was going off. But something in Theo's voice tight, urgent, genuine made her legs move.
They ducked into one of the old maintenance tunnels behind the gym. Theo led her down a narrow hallway that smelled like rust and mold, then into a storage room lit by a single flickering bulb.
He pulled a folded paper from his pocket and handed it to her.
It was a printout from an internal school directory. Redacted names. Labeled "AT-RISK."
Her name was circled in red.
Right beneath it:
"Observation escalated. Priority: Level 2."
Zara felt sick. "What does that mean?"
"It means someone flagged you. Like a file number in a system no one's supposed to know exists. I found it buried in one of the old server backups."
Her knees wobbled. "How are you even accessing this stuff, Theo?"
He didn't answer right away. Just ran a hand through his hair and muttered, "I interned with the IT department last summer. Got bored and poked around."
"You what?"
He shrugged. "Didn't know I'd find this."
Zara paced, the walls closing in.
So this wasn't just a warning. It wasn't just random threats.
This was organized.
Monitored.
Controlled.
A system that marked students. Watched them. Chose them.
"Why me?" she whispered. "Why me?"
Theo's jaw clenched. "Because you're with Jaxon now. And because you're asking too many questions."
She returned to her dorm late, brain spinning, stomach twisted into knots.
She wanted to tell Jaxon everything. But something in Theo's voice still echoed in her head:
"Trust no one."
She sat on her bed, pulled out her journal, and tried to make sense of everything. She barely got through the first sentence before a soft knock tapped against her window.
Her second-story window.
Zara's breath hitched. She moved slowly, quietly, and peeked out the curtain.
It was Jaxon. Balanced on the emergency ledge, hoodie up, eyes intense.
She opened the window.
"What the hell are you doing?"
"Checking on you."
"You couldn't text like a normal person?"
"I needed to make sure you were real," he said, voice low. "Not a photo. Not a threat. You."
And something about the way he said it cracked her chest wide open.
He climbed in, brushing past her, eyes flicking over the room like he was scanning for danger.
She held out the paper Theo gave her.
He read it. Once. Twice.
Then he looked up. "We're in deep."
Zara nodded. "Too deep to turn back now."