Vivian closed the notebook and placed it on the table.
They had spent almost an hour going over all the information again. Brittany was sitting across from her, arms crossed, staring at the list of cases they had organized the day before.
—There's no point in going over this by ourselves anymore —Vivian said.
Brittany looked up.
—Then what?
—We need to talk to Ana and Madeleine.
Brittany didn't answer immediately. She stared at the table for a moment, as if weighing the idea.
—Ana is going to get tense —she finally said—. What happened at her house still weighs on her.
—I know. But she was one of the first. And Madeleine was with me in the forest. They both have pieces we're missing.
Brittany let out a long sigh.
—Okay. How do we do it?
Vivian picked up her phone.
—I'll text them. Nothing weird. I'll just tell them we need to talk about something important, the four of us.
Brittany nodded and leaned back in her chair while Vivian typed.
The message was simple:
Ana, Madeleine.
Can you come to my house tomorrow after school?
It's important.
Just the four of us.
She sent it to Ana first. Then to Madeleine.
For a while, the phone didn't vibrate.
Brittany walked over to the window and looked out at the street.
—What if they don't want anything to do with this?
—Then we'll try another way. But at least we have to ask them.
The phone vibrated.
It was Ana.
Did something happen?
Vivian replied:
It's not an emergency. But we need to talk about the Clown. Seriously.
There was a longer pause this time.
Then the response came:
…Okay. I'll come.
Vivian let out a breath without realizing she had been holding it.
A few minutes later, the phone vibrated again.
Madeleine:
If Ana is going, I'll go too.
What time?
Vivian looked at Brittany and showed her the screen.
Brittany raised an eyebrow.
—Easier than I thought.
—We haven't talked yet —Vivian replied—. That's the hard part.
They agreed to meet the next day after school.
---
Meanwhile, Ryan was sitting in front of his computer.
Nexum was still growing slowly, but it no longer felt like an experiment. There were more projects in the ranking. Some users were paying without complaining. The reviews, although still few, were better than the week before.
Ryan opened his notebook and wrote:
Ranking stable.
Find a way to attract bigger clients.
There's still a lack of trust in the platform.
He stared at the screen for a while.
It had been several nights since he had gone near the girls. He had seen them walking together once, talking seriously, and had decided not to interfere.
Not yet.
Nexum first.
Everything else afterward.
The mark on his chest burned for barely a second, like a distant reminder. Ryan lowered his gaze toward his chest and frowned.
—Not yet.
He closed the notebook, turned off the screen, and remained there, listening to the silence of the room.
---
The next day, after school, the four girls were in Vivian's living room.
Ana arrived first. She sat on the couch without saying much, her hands clasped together over her knees. Madeleine arrived a few minutes later and sat beside her.
Brittany closed the door.
Vivian was the first to speak.
—Thanks for coming.
Ana looked at her seriously.
—You said it was about the Clown.
—Yes.
Vivian opened the notebook and placed it on the table, but didn't fully open it yet.
—Brittany and I have been gathering information. News reports, dates, what happened to each of us. There's a pattern.
Madeleine frowned.
—What kind of pattern?
—He always appears when someone is already in real danger. Never before. He never shows up to stop something from starting. He only intervenes once the violence is already happening.
Ana lowered her gaze for a moment.
—Like at my house.
—Exactly —Vivian said—. And in the forest. And what happened to Brittany in Trenton.
Brittany spoke then, her voice quieter than usual.
—Gabriel. Loren's brother. He had me cornered in an alley. He tried to… force himself on me. Then he appeared. He made fun of them, they shot him, and even then, he left them lying on the ground. Then he disappeared.
Ana looked at her.
—He saved you too?
—I don't know if "saved" is the right word —Brittany replied—. He appeared, dealt with them, and left. Just like with you two.
Madeleine ran a hand along her arm, as if remembering the cold of the forest.
—Then… what exactly do you want to do?
Vivian took a deep breath.
—Stop investigating separately. If we're going to try to understand what that guy is, we have to do it together. Share what we know. And be careful.
Ana remained silent for several seconds.
—I still dream about that night —she finally said—. The balloons. The way he killed those men. I don't know if I want to get involved in this again.
—Neither do we —Vivian replied—. But ignoring it won't make it disappear.
Madeleine looked at Ana, then at Vivian.
—If we do this… we do it carefully. We don't actively look for him. We just gather information and see what we can find.
Brittany nodded.
—Exactly. Nothing more. Just understand what's going on.
Ana ran her hands over her face and let out a long sigh.
—…Okay.
But if it gets too weird at any point, I'm out.
—Deal —Vivian said.
The four of them remained silent for a moment. It wasn't exactly an uncomfortable silence, but it wasn't a light one either. It was the silence of four people who had just accepted that something far too big was happening around them and that, for the first time, they were going to face it together.
---
That night, Ryan looked out through the window of his room.
He didn't know exactly what the girls were doing, but something told him they were making a move. The mark wasn't burning strongly, only enough to remind him that the other side of the board was alive too.
He smiled coldly.
—Let them put their pieces together.
He turned off the light.
—When the time comes, the show will continue.
And this time, for the first time in several days, he fell asleep without looking up at the ceiling again.