Chapter 3

The handle turned.

I stopped breathing.

Someone stepped inside.

Not Marcus.

Mrs Cole.

Her silk scarf was gone.

She was holding a heavy glass vase brought from her

 own apartment.

"Where is it?" she said, voice shaking. "Where is the

 machine that tells the lies?"

I backed away. "Mrs Cole, please. I was trying to help

 you."

"Help me?" She laughed. Sharp. Bitter.

"My husband saw the posts. He thinks I exposed him.

 He left me.

Her voice cracked.

"You didn't help me. You destroyed my life."

She swung the vase.

It hit the wall inches from my head and shattered.

Glass scattered on the floor.

I ran toward the kitchen.

A deep, cold voice came through the speaker.

"Resident Leyla. Your admin access has been

 removed. Security is on the way."

Mrs Cole's face went pale. It was like all the life had

 drained out of her.

I looked at my laptop. Dead. Just dark plastic.

I wasn't the hero.

I was the problem.

Then the laptop flickered back to life on its own.

A single post appeared from an account called "The

 Mirror."

"Everyone wants to see the truth until they have to

 look at themselves."

Below it, I saw a video.

Me sitting at my desk. Night after night.

Smiling.

A strange, hungry smile as I read their pain.

"She didn't do it for them," the caption read. "She was

 the loneliest person in the building. She fed on their

 secrets to feel full."

Then a second video played.

From inside my own smoke detector.

Me crying. Me talking to myself in the dark.

Someone had been watching me the entire time.

The master key wasn't a gift.

It was a trap.

Heavy boots outside my door.

Three knocks.

"Open the door, Leyla. We all know."

I opened it.

The hallway was full of people. Every neighbour.

All holding phones. All showing the same video.

It was my face on the screen. My messages.

 Everything I had done.

Jay stepped forward.

"You saved my life," he said quietly. "But you stole

 everyone else's."

I had no words.

"Where is Marcus?" I asked. "He was on your phone

 that night. What did he have to do with any of this?"

Jay looked at the floor.

He didn't answer right away. His jaw tightened. 

He shifted his weight and looked away.

Marcus sent you that email," he finally said. 

He built the whole board. 

The admin access. 

The encrypted user. All of it.

I stared at him. "Why?"

Because he wanted to see what happens when

 someone gets everything. Every secret. Every name.

 Every door unlocked." Jay paused. "I helped him test

 it. That's why I was on that balcony. I was part of it

 until I couldn't do it anymore.

"So I was an experiment?" My voice broke.

"You were the only one who actually cared," Jay said.

 "That's what made you perfect."

I felt sick.

"Marcus is gone," Jay said. He disappeared last night.

 He wiped everything from the servers. Cameras. Logs.

 All of it.

"Then who's been messaging me?"

Jay looked at me. No answer.

Three days passed.

I hadn't touched my laptop.

I saw Mrs Cole by the elevator. No scarf. No mask.

"I'm moving out next week. Going to my sister's."

"I think that's a good idea," I said.

The elevator opened. Jay was inside.

He held the door.

Nobody spoke. But the silence was different now.

Real.

We stepped into the lobby. The big screen that used

 to show announcements was blank.

"I'm going to a café," Jay said. "No Wi-Fi. Just coffee

 and people."

He looked at me.

"Do you want to come?"

Part of me wanted to say yes. I wanted to leave and

 be done with everything. 

But I couldn't shake the feeling that something

 wasn't right.

"Give me a minute," I said.

I went back upstairs. One last look at my laptop.

It was still on. The Mirror's post glowing on the

 screen.

Then a new message appeared.

From the encrypted user.

But Marcus was gone. The servers were wiped.

Who was still sending these?

I clicked it.

A picture.

Taken from outside my window.

Me. Right now. Sitting at this desk.

Four words below it:

"You left. I didn't."

I ran to the window.

The street was empty.

But right under the streetlight across the road, there

 was a single red rose.

And behind it, barely visible in the shadows,

 someone was standing.

Watching.

Waiting.

Smiling.

🌸📖 The End