Aiko's smile didn't waver.
It was the same soft curve of lips I'd seen so many times at school, during lunch, across the classroom.
But now it was wrong. Out of place.
She looked like she hadn't slept in days. Her hair was disheveled, a tangle of black silk falling across her pale face. Her school uniform was still pressed, clean—like she'd worn it deliberately for this meeting.
Like she wanted me to remember her exactly as she had been.
The chair in front of her was empty, but the presence it held was suffocating.
"What is this?" I asked, my voice too calm, too hollow.
"You came," she whispered, almost reverently. "I was starting to think the world had stolen you from me completely."
I took a step closer. My flashlight flickered. The air in the basement was thick, warm, and strangely sweet. That scent again—floral, but faintly metallic.
"Where is Emi?" I asked.
She tilted her head.
"Why do you always ask about her?"
"Because she's missing. Just like you were."
"I was never missing," she said. "You just stopped looking."
I pointed at the chair. "What were you doing down here?"
She glanced at it and then away, like it didn't matter anymore.
"Preparing," she said.
"For what?"
"For the day you'd finally see me for who I really am. Not a girl. Not a classmate. Not a ghost in the hallway."
She stood, slow and deliberate.
"For you. I am what you made me."
Her voice trembled, but her eyes stayed locked on mine.
"You looked at me once, do you remember? You smiled. That's all it took. One moment. You gave me life."
I felt the blood drain from my face. "That doesn't give you the right to follow me. To stalk me. To hurt people."
"I've never hurt you," she said. "Not even when I wanted to. Not even when you looked through me like I didn't exist."
A beat passed.
Then she whispered, "She said things about you. Emi. Things that weren't true. She called you selfish. Cold. That she pitied you."
I took a step back.
"Aiko… What did you do?"
She reached into her pocket.
I flinched—but all she pulled out was a key. Small. Rusted.
She held it out. "You want to know where she is? Open the door behind me."
There was a door in the far corner of the basement I hadn't noticed until now—set low in the stone wall, barely four feet tall.
My pulse thundered.
I took the key.
My fingers shook as I inserted it.
The lock clicked open.
The door creaked as I pulled it.
And behind it—
—
Nothing.
Just darkness.
A room no larger than a closet.
I stepped inside cautiously.
My light flickered.
The walls were lined with soft padding—old mattress foam, maybe.
A single blanket was folded in the corner.
And a notebook.
I picked it up.
The first page read: Day One. He'll come. He always does.
It wasn't Emi's handwriting.
It was mine.
I dropped the book like it burned me.
When I turned, Aiko was behind me, watching.
"I made this place for you," she said. "To keep you safe."
I staggered back out into the basement.
"You were going to keep me here?"
"Not keep. Shelter. Protect. From them. From your pain."
I couldn't breathe.
"You drugged me. Followed me. Watched me sleep."
She nodded.
"Yes."
Her calmness terrified me more than rage ever could.
I grabbed her by the shoulders. "Where. Is. Emi."
She smiled faintly.
"She left."
"What do you mean, left?"
"She was scared. But not of me. Of you."
"That's a lie."
"She said you were changing. That something inside you was cracking."
My grip tightened. "Did you hurt her?"
She looked me in the eyes.
"No. I set her free."
Tears welled up in my eyes.
"You don't understand love," I said through gritted teeth.
"I understand it better than anyone. Love is sacrifice. And you… you don't even know what you're capable of."
---
I don't remember leaving.
Only that I ran. Up the stairs. Out into the night.
The air felt colder than ever before.
Everything blurred.
The town was asleep.
The streets unfamiliar.
---
When I got home, there were police cars outside my house.
Lights flashing.
My mother sobbing on the porch.
My father pale and silent.
A detective approached me.
"We found something," he said.
"In the woods behind the school."
I followed him numbly.
To a tent.
To a stretcher.
Covered in a white sheet.
They lifted it.
And I saw her.
Emi.
Eyes closed. Skin pale.
No bruises. No marks.
Just… stillness.
---
The funeral was a blur.
I stood in the back, unable to cry.
I watched everyone pretend they knew her.
I watched Aiko from the shadows.
She never approached.
Never wept.
Just watched me.
---
And then, just like that, school resumed.
People moved on.
But I couldn't.
Because something inside me had changed.
I started writing in notebooks.
I started watching people.
Tracking their smiles.
I stopped dreaming.
I started remembering.
Remembering things I didn't know I'd forgotten.
How many times I'd lied.
How many people I'd used.
How many secrets I'd buried.
And one day, I opened my desk drawer and found a red ribbon.
No note.
Just the ribbon.
And I smiled.