Elizabeth didn't remember falling asleep. She only remembered the weight in her chest—the same cold, heavy pressure that had been building since the night Daniel died. Since Lucas followed. Since shadows began creeping along walls where they didn't belong. Since Karma breathed near her ear in the dark.
She woke on the couch, heart pounding before her eyes even opened.
Something was in the room.
She could feel it.
Not moving. Not breathing. Just watching.
Her eyelids flicked open.
And Mara was sitting across from her—same place as last time, same unnatural stillness, same eyes that seemed to hold too much and not enough at the same time.
No footsteps.
No sound.
She was just there.
Elizabeth didn't scream. The terror was too deep for that.
"It's time," Mara said.
Her voice was soft, but it rippled through the air like wind through broken glass.
Elizabeth pushed herself up slowly. "Time for what?"
"For the truth you've been avoiding." Mara's head tilted. "For the warning you should have received long before the deaths began."
Elizabeth's throat tightened. "You mean Daniel. And Lucas."
"And the ones who will follow," Mara added quietly. "Including you."
Elizabeth's breath hitched—but she didn't flinch, didn't collapse, didn't cry. She already knew Karma wasn't finished with her. She had felt the pressure around her home every night, the way the lights flickered when she thought about the past, the cold breeze that followed her like a silent whisper.
"What do you want from me?" she asked.
"Nothing," Mara answered. "What Karma wants is balance."
Elizabeth frowned, pulse quickening. "Balance?"
Mara nodded, leaning back slightly.
"Karmic imbalance is a tear in the order of things. Every life carries a balance—actions that build and actions that destroy. Harm that is repaired and harm that is ignored. Most people carry small cracks. Regrets, mistakes, lies… the universe absorbs those."
"And Kian?" Elizabeth asked bitterly.
"Kian carries something else entirely," Mara replied. "He carries a wound."
Elizabeth swallowed, trying to steady her breathing. "What kind of wound?"
"Karma doesn't chase anger," Mara said. "It chases injustice. Something that has been left to rot. Something that was never answered."
Elizabeth stiffened.
Kian.
Her past.
The nightmare that shaped her.
The reason her skin still crawled when she heard his voice.
The reason her body still remembered fear even when she tried to forget.
"And Daniel?" Elizabeth asked. "And Lucas? What did they do?"
"Daniel helped him," Mara said simply. "Lucas covered for him. Both played their parts in the pain that shaped you."
Elizabeth's heart clenched.
She knew it.
She had always known Daniel wasn't innocent.
That Lucas's fake kindness hid something foul.
"What about me?" Elizabeth whispered. "Why am I in this? Why is Karma after me too?"
Mara's gaze softened.
"Because you carry a wound too, Elizabeth. A deep one. One you never healed."
Elizabeth blinked rapidly, heat rising behind her eyes. "I didn't do anything wrong."
"No," Mara agreed. "But you did nothing to repair what was broken inside you. Trauma doesn't disappear because you avoid it. Fear doesn't end because you bury it. Pain doesn't stop because you pretend to be strong."
Elizabeth's fingers curled into fists.
She hated how much Mara saw.
How naked she felt under that strange woman's gaze.
"I survived," Elizabeth said sharply. "Isn't that enough?"
"For life?" Mara murmured. "Maybe.
For Karma?
Never."
Elizabeth looked away, jaw tight.
"So… what is Karma?" she asked. "A spirit? A demon? A curse?"
Mara smiled faintly.
"Karma is not a creature," she said. "It is a force. A shadow created by the weight of unresolved wrongs. It follows the path of imbalance—those who hurt, those who hide, and those who suffer without release."
Elizabeth shivered. "So it's hunting Kian for what he did to me."
"And others," Mara said. "Many others."
Anger flared in Elizabeth's chest—sharp, bitter, familiar.
"Good," she said through her teeth. "He deserves it."
Mara nodded slowly, but her expression didn't match Elizabeth's fury.
"This is not revenge," Mara said. "Karma is not your weapon. It does not serve you."
"It feels like it," Elizabeth snapped.
"No," Mara replied, voice firm. "It is not punishing him for you. It is punishing him because the universe cannot move forward while that kind of wound exists."
Elizabeth stared. Her mouth went dry.
"And me?" she whispered. "What imbalance do I carry?"
"The one that connects you to him," Mara said simply.
Elizabeth froze.
"You never severed the tie," Mara continued. "Your fear, your hatred, your guilt, your silence—they kept the wound open. The imbalance thrives in the space between you."
Elizabeth felt a drop of sweat slide down her spine.
"So how do I survive?" she whispered.
Mara leaned forward, eyes intense.
"You don't run from it," she said. "You face what you were never able to face before. You confront the truth you buried. You acknowledge what he did. What Daniel and Lucas did. And you must let the wound tear open fully… before it can close for good."
Elizabeth stared at her hands, trembling.
"I don't want to face him," she whispered.
"Then you will die," Mara said bluntly.
Elizabeth's breath faltered.
"No one escapes Karma," Mara continued softly. "Not even the innocent. Not even the ones who suffered. Balance must be restored. And for that to happen, the past must rise."
"Rise?" Elizabeth echoed.
Mara nodded.
"You will relive everything. Every moment you tried to erase. Every memory you tried to suffocate. Karma will show you the truth through your own mind."
Elizabeth squeezed her eyes shut.
"I can't," she whispered. "I don't want to remember."
"You don't have a choice," Mara said gently. "Karma is already inside your home. Inside your dreams. Inside your breath. Every time you close your eyes, it's there. Waiting."
A cold ripple moved through the room, making the lamps flicker.
Elizabeth opened her eyes.
Mara's form seemed fainter now—like she was dissolving.
"One more thing," Mara said, voice fading around the edges. "Karma has shifted."
"Shifted?" Elizabeth repeated.
"It no longer wants to punish him alone," Mara whispered. "It wants the truth. All of it. And it wants it from both of you."
The floor seemed to tilt beneath Elizabeth.
"What does that mean?" she asked.
Mara's final words drifted toward her like smoke:
"It means Kian cannot die… until you stand beside him."
Elizabeth's heart slammed in her chest.
"And you," Mara added softly, disappearing,
"cannot live… unless you do."
The room fell silent.
Elizabeth sat frozen on the couch, every breath trembling, every vein filled with ice.
Karma wasn't just coming.
It was demanding.
And she had run out of places to hide.