Elizabeth felt the night long before morning came.
Sleep had abandoned her hours ago, leaving her alone on the couch with only the ticking of the wall clock to keep her company. She sat upright, knees pulled close to her chest, staring at the faint reflection of herself in the dark window.
Daniel's death still replayed behind her eyelids every time she blinked.
The sound.
The way his body fell.
The way the air seemed to ripple afterward, like something invisible had passed through it.
And Lucas… that one she could barely think about without her stomach twisting. The unnatural way the room had folded around him. How the shadows had curled like fingers.
Karma wasn't a metaphor.
It wasn't a warning.
It wasn't a legend.
It was a presence.
And it had already taken two people she knew.
Elizabeth's fingers dragged slowly through her hair as she exhaled, steadying herself. She'd expected this. Not the timing, not the violence — but the sequence. Karma wasn't random. It was deliberate, almost ritualistic.
Daniel first.
Then Lucas.
Kian was next.
She knew that much. She'd sensed it from the moment the envelope resurfaced. From the moment the shadows had begun moving like they had their own pulse. She was only waiting for the inevitable.
She wasn't shocked by what was coming.
What she didn't expect was for it to arrive so early.
Or so close.
Or knocking at her door.
Three knocks.
Elizabeth stiffened. Her breath halted.
No.
Not at this hour.
Not now.
She rose from the couch, every nerve tight as piano wire, and approached the door. She didn't bother looking through the peephole.
She already knew.
She opened it.
Kian stood there — disheveled, pale, trembling. A man unraveled. A man stripped to the bone. Sweat clung to his hairline; his pupils were blown wide with fear. His hands shook uncontrollably.
Elizabeth looked at him with flat, steady eyes.
"You're early."
His breath hitched. "Elizabeth—please—"
She didn't let him speak. "I knew it was coming for you. But it wasn't supposed to be this fast."
He pressed a hand to the doorframe, voice cracking. "It's—Elizabeth, it's worse than you think."
"I doubt that." She crossed her arms. "I already watched two people die."
Kian swallowed hard. "They didn't die. They were taken."
She didn't respond.
Not yet.
Kian stepped closer, desperate. "Please. Let me in."
She didn't. Not immediately.
Even terrified, she didn't trust him.
Even shaking, she didn't pity him.
Kian being hunted wasn't a surprise.
Karma finally turning its face toward her — that was the part she wasn't prepared for.
"Say what you need to say," she said calmly. "But do it fast."
Kian stared at her like she was the only piece of solid ground left in a collapsing world.
"I saw it," he whispered. "Last night."
Elizabeth's jaw tightened. "I told you it was coming."
He shook his head violently. "No. Elizabeth — I didn't just see it." His voice lowered to a trembling whisper. "It touched me."
He pulled up his sleeve.
Elizabeth's breath lodged in her throat despite herself.
Deep, dark imprints — not scratches, not bruises — the shape of a hand pressed into his flesh.
Not human.
"Karma isn't waiting anymore," Kian said, voice barely holding together. "It's accelerating."
Elizabeth's expression remained cold, but inside something shifted — a thin, sharp thread of unease winding tight.
"You knew this was coming," she said. "So why come here?"
Kian looked away, ashamed. "Because it's not just coming for me anymore."
Her stomach twisted.
"Kian," she said slowly, "what did you see?"
His eyes lifted to hers, wide and terrified.
"I saw you."
Elizabeth's heart thudded once, violently.
He continued, voice breaking apart: "Last night, before it grabbed me… it whispered something. Not to me. About you." He swallowed hard. "It said your name."
Elizabeth felt the cold in her apartment differently now — like it had been waiting. Listening.
"Tell me exactly what it said," she demanded.
Kian took a shuddering breath.
"It said, 'Her turn.'"
The words hit her like a blow.
Suddenly every shadow in her home felt deeper.
Every breath felt borrowed.
Elizabeth stepped back without meaning to. "No."
"I tried to warn you," he said. "But—"
"But what?" Her voice was sharp, fracturing. "Daniel died screaming. Lucas died choking on nothing. And now you're telling me I'm next?"
He flinched but didn't deny it.
Elizabeth pressed her palm against her forehead. She knew Karma was coming — she had always known — but hearing the words out loud felt like being shoved to the edge of a cliff.
Kian's voice was low, desperate. "Elizabeth… please. I can't fight this alone. And neither can you."
She looked at him.
Really looked at him.
He was shaking.
Haunted.
Falling apart.
And she hated him.
She hated what he put her through.
She hated the memories he left behind.
But she hated something else more:
The cold breath on her neck last night.
The shadow that leaned over her bed.
The whisper that wasn't a dream.
She didn't need his confirmation.
Karma was already here.
"Come inside," she said stiffly.
He entered quickly, almost too quickly, as if afraid the hallway itself might swallow him.
Elizabeth shut the door.
The lock echoed like a warning.
They stood in silence for a moment.
Kian's breathing steadied slightly, but his hands still trembled. Elizabeth stayed across the room from him, unwilling to let proximity soften her anger.
"Talk," she ordered.
He ran a hand through his hair. "Daniel and Lucas weren't accidents. You already know that."
"Yes."
"But what you don't know…" He hesitated. "Is why it started."
Elizabeth's pulse quickened. "You think you know?"
Kian nodded slowly. "Last night, after it touched me, I had a vision. Not a dream. A memory I didn't recognize. Something from the past. Something we were all connected to."
Elizabeth's heart jerked.
A memory?
From before everything went wrong?
"What did you see?" she asked.
Kian met her eyes.
"Someone we used to know," he whispered. "Someone we hurt more than we ever realized."
Elizabeth stiffened. "Who?"
"I don't know," Kian said. "Not yet. But Karma isn't just punishing us for what we did. It's punishing us for what we ignored."
Elizabeth exhaled hard, frustration and fear tangling inside her.
"So you came here because—"
"Because we're running out of time," Kian said. "Because if we don't work together, we'll die the same way they did."
Elizabeth looked at him for a long, heavy moment.
She didn't trust him.
She didn't forgive him.
But she wasn't stupid.
And she had no illusions left about survival.
"Fine," she said quietly. "We work together."
Kian's relief was immediate.
"But Kian," she added, stepping forward until she was inches away from him, voice low and lethal, "if you lie to me again—"
"I won't," he whispered.
"You better not." Her eyes hardened. "Because karma might kill you."
She leaned closer.
"But I swear I'll get to you first."