Daniel barely slept that night.
He lay in bed, staring at the ceiling, the note clutched in his hand like a secret that might disappear if he let go. The air in his dorm room felt heavy, like something unseen was watching. Listening.
He checked the time: 3:06 a.m.
Locker 306.
Coincidence?
Just as his eyes began to drift shut, a sound broke through the silence.
A whisper. Faint. Right beside his ear.
"You opened the door."
He bolted upright, heart hammering, ears straining.
Nothing.
His roommate snored on, undisturbed.
Daniel grabbed his phone and turned on the voice recorder. Static hissed, followed by a sound like breathing. Then...
"Daniel."
A girl's voice. Soft. Cracked. Familiar.
He dropped the phone.
The next morning, the world was pretending everything was normal. Students joked in the halls. Teachers droned through their lessons. But Daniel walked through it all like a ghost, because he heard her.
Everywhere.
Snippets of her voice in the hum of the lights. Her laughter buried under the cafeteria noise. The sound of her crying, faint but present, every time he walked near the east wing.
And then, after English class, someone slipped something into his locker. A torn journal page.
Amara's handwriting.
"They said silence was healing.
But silence is where they keep the screams."
Daniel's vision swam. He knew this page, she'd shown it to him once, months before she vanished. It was from a private journal she never let anyone read.
But now it was in his hands. Dated the day before she disappeared.
He scanned the hallway. No one was watching. No one seemed to care.
He turned to leave and walked straight into someone.
A girl. Pale. Thin. Eyes wide and frightened. He'd never seen her before.
"I saw you open the locker," she whispered. "You shouldn't have."
Daniel's voice caught. "What are you talking about?"
She backed away. "She trusted you. She only told you."
"Told me what?"
But she was already gone, disappearing into a crowd that hadn't even noticed her.
That night, Daniel found himself in the east wing again, staring at locker 306. He didn't open it.
But something inside knocked.
He ran.
Back in his dorm, he sat shaking, trying to make sense of it all. Why him? Why now?
Then he remembered.
There was something Amara told him.
Something she begged him never to repeat.
Something only he knew.
And if this whole thing was truly her…
She might be about to say it.