The Last Page; Part Three

The doorknob turned with an agonizingly slow click. My heart leaped into my throat, a frantic, trapped thing. My eyes were locked on the door, but my entire awareness was on the man beside me. Zade hadn't moved. He stood with that same unnerving calm, his dark eyes fixed on me, waiting. The challenge was clear: Your reality is breaking. What will you do?The door swung open. "Hey, Lia? You okay? I heard a—"My roommate, Chloe, stood in the doorway, her hand still on the knob, a concerned look on her face. Her eyes scanned the room, and my blood ran cold.And she looked right through him.Her gaze passed over the spot where Zade stood, not even registering the tall, dark figure that filled my entire world. She saw only me, pressed against the wall, pale and trembling."Lia, what's wrong?" Chloe asked, stepping inside. "You look like you've seen a ghost."I couldn't speak. My throat was tight, my mind a whirlwind of confusion. He was right there. I could smell the pine and cold air, feel the heat radiating from his body. How could she not see him?I risked a glance at Zade. He was looking at Chloe with an unnerving emptiness, as if she were nothing more than a mild inconvenience. Then, his eyes shifted back to me, and a slow, knowing smile touched his lips. It was a smile that said, See? I am only for you.The world began to tilt. The edges of my vision blurred. Was I going crazy? Was he a ghost? A hallucination?"Lia?" Chloe's voice sounded distant now, echoing as if from the end of a long tunnel.Zade took a step toward me, his voice a low murmur that cut through the noise in my head. "It's time to wake up now, little mouse."He reached out, and this time, his fingers didn't hover. They brushed against my cheek. The touch was electric, a jolt of ice and fire that shot through my entire body.And then, everything went black. My eyes snapped open.Sunlight streamed through my window, bright and unforgiving. The air was still and quiet; the heavy wind and rain were gone. I was in my bed, tangled in my blue blanket, my head resting on my pillow. My heart was pounding, a frantic rhythm against my ribs.I sat up, my eyes darting around the room.It was empty.The posters were on the wall. The stack of books was on my nightstand. The cold mug of tea was still there. On the floor, lying face-up, was my copy of Haunting Adeline.There was no scent of pine or cold night air. There was no dark, imposing figure watching me. There was only the quiet morning and the lingering, vivid echo of a dream.It was a dream. All of it. The fall, the conversation, the terrifying, intimate way he saw right through me. The knock on the door. It had all been a hyper-realistic fabrication of my sleeping mind. A wave of relief so profound it made me dizzy washed over me, but it was followed by a sharp, unexpected pang of... disappointment.I got out of bed and picked up the book, my fingers tracing the title. The dream had felt so real, so purposeful. You hide away in your room with your books, feeling things through pages because you're afraid to feel them out here. His words echoed in my mind. It was as if he had been sent to me, a shadow from my own subconscious, to force me to see the walls I had built around myself. To be more open. To stop hiding.My gaze fell upon the open page where I had stopped reading—the scene that had "messed me up." I looked at the words, at the dialogue, and a new question burned in my mind, one I hadn't dared to ask in the dream.I found myself whispering it to the empty room, to the character still trapped in the ink."Do you even love her?" I asked, my voice small. I was talking about the girl in the book, Adeline. After everything he'd done, after the cruelty and the darkness, was there love?As if in answer, my eyes fell upon a line of his dialogue further down the page, a line I hadn't read yet. It was simple, direct, and it seemed to leap off the page as if he were answering me himself."Yes."A single tear I didn't know I was holding back slid down my cheek. It was just a word in a book. But today, it felt like a promise.

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