I stared at the note like it might catch fire in my hand.
"You saved the wrong life."
The words crawled under my skin like ice. Measured. Intentional. Not just a threat no, it was personal. Too personal.
I stood up slowly, the paper crumpling slightly in my fist. My heartbeat thudded in my ears, louder than the silence around me. I walked to the door, hesitating for a second, then triple locked it.
Where the hell was Elias?
Had he seen something? Was he chasing someone? Or…
Was he the one they were warning me about?
My mind didn’t want to believe it but the message, the photo, the eerie knowledge of my birthday… it all spiraled in my chest like a storm.
Suddenly, the key around my neck felt heavier than ever.
I grabbed my phone and snapped a photo of the note. I didn’t know who to send it to ,didn’t trust anyone enough but something in my mind said i needed a record.
And then....
The knock.
This time, it wasn’t soft or slow.
It was urgent.
I hesitated, staring at the door. “Elias?” i called out, voice taut.
“It’s me,” his voice came through calm, but edged. “Open the door, Roushii.”
My heart squeezed at the sound of my name in his voice.
But fear… was louder now.
“How do I know it’s really you?”
A pause.
“Because the first time we met, you were twelve, and I couldn’t breathe, and you didn’t run away. You dragged me out of the fire and told me to stay awake.”
My breath caught.
He was Elias.
But that didn’t answer the bigger question.
“Someone just airdropped me a photo of us. Tonight. From the rooftop. Then slid a note under the door.”
A pause.
Longer, this time.
“Let me in,” Elias said quietly. “We need to talk.”
I stared at the door, hand trembling near the lock. Against every instinct honed by solitude, i unlocked it and opened it just an inch.
His face was serious. Wet hair stuck to his forehead, eyes scanning my face like he was trying to read more than what i was showing.
“I saw someone on the roof,” he said immediately. “By the time I got there, they were gone. But they left something behind.”
He held it up.
A burner phone.
Black. Cheap. Worn.
He handed it to me, and i stepped back, letting him in. I locked the door behind him.
“Who would do this?” i asked, voice low.
Elias didn’t answer right away. He stared at the phone in her hand, jaw tightening.
“I was afraid this might happen,” he said finally.
My eyes snapped to him. “What does that mean?”
Elias ran a hand through his hair. “It means the people I’ve been protecting you from… might not be gone.”
I stared. “You said this was about a fire. That I saved your life. That you requested to guard me because of that.”
He nodded. “That part is true.”
“But there’s more,” i whispered.
He didn’t deny it.
“Yes.”
I took a step back, the silence between us thick with hurt and heat.
“You knew this would happen. You came into my life with secrets, and you waited until tonight my birthday, when I was finally starting to let you in just to unravel everything.”
“I didn’t plan this,” he said, stepping forward. “But I couldn’t tell you the rest until I was sure.”
“Sure of what?”
Elias looked at me dead in the eye.
“That you were still the same girl who ran into the fire to save a stranger.”
A beat.
And then, softly
“Because the people looking for you? They’re not after you for what you know.”
I felt my throat tighten. “Then what?”
He stared at me.
“They’re after you because of who you are."
The weight of Elias’s words clung to the air like smoke.
> “They’re not after you for what you know…
They’re after you because of who you are.”
My breath faltered. A cold realization crept in he wasn’t just talking about my name,my past, or even the fire.
He was talking about everything i had tried to run from.
I turned away, the note still clenched in my hand. “You need to tell me everything. Now. No more pieces.”
Elias looked at me like he’d been bracing for this moment since the day they met.
“You come from a family with enemies,” he said. “Rival legacies, old grudges, power struggles most people would never believe. When you left, it didn’t make you invisible. It made you vulnerable.”
I shook my head. “No one from that world cared about me. Not even—”
“Your father never stopped caring,” Elias cut in, his voice steady but low. “He’s the one who sent me.”
The room tilted.
“What?”
“I didn’t just choose to be your bodyguard,” Elias admitted. “He came to me ...begged me. Said his daughter was hurting. Said you wouldn’t listen to anyone else. So I was assigned to you. Quietly. No orders to interfere, just… protect. From a distance.”
My knees nearly buckled, but i forced myself to stay upright.
“All this time…” i whispered. “I thought I chose peace. Freedom. But I’ve been living in a cage built by someone else’s fear.”
Elias stepped forward. “He didn’t want to control you. He wanted you alive.”
I turned toward him, fury flickering in my chest. “And you just went along with it? Pretended to be a stranger?”
“I was a stranger. But not anymore.” His eyes burned into mine. “Roushii, I never expected this. Us. You opening the door that night… changed everything.”
A long silence stretched between them charged, bittersweet.
But it shattered when the burner phone in my hand lit up.
UNKNOWN CALLER.
We stared at it.
Elias stepped closer. “Don’t answer—”
I did.
I put it on speaker.
Static.
Then a deep, metallic voice.
> “Happy birthday, Roushii. You’ve hidden well. But your blood always speaks.”
Elias lunged, ending the call and yanking the battery out of the phone in one swift motion.
Too late.
Outside headlights flared. The sound of tires on gravel. A second later, the power in the house cut.
Total darkness.
Elias grabbed me by the wrist. “We need to go. Now.”
“But—”
“Now.”
He pulled me through the back, guiding me silently through the pitch-black hallway.
My mind raced.
> My family. His lies. A hidden war. And someone out there who knows everything I’m trying to forget.
But as Elias opened the secret hatch beneath the floorboards, my fingers still in his, one thing was suddenly clear.
This wasn’t about running anymore.
It was about surviving.
