“Shit,” Sebastian cursed from the other side of the room. “I’m kind of preoccupied here, Gus.”
Augustus turned to see Sebastian kneeling on the floor, his hand rubbing his shin. “What happened?”
“Tripped over something,” Sebastian muttered, his annoyance turning into curiosity as he pulled up the edge of the rug he’d stumbled over. The floorboard beneath was slightly raised, just enough to catch the toe of his shoe. “Hold on . . . I think there’s something under here.”
Augustus joined him, and together they pried up the loose floorboard. The sight that greeted them was unexpected. Beneath the floor, hidden away in the darkness, was a collection of items that didn’t belong. A bundle of cash, a stack of maps, a few leather-bound journals, and a passport. The air in the room seemed to thicken as they stared at the contents, a sense of unease settling over them.
“What the hell was she doing with all this?” Sebastian breathed, his hand hovering over the items as if he were too afraid to touch them.
Augustus didn’t answer, his gaze drawn to the journals. He reached in and pulled one out, the leather cover cool and smooth under his fingers. He opened the pages, each one filled with Willow’s familiar, looping handwriting.
The entries dated back to a few weeks before Willow disappeared; a mixture of mundane details—her daily routine, her thoughts on classes—but as Augustus read further, the tone shifted. The writing became more intense, more intimate. They were passages about a lover, someone who made her feel alive in a way she hadn’t before. She wrote about stolen moments, secret rendezvous, and the thrill of being caught.
Augustus felt his chest tightening, the words blurring on the page. He had loved Willow, had believed in her, and now, here in her own words, was proof that she had betrayed him. He couldn’t tear his eyes away from the pages, even as they twisted the knife deeper.
“I think this is about the man from the video,” Augustus said quietly, “The man that she was seeing.”
Sebastian, who had been examining the other items, looked up sharply. “What? Who is it?”
“I don’t know,” Augustus replied, his eyes scanning the pages for any clue to the identity of the man. But the entries were vague, filled with feelings rather than details. Willow had been careful, never mentioning a name, never giving away too much. But the emotions were clear—she had been in love, deeply, passionately, with someone who was not him.
“Damn,” Sebastian muttered, sitting back on his heels. “I’m sorry man. You didn’t deserve this.”
Augustus nodded, his hands trembling slightly as he turned another page. The journal wasn’t just about her secret lover, though. There were entries about all of them, things Willow had noticed, secrets that she had uncovered. It was unnerving,reading her observations, realizing how much she had known about all of them—things that they hadn’t even told each other.
“She knew about us,” Augustus said, his voice barely audible as he read an entry that hinted at his and Lilia’s brief fling. His eyes sought out Sebastian’s name and he slammed the book closed. “She had something on all of us.”
“Why? What’s the point if she didn’t tell anyone?”
“Who’s saying she wasn’t going to, eventually? She had these for a reason. Probably to hold over our heads.”
“No offense, dude, but your girlfriend’s a real bitch.” Sebastian shook his head.
“Let’s take everything,” Augustus said. “We’ll go through it all, piece by piece, until we figure out what she was doing. There has to be something here.”
Sebastian nodded in agreement, watching as his friend snagged the framed photo from the side of her bed.
“What the hell were you doing, Willow?” Sebastian muttered, toying with the map in his hand.
What the hell was truly the million-dollar question.
Journal Entry #57
February 10th, 2022
I met him today. Well, met isn’t the right word. We’ve known each other for a while now, but today was different. It was like seeing him for the first time—really seeing him. I could feel my heart racing every time he looked at me. There’s something different about him, something that makes me feel alive. I feel so seen. I can’t stop thinking about him. I know I shouldn’t, but I can’t help myself.
Chapter Nine
There was a line, thin and fragile, that separated life from death, the humane from the inhumane. Augustus had been standing on it for so long now, he was not sure where one ended and the other began. The night wrapped around him like a shroud, the cold air biting his skin as he stood on the balcony, staring out into the dark abyss of the sky.
They’d done things—terrible things—that had marked them and left invisible scars that throbbed beneath the surface. There were secrets buried in their hearts, festering wounds that bleed into everything that they touch. The blood on their hands, though unseen, felt more real than anything else. He felt the weight of it all pressing down on him, a suffocating force that makes it hard to breathe. The decisions they’d made, and the paths they’d taken, all led back to this point. There was no escaping the consequences of their actions; they were tethered to them, like ghosts haunting the edge of their lives.
The others were inside, sprawled across the floor of his apartment, their breathing even and soft as they slept. He watched them, and he wanted nothing more than to protect them. To shield them from their reality. But the lines they’dcrossed couldn’t be uncrossed, and now they had to live in the shadows of those choices.
Lilia stepped out onto the balcony, the soft rustle of her blanket barely disturbing the heavy silence. She stood beside him, close enough that he felt the warmth of her body against the cold night air.
“You should be asleep,” Augustus murmured into his glass, his voice a low rumble. He leaned against the railing, a beer bottle in his hand. He didn’t turn to look at her, his gaze fixed on the city beyond, his shoulders slumped in a way that made him look smaller, diminished somehow.
