Chapter 2 - Watch Me!
No one screamed when the car finally stopped.
That was the part Evan remembered later—the absence of it. Marcus lay folded in the back seat, blood cooling against the vinyl, his face turned at an angle that refused to make sense. Chloe's mouth opened and closed without sound. Jonah's hands were still locked on the steering wheel, knuckles white, as if letting go would allow the night to move again.
Ryan was the first to look away.
He did it carefully, deliberately, staring at the dashboard instead of the reflection. When he spoke, his voice had lost its edge.
"We can't stay here."
Lena nodded without lifting her eyes. "It's still watching."
Evan swallowed. "I don't see it."
"That doesn't mean anything," Ryan said. "It doesn't need to show itself now."
They drove the rest of the way in fragments—headlights, turns, street signs that meant nothing. When Jonah finally pulled over beneath a police cruiser's flashing lights, the colors felt unreal, like someone else's emergency.
The officers didn't understand the body.
They asked questions that didn't fit. They frowned at wounds that didn't resemble any weapon they recognized. One of them looked too long at the rear window, then shook his head as if clearing a thought he didn't want.
Evan noticed that no one stood with their back to the glass.
At the hospital, fluorescent lights replaced streetlamps. The night didn't leave—it just changed texture. Marcus was wheeled away behind swinging doors. Chloe sat with her hands clenched together, staring at the floor as if it might blink first.
Ryan paced.
He stopped only when Lena reached out and caught his sleeve.
"It's closer," she whispered.
Ryan didn't ask how she knew.
The first time Evan saw the smile again, it was in the reflection of a vending machine. Just a curve, hovering beside his shoulder, cool and patient. When he turned, it vanished. When he looked back, it was nearer.
That was when Ryan stopped pretending.
"It doesn't chase," he said quietly. "It waits. It lets us do the work."
Jonah looked between them. "Do you know that, or are you guessing?"
Ryan exhaled. "I know it."
They tried to leave together. The parking garage swallowed their footsteps, concrete amplifying every sound. Reflections layered over reflections—car doors, elevator panels, phone screens lighting up with missed calls from people who didn't know what to ask.
Lena froze on the stairs.
It was behind her in the glass railing. Not touching. Not rushing. Just close enough that the smile distorted with the curve of the reflection.
"I can't move," she said.
Chloe looked away instinctively, then gasped as the smile jumped closer.
"Don't," Ryan snapped. "Nobody else look away."
His hand came up fast, covering Lena's eyes. His body positioned itself without thought, blocking every reflective surface he could see.
"I've got you," he said, voice shaking. "I've got you. Just listen to me."
The smile twitched.
Ryan felt it before anyone saw it. Heat. Pressure. Something tight around his throat.
Blood slid warm down his collar.
Jonah dragged Lena backward, pulling her out of the stairwell's sightline. The moment she was gone, the pressure increased.
Ryan smiled.
Not the same smile.
A human one. Small. Relieved.
"Worth it," he whispered.
The sound that followed was not loud. It was wet and final, like something important being folded the wrong way.
Ryan collapsed.
His body hit the concrete and stayed there.
The smile vanished.
For a long moment, nothing else happened.
Chloe made a sound that might have been his name.
Evan stared at the blood spreading beneath Ryan Cole—at the man everyone had assumed would be the problem, now lying still because he'd been the solution.
Jonah closed his eyes.
When he opened them again, the night felt closer than it had ever been.
They did not look back as they left the garage.
But Evan felt it watching anyway.
Waiting.
Learning how much they were willing to lose.
---