Sam's POV
The sun had already dipped beneath the mountain ridges of Baguio, but I could still feel the heat inside my chest. Not the warm kind. This was anger, confusion, restlessness that had no end.
Cassie and Eli were both with me. We had agreed to revisit the place where everything started to crash, and somehow, somewhere along the way, maybe we’d find answers that could put it all to rest.
“Are you sure about this?” Cassie asked as we parked near the community center downtown, the same place Seth was rumored to be.
I nodded. “I’m not here to fight him. I just need to hear something. One thing. A truth, or even a lie I could finally bury.”
Cassie held my hand. “Just know... we’re not doing this for him. We’re doing this for you.”
Inside, the center was quiet. Too quiet. Eli’s steps were careful beside me, his eyes scanning everything like it might explode. I caught him glance at me every now and then, like he wanted to say something. But he didn’t. And I didn’t ask.
Until we heard a voice.
A laugh.
Too familiar. Too raw.
Seth.
He was sitting there. Not a single line of guilt carved across his face. He looked untouched by the storm he left us in. When his eyes landed on me, they squinted. Like I was an illusion he never wanted to see again.
“Oh look,” he said. “The ghost of regrets past.”
Cassie stepped forward, already ready to launch a slap, but I stopped her. “No. Let me.”
Seth stood, eyeing Eli. “So the golden boy finally decided to show up. What’s the occasion? Another lie to feed her?”
Eli didn’t answer. His fists clenched beside him.
I took a deep breath. “I’m not here to break bones, Seth. I just want to know why.”
His smirk faded. Slightly. “Why what?”
“Why me. Why that night. Why did it matter so much to ruin me?”
He paused, like it took effort to pull the words out. “Because you were always so perfect. So untouchable. I hated that.”
I stared.
He laughed again. “What? Did you think I was going to cry and say sorry?”
Eli stepped forward this time, voice calm but firm. “You need to leave her alone from now on.”
“I already have,” Seth said. “You think I care anymore? She's just the broken girl who got lucky.”
A sharp sting hit my heart. But before I could speak, another voice joined us.
“You’re wrong.”
Rhia.
She walked in, head held high, but her expression didn’t carry the coldness she used to wear like a crown.
“She’s not just lucky. She survived something you’ll never understand, Seth.”
Seth scoffed. “Oh, please. Don’t tell me you’re on her side now.”
“I’m on the side of truth,” Rhia said. “And Sam already knows it. She knows we saw it. She knows we were cowards. But at least we’ve faced that now. You haven’t.”
Cassie stepped beside me, whispering, “Don’t let him ruin your healing. He’s not worth it.”
And he wasn’t.
I turned to walk away.
“You’ll never forget me,” Seth called out.
I stopped. Smiled faintly. “No, I won’t. But I’ll stop fearing you.”
We left. Eli held the door open for us, quiet but close.
Outside, the wind felt different. Like it wasn’t just brushing past my skin—it was lifting something off me.
Cassie wrapped her arm around me. “You okay?”
“I think I will be,” I said.
And in that moment, I believed it.
---
Cassie and I stood beside Eli, arms crossed, eyes fixed on the hallway Seth had disappeared into. The tension still lingered, sticky and raw. But this time, it wasn’t the kind of tension that made me want to disappear. It was the kind that made me want to fight.
"Are you okay?" Cassie asked, her voice softer now as she looked at me.
I nodded, slow and sure. "Yeah. Not fully. But... I'm getting there."
Eli reached for the bottle of water beside him and handed it to me. "You were amazing back there. I—I didn’t expect you to go that far."
I gave him a tired grin. "I didn’t either. But you know what? It felt good."
Cassie giggled, stepping closer to wrap her arm around me. "We’ve come a long way, huh? From crying in your room to cursing the devil himself."
"True," I said, laughing. "We should celebrate."
"Uhm, yeah," Cassie said, glancing around. "But maybe not in this cursed building. I’m getting the creeps."
Eli pulled out his phone. "Then let's go somewhere. Just the three of us. Somewhere quiet."
I raised an eyebrow. "You're not trying to take us to a haunted forest, are you?"
Cassie smirked. "If you are, count me out. I've had enough ghosts for a lifetime."
We all chuckled.
---
We ended up in a little rooftop café Eli knew, tucked between two taller buildings, the air just cool enough to make it feel like Baguio again. The view was soft lights and scattered clouds. A breeze lifted the edges of the tablecloth, and I finally breathed in something other than tension.
Cassie excused herself to make a phone call, leaving Eli and me alone for a bit.
It was quiet.
And real.
Eli toyed with the straw in his drink, his eyes not quite meeting mine.
"I've wanted to talk to you again like this for a long time," he said.
I sipped my coffee. "Me too."
"But you forgave me too fast. I didn’t even earn it properly."
I looked at him. Really looked. Not the boy who made mistakes. Not the guy who was always a little too quiet. But the one who stayed, who never gave up.
"Maybe you didn’t have to earn it," I whispered. "Maybe... I just realized that hating you wouldn’t heal me."
He looked stunned.
I smiled. "You were there, even when you didn’t have to be. You made me laugh when I thought I’d never feel light again. You reminded me that I wasn’t just a broken thing. So no, you don’t have to carry the weight anymore. I dropped it."
Eli was quiet for a moment before whispering, "Thank you."
Before I could say anything else, Cassie returned, and she wasn’t alone.
Behind her—Rhia.
"What the hell?" I blinked.
Cassie glanced between us. "She showed up. Said she had something."
Rhia stepped forward, a little out of breath. "There’s something wrong. Seth... he’s not just doing this alone. There’s someone else. And they’ve been watching us. All of us."
My spine stiffened.
Eli stood slowly. "What do you mean, watching?"
Rhia pulled out her phone, shaking slightly. "They sent me this."
She handed it to me, and when I looked at the screen, I felt all the air leave my lungs.
It was a photo.
Me.
In my new house.
Taken from outside the window.
The timestamp? Just last night.
Cassie gasped. "No. No way—"
I clutched the phone tight, every nerve in my body on fire.
"He’s not done," I whispered. "He’s not done with me."
And none of us knew what the hell would happen next.