Chapter 5: Ink That Shouldn’t Exist

Penny sat frozen on the hardwood floor, the letters spread out before her like evidence in some unsolved mystery.

A mystery where she was the key.

The air in her apartment felt different now—thicker, charged, alive. Like the space between these four walls knew something she didn't.

Her pulse pounded in her ears as she reached for another letter, barely noticing how her hands shook. The parchment was soft, fragile between her fingers, as if time itself had pressed into it.

But the ink.

The ink was too fresh.

That fact sent a shiver down her spine.

Old letters should have faded over time. The words should have bled into the paper, grown brittle and fragile like the parchment they were written on.

These hadn't.

They were bold, sharp against the paper—like they had been written yesterday.

Or worse… tomorrow.

She swallowed, forcing herself to breathe, and unfolded the next letter.

---

"You're still reading. I knew you would. You never could leave a mystery alone."

"I wonder what you're feeling right now. Doubt? Curiosity? Or maybe—just maybe—you feel it too. That pull. That whisper in your bones that something about this is real."

"Penny, I need you to trust me. I need you to keep reading. Because soon, something is going to happen. Something that will make you question everything. And when it does… I need you to remember these words."

"You and I, we are not impossible."

"I will find you."

---

Penny's breath left her in a shaky exhale.

A sound escaped her lips—half a laugh, half disbelief.

"This is insane," she whispered to herself, running a hand through her hair.

She wanted to believe this was some elaborate joke, some forgotten relic from a past romance that had nothing to do with her.

But how did he know she would keep reading?

How did he write words that fit inside her thoughts like puzzle pieces, as if he had reached through time and—

No.

She refused to go down that rabbit hole.

Because if she did, she would have to accept the impossible:

That somewhere, somehow, someone named Theo already knew her. Already loved her.

And he was waiting.

For her.

For something she couldn't see yet.

A chill crawled up her spine.

What did he mean by something is going to happen?

Penny scanned the room as if expecting the answer to manifest in the dim glow of her apartment. The lamp flickered slightly, but nothing else had changed.

Except for her.

Because now, Penny Carter was no longer just a woman who had bought an old desk on impulse.

She was a woman with letters from the future.

And she wasn't sure she wanted to know what came next.

But it was too late to turn back now.