The air outside the club was thick with smoke, music, and broken dreams. Elena stumbled out into the night, her heels clicking unevenly on the pavement. Her vision blurred, her skin cold, her thoughts spinning like the lights on the dance floor behind her.
This time, she drank more.
More than she should have.
More than she ever had.
Because she needed to know the truth.
*Was Aiden real? Was he truly her Watcher?*
That word had haunted her since the night she'd sketched his face without memory, since her professor trembled at the name written in ink she didn't remember using. And if Watchers existed—then why could she see his eyes so clearly? Why did her soul feel drawn to someone she barely knew?
She walked into the street blindly, her head spinning.
And then—
*Blinding headlights.*
A car, fast. No time to scream. No time to move.
But someone did.
A sudden rush of air. Strong arms. The scent of pine and something older, wilder.
She gasped softly—then blacked out in the safety of his chest.
***
When she opened her eyes, she was wrapped in warmth. Her bed. Her room.
Her door was locked, the curtains drawn. No lights were on. But he stood at the edge, about to leave like a dream fading with dawn.
"Aiden…" she whispered, barely audible. Her voice cracked, heavy with sleep and the aftertaste of alcohol. "Please don't go."
He turned, slowly.
Her hand reached out to him like instinct. She grabbed his sleeve with trembling fingers.
"Is it true?" she asked, slurring slightly, her voice soft and childlike. "Are you… my Watcher?"
He paused, silent.
"I didn't know Watchers were real," she continued, giggling lazily. "I thought they were invisible shadows or… ghostly stuff people made up."
She blinked, studying his face, her voice barely a whisper now.
"So why are you human?"
Then she smirked drunkenly, "And why are you… annoyingly handsome for someone who's been spying on me?"
Aiden stepped closer, his expression unreadable. The shadows in the room curled toward him like they knew who he was—what he was.
"I'm not human the way you think," he said softly, brushing a strand of hair from her cheek. "And I've never been spying. I was watching… protecting. Always."
Elena blinked slowly, her hand still holding his.
"You know my door code," she said suddenly. "You brought me here… like before. You didn't ask for directions."
"I know everything about you, Elena," he whispered. "Even the things you haven't told yourself."
She smiled faintly. "Creepy. But kinda sweet."
Then her voice faded into sleep again.
But her hand never let go.
Moonlight spilled through the cracked blinds, casting soft silver rays over Elena's face. She stirred slightly, her breath even, her brows no longer furrowed like earlier in the night. The calm in her features didn't match the chaos that swirled within Aiden as he stood silently at the edge of her room.
He had been there for hours.
Watching.
Guarding.
Wondering what the hell he was doing.
She lay wrapped in the same blanket he had tucked around her earlier, lips slightly parted, her soft hair spilling across the pillow like ink. Her hand rested just beside the place he had once sat. The same hand that had clutched his shirt when she sleepily asked, *"Are you still here with me?"* Are you real ? I wish you are tho I mean you're handsome but too handsome to be a human" she giggled
Aiden's jaw clenched as the memory replayed in his mind. She'd said it like she already knew. Like it made sense to her, even in her drunk haze.
He wasn't supposed to let her see him. Not this much. Not like this.
She was his assignment. His charge. The one he was born to protect, not love.
But something had shifted.
"I wish things were different," he said softly. "I wish I could be just… human."
He lingered there for a moment longer, letting the silence answer for him. It was always silence that surrounded watchers—eternal, ever-listening, but never speaking first.
Tonight had been a mistake. He'd stepped too far into her world. And he knew he couldn't keep doing that.
From the moment he first heard her laugh behind that school building two years ago, he knew Elena was different. And he knew that watching wouldn't be enough forever.
And tonight… she had kissed him.
Sure, it was an accident, a slip of drunken warmth in a stolen moment. But it felt like something ancient was awakened in that kiss. Something buried deep in the soul of time.
He couldn't look away—her lashes resting like feathers, her lips slightly parted, the glow of dawn making her beauty almost ethereal.
"I shouldn't be here," he whispered to himself, dragging a hand through his hair. "I shouldn't want to stay."
But he did. More than anything.
Elena turned slightly, sighing his name in her sleep. "Aiden…"
His breath caught in his throat.
She remembered.
Not all of it, maybe. But something inside her recognized him. Felt him. That, more than anything, terrified him.
Because if she kept remembering…
She'd start asking questions.
And if she found out what he really was—what rules he had already broken for her—it could mean everything would fall apart.
Still, he stepped closer, unable to stop himself.
Aiden crouched beside her bed, brushing a lock of hair gently away from her face. Her skin was warm beneath his fingers. She didn't stir. Her heartbeat, which he could hear clearer than most, thudded gently beneath the surface—peaceful, steady.
But before he left, he paused.
He turned back toward her once more. Just once.
"I'll see you again," he whispered. "Whether you remember me or not."
With one last glance, he stood, walked silently to the door, and turned the lock without a sound. He didn't need to check the code—he already knew it, like everything else.
Then, like smoke curling into the wind, Aiden vanished into the night.