Morning arrived in muted grays, rain still tapping against the windows, but the locket's pulse was calm now. Shyla sat up, rubbing her eyes, trying to reconcile the night's impossible events with the ordinary world around her. Every instinct told her not to tell Leo, not yet. The shadow was a secret, delicate and dangerous in its own way.
Her thoughts drifted to the city streets below. She could still feel Ash, somewhere out there, moving with intent, watching. A predator always calculating, always patient. The locket's warning beat stronger at the thought, but the shadow… the shadow left her unguarded. How could something so dangerous feel so safe?
The afternoon was a blur. She tried to focus on ordinary things: a cup of tea, her books, the mundane chatter of the city beyond her window. But every shadow in the corners of her room, every flicker of movement, made her heart leap. She couldn't shake the memory of his words: "wait for me… it can take time."
The rain hadn't stopped, only softened like the city was holding its breath. Shyla sat curled on her bed, her books untouched. College had slipped from her mind that morning, and by noon she'd stopped pretending she would go. What excuse could she offer anyway? Overslept? Sick? Haunted by something I can't explain?
Her thoughts spun restlessly, ricocheting between Ash and the shadow. Ash's face, his power, the hunger that hid behind his calm smile, every piece of him was danger wrapped in charm. Yet the shadow's voice soft, restrained, distant that had tangled itself somewhere deep inside her. He had said he could not come, not yet. Still, she felt him. Always at the edges of her thoughts, always watching in silence.
Between them, Leo's voice cut through like a sharp reminder: "Don't get close to Ash, Shy. He doesn't destroy with fire, but he consumes with patience."
She wanted to believe him... and she really did. But each time Ash's name brushed her thoughts, the locket would pulse, fierce and protective. Each time the shadow whispered, it softened, warm and steady. The locket seemed to know the difference even when she didn't. But she was aware that difference is due to her calming and not because the locket could sense the shadow.
Shyla stood and crossed to the window. The city below gleamed under a thin film of rain, the streets alive with reflections and movement. Somewhere out there, she could feel Ash, an echo of presence that pricked her nerves, watching and always watching, as Leo has described him.
And somewhere else, unseen but not unfelt, was the shadow. The air seemed to hum faintly when she thought of him, as though the world itself recognized the bond she wasn't ready to name.
"Why me?" she whispered to no one, to everyone. "What am I supposed to be in all this?"
The locket throbbed once, sharp and quick almost like a heartbeat answering her own. She touched it, letting her thumb trace its edges. For a moment, the air around her shifted, cooler, heavier... not dangerous... just aware.
A whisper brushed her mind again, so faint she thought she imagined it:"You will know… when the time comes. But not yet."
Shyla's eyes stung. "That's not an answer."
"It's the only one I can give."
The voice faded, leaving behind silence and the slow rhythm of her heart. She sank onto the bed again, pressing the locket to her chest. Outside, thunder rolled softly in the distance, and the city lights flickered like watchful eyes.
Ash was moving as the locket warned her and somehow, she could feel it like a current building beneath calm water. And though the shadow could not come, could not cross the line that bound him, his unseen presence wrapped around her in the quiet, holding her together against a world that was slowly beginning to unravel.
By evening, the rain had thinned into a gray mist that clung to the windows and blurred the skyline. Shyla hadn't moved from her desk for hours. Her untouched tea had gone cold, but she didn't notice. The city outside pulsed faintly with life cars, lights, footstep but everything felt distant, like the world had slipped behind glass.
The locket sat warm against her chest, steady... a fragile kind of calm. Yet she knew it wouldn't last. Ash was quiet... too quiet, but what she had learned, was silence is never safety... it was preparation.
She tried to read, to distract herself, but her eyes kept darting to the window, to the street below. Don't get close to him, Leo's warning echoed again in her head, looping like a refrain she couldn't shut off. He doesn't chase. He waits.
The thought unsettled her. She didn't want to believe that she had already stepped into his hunt and that every move she made was a response to something he'd already predicted.
A faint hum stirred at the edge of her mind. Not sound. Not quite a thought. Just… awareness.
"He's near."The Leo's whisper brushed her consciousness like a breath against the skin. His voice was softer than rain, but it steadied her pulse.
Shyla froze. "Where?" she whispered aloud, voice barely a sound.
"Below, watching but not yet acting. Stay inside, stay still."
She rose slowly and went to the window. The street stretched below her, slick with rain and neon. At first, there was nothing just the blur of headlights and umbrellas. Then, through the mist, she saw him.
Ash... standing at the corner under a flickering streetlight.
He wasn't looking up, not exactly. But she felt it the heavy certainty that he knew she was there, behind the window, watching. His presence was magnetic, dangerous in its stillness. He didn't need to move to command attention; he just existed, and the air bent to him.
The locket pulsed hard, warning her, the rhythm erratic. Shyla stepped back instinctively, her breath catching. "He can't come here," she whispered to herself, as if saying it would make it true.
"Not yet," the Leo answered, the words coiling softly through her thoughts. "He tests boundaries, don't let him see fear."
Shyla forced herself to breathe, slow and steady, pressing her palm over the locket. Ash stayed where he was for a few moments longer, his face turned slightly toward the window, unreadable. Then... he smiled.
A small, knowing curve of his lips that froze her in place.
And then he turned, vanishing into the mist as quietly as he had come.
The locket's pulse began to slow, and so did hers. The shadow's presence faded, but not completely he lingered, invisible, a watchful calm at the edges of her fear.
"He won't stop," the whisper came again. "But neither will I. You are not alone, Shy, even when you cannot see me."
Her throat tightened. "How do I fight someone like him?"
The connection thinned, dissolving into quiet. She was quite sure now, that Leo can't sense the conversation between the shadow and her.
Shyla sank into her chair, trembling but unbroken. Outside, the streetlight flickered again, its glow cutting through the mist like a heartbeat. Somewhere beyond sight, Ash moved through the city's veins, calculating, waiting.
And somewhere else further, softer the shadow followed, unseen but always nearby. The storm between them was building, and Shyla was its center.