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Maya stopped talking.
Not just to Andrea — but to everyone.
She drifted through the days like a ghost. Her food went cold. Her clothes were wrinkled. Her reflection in the mirror didn’t look like her anymore.
Andrea tried to snap her out of it.35Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6RanEph4Nj
“He was a killer, Maya. He hunted us. You’re not thinking straight.”
But Maya wasn’t listening.
She didn’t say it out loud, but the truth was festering inside her:35Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZODfgdI9gG
Elias hadn’t hunted her. He had chosen her.
And she didn’t feel fear anymore.35Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrbf2rPQlIJ
She felt addicted.
She began writing in a secret journal. Not with words — with drawings. Pages filled with eyes. His eyes. Pages of her own face, crying. Screaming. Laughing.
One page read:35Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsZtskGqqDM
“What if I’m not running from him? What if I’m running to him?”
Elise noticed the change.35Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡevVq4Qi3SA
“She’s spiraling,” she warned Andrea. “Her mind is not handling the trauma — she’s forming a bond with him. A dangerous one.”
But it was too late.
Maya was already unraveling.
She started seeing him everywhere — in mirrors, in crowds, in the dark. At first, she thought they were hallucinations. But then she started finding things.
A black rose on her pillow.35Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ323lrbKlg2
A matchbook from a motel she’d never been to — with her name written inside.
One night, she woke up at 3 a.m.35Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJmcEpflcAV
Barefoot. Standing outside.
She didn’t remember walking there.
But she did remember the way the wind whispered his name through the trees.
“Elias…”
A week later, Maya vanished.
She left no note. No phone. Just her journal — left open on the bed.
The last page had one sentence:
“I’m done pretending I’m normal.”
Elise and Andrea were frantic. Police searched everywhere.
But Maya wasn’t lost.
She was following the signs.
Clues he left for her. A trail only she could understand. The locket. The motel. The black rose. It all led to a cabin deep in the woods, far from town — isolated, silent.
She knocked once.
No answer.
She opened the door.
And he was there.
Elias. Sitting in the dark. Waiting for her like he knew she’d come. His expression unreadable.
“You found me,” he said.
“I couldn’t stop myself,” she whispered. Her voice cracked. “I tried. I really tried…”
He stepped closer.
“Do you want to leave?”
She shook her head, eyes wide.35Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3ixonHvMOt
“No.”
“You know what I am.”
“I don’t care.”
A long pause.
Then Elias touched her cheek — like she was made of glass, and he was afraid of breaking her. Or himself.
“You’re sick,” he said quietly. “Like me.”
Maya smiled for the first time in weeks.
“I know.”
And when he kissed her — slow, cruel, tender — the part of her that used to scream for help finally went silent.
She had found her monster.
And she wasn’t running anymore.
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