Chapter 10 – Marked and Erased
Elira didn't remember falling asleep.
But she remembered the whisper.
She sat up slowly, hand pressed against her forehead. Her skin was damp with sweat, and the motel room felt like it was pressing in around her. The same place, the same blankets. Everything the same—except the faint, static-like buzz in her skull.
Then came the voice again.
Her voice.
"It's not the first time you've woken up here."
Elira froze.
"Who are you?" she whispered.
"You, before you started forgetting."
The floor creaked behind her.
She turned—nothing. No Kael. No one. Just the shadow of the cheap motel lamp stretching across the carpet like it knew something she didn't.
She stood, walked to the bathroom, and stared at herself in the mirror.
Her eyes looked older than yesterday.
No… not older. Different.
Later, she wrote something on her arm. A single phrase, scrawled in black marker:
"TRUST NO ONE, not even me."
She stared at it until the letters blurred.
"I'll know it's real tomorrow," she murmured, "if it's still there."
Jane found her the next day.
At a crosswalk. As if she knew where Elira would be.
"Where have you been?" Jane asked, hugging her tightly. "You disappeared."
"I… I didn't know I was gone."
Jane pulled back, eyes darting. "Christine said she saw you three days ago."
"Christine?"
"She said you met at the pier. You… cried. You told her you felt like you were breaking."
Elira took a step back. "That never happened."
Jane's face fell. "Elira… are you sure?"
The buzz in her skull returned.
Then, the voice again:
"Ask her what you told her at the pier."
"What did I tell her?" Elira asked suddenly.
Jane blinked. "What?"
"You said I cried to Christine. What did I say?"
Jane hesitated. "I—just what she told me. That you missed Kael."
Wrong answer.
Elira could feel it. Something in her bones.
Back in the room, Kael was waiting.
He didn't look up as she walked in.
"You saw Jane?" he asked.
"I did."
He nodded once. Still not meeting her eyes.
She walked past him to the mirror again.
Her arm?
Blank.
No ink. No smudge. Not even the faintest stain.
She turned sharply.
"Did you take it off?" she asked.
Kael furrowed his brow. "What?"
"There was writing on my arm."
"I didn't touch you while you slept."
"But someone did."
He didn't speak.
She stepped closer.
"Why does your shirt smell like marker?"
That shut him up.
That night, Christine messaged her.
A simple text:
"I'm sorry I lied."
Before Elira could respond, a second message came through.
"You said you'd understand. Back then."
Then a third:
"Check the ring box in your drawer."
She hadn't told anyone about that drawer.
Not even Kael.
Her hands shook as she opened it.
Inside was a tiny velvet box. No ring.
Just a folded paper.
A drawing. Of her and Kael, smiling. A younger version of her. Laughing. Alive.
Written in the corner: "Don't let him fool you twice."