From Athan's Papers and Leonard's Notebooks177Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3W70wTqA5X
✦ [Undated scrapbook - in unclear handwriting, signed: A.]177Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSOHCc3IoJu
“Every time they rejected what I wrote, they said, 'This doesn't sound like us.'177Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡG8u7jQPdw2
But they never said, 'This doesn't sound like the truth.'177Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8SXKo6PqWs
So I gave them the truth, and asked only that it be said in an anonymous voice.177Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6BL1GFxmZG
And I became that voice.177Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmXrSGLHstj
And in time, they came to rely on me whenever they wanted to lie in the name of truth.”
✦ [From Leonard's Diary - Second Year of Joining the Circle of Five]177Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1WXyeeTrFP
“Sometimes I feel like I'm not writing anything. I'm just covering up the sentences others write with my own voice.177Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcpU6lnJ7qe
Athan wasn't a name... he was a gap.177Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyppGSEiiNf
And we all inhabited it.”
✦ [Letter not sent – folded inside a worn book]177Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJ6GI0BeyK7
“Thomas,177Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBSKkOewQ7X
I know you read my last text.177Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡoD77XK3x5u
I know you were afraid.177Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡq0y2Hx14Ua
But not of me… but of yourself, because you know I said what you couldn’t.177Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡITkmrc1xRJ
If I die, don’t publish anything else under Athan’s name.177Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIXLs8fzaRs
Let him die in me… or let him live if someone finds him worthy.”
✦ [Note in Ella’s handwriting – in the margin of the investigation paper]177Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkx6Zhp6QfF
“Athan wasn’t a murderer.177Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡN6g3iN1PCJ
He wasn’t even a person.177Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuiIOVaKxBo
He was a chokehold in the voice of everyone who wrote, and he was afraid to be attributed with what he believed.”
✦ [Last page of Leonard’s notebook – the day before the incident]177Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjtqvF5qzAM
“The lake doesn’t forget.177Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJKF1vWmdzq
Water doesn’t drown those who tell the truth, but those who have no one to listen.177Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrFZoSRnk5j
I’m going to go to him tonight.177Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwZL2EsDAaA
And if I come back, I’ll write under Athan’s name… not to hide behind me, but to apologize to him.”
✦ [Epilogue – Unknown handwriting, found inside Leonard's coat fold]177Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4K8M9iYWZY
"No one kills a shadow.177Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJotlCNeXUq
But a shadow can decide to follow no one anymore."
Letters from the Circle177Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡw8Y62jvphQ
✦ [Letter from Laura Quinn – in ornate handwriting, dated months before the incident]177Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3tU9h2L4SR
"I thought we were sheltering behind Athan.177Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRKzpF7zyHn
But the truth is, we were hiding behind him, the less we felt.177Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVVifBXsvV2
I didn't like Leonard much, but he was the only one who wanted to give the Shadow a face.177Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡu5HGz4n2Pd
I was afraid that face would be seen."
✦ [Letter from Thomas Reilly – typed, appended to an unpublished article]177Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqz9v5JbxcJ
"If there is a killer, it's time.177Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡD0O5TJ24Fu
Athan was an experiment… an abstract idea.177Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡG59hXEg7Se
But Leonard, with his stupid idealism, wanted it to become a tangible reality.177Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzAviXoCzhJ
And because we don't have the power to give life, we did what cowards do:177Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0ZmQeK2kXQ
We silenced him, made his death seem like a personal decision."
✦ [Short note from James Holloway – in pencil, just a few words]177Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOEyzSxSSiL
"There were five of us…177Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjI87xEPlHD
Then there were four…177Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡB9YrC4TfQ6
Then there were even fewer."
✦ Investigator Ella Moore's Final Report177Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUI3y0g5BYS
File: Death of Leonard Wilkes – Cascade Lake, New York177Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVvycNEpygU
Date: March 17177Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlxBh8DfrgQ
Reporter: Department of Special Literary Investigations
🕯️ Narrative Analysis:177Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpb7bSkYn9r
The "Five" literary circle created a fictional literary persona named Athan, which served as a disguise for writing highly daring or identity-blurring texts, published under their real names.
Over the years, Leonard Wilkes, the youngest member, began to give Athan a personal life. He wanted to transform from a shadow into a real author.
This approach was strongly opposed by the members, who feared it would expose the true identities of all those who contributed under that name.
He was subjected to indirect threats and gradually removed from the group.
On the day of his death, a gun was found in his hand, a gunshot wound to his mouth, and his ear was severed, as in some of Athan's self-written stories.
🔍 Conclusion:177Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡa5LALlsli6
It was not a pure suicide. Leonard went out to perform a symbolic ritual similar to what was written, hoping to find someone to stop him, to bring him back from his pre-existing madness.
It wasn't a direct murder.177Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxwPSylvGJh
There's no physical evidence of another person at the scene, but the psychological pressure, the symbolic threat, and the literary betrayal were all an invisible bullet.
🧩 The killer?177Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBjnD46S9qr
Everyone, and no one.177Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOLu1BdPUxr
The circle killed Leonard with its silence, with its cowardice, by making the writing a wall, not a mirror.
📝 Final word:177Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnp5QkxZIvF
Ella wrote:
"Athan may have been just a name... but Leonard was a human being.177Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzVNUYvtA5C
And in the world of literature, when a human being is killed so that the name remains,177Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBj7P2YKJmf
we no longer write... we bury."
✦ End of the novel✦
ns216.73.216.238da2
