The hallways buzzed with life, yet Elena felt like she was moving in a different world. Her eyes flicked from face to face, body to body, as if searching for someone she wasn't supposed to notice. Or maybe… someone who was never meant to be found.
It had been two days since her student loan vanished.
Two days of obsessively refreshing the portal. Two days of restless sleep, waking up to the sound of imagined footsteps outside her window. Two days of watching the streets and whispering to herself, "Please, just one sign."
But she saw nothing.
No shadow. No movement. Not even a distant silhouette near the lamppost where he had stood.
He was gone.
Again.
The weight of it pressed harder than she expected. She had never asked for him to follow her. Never welcomed the idea of someone tracking her every step.
But now that he wasn't?
Now that the presence had faded?
It hurt.
Worse than it should.
Her steps slowed when she passed the stairwell by the abandoned old art wing. It was usually locked. Forgotten. But today, the door hung slightly open.
She paused, heart pounding.
A breeze whispered through the narrow hallway as she stepped in.
Quiet.
She shouldn't be here.
Yet something—some silent string—pulled her forward. Her shoes echoed against the floor as she followed the faintest scent of cologne. Familiar. Sharp. Expensive.
She reached a row of dusty windows.
And paused.
There — across the courtyard.
Leaning against the far wall — tall, in black, hood up.
Not moving.
Elena didn't breathe.
He was far, but she knew.
Knew it was him.
She could feel it, the same way she could feel heat without touching fire.
She blinked, and he was gone.
Just like that.
As if the wind had swallowed him.
But she had seen him.
She wasn't crazy.
Someone had been watching her. Someone who never stepped close enough to be known. Someone who saved her, helped her — and disappeared before she could say thank you.
Her chest tightened as she backed away slowly.
That night, Elena sat by her window with a notebook resting on her knees. She scribbled thoughts she could never say out loud.
> "I saw you again today. Or maybe just a shadow of you. But I think you wanted me to see you this time."
> "Did you clear my debt again? Was it you?"
> "Why won't you show yourself properly?"
> "Why do I feel safer when you're near?"
She hesitated, then added:
> "Why does it hurt when you're not?"
A tear slid down her cheek before she could stop it.
Elena shut the notebook and hugged it against her chest. Her eyes flicked to the window once more.
He wasn't there.
But she hoped.
God, she hoped.
Not because she wanted to be scared. But because she couldn't stand feeling invisible again. Forgotten. Like all the other times in her life when people left without reason.
If she was being haunted, at least let it be by someone who cared.