I can see you

Chapter 24

(ROSY'S POV)

I woke up on the old living room floor, the smell of dust sharp in my nose. For a moment, I didn't remember where I was. The light filtering through the cracked window was pale and cold. The wallpaper looked like it had been peeling for decades.
Then it came back, the house, Edward, the words he had said.

Two people were murdered. You need to remember.

My hands were trembling and my throat was feeling dry and scratchy like a sand paper. There was something pressing behind my eyes, like my body knew more than my mind was ready for.

Edward helped me to my feet. He didn't ask how I felt. He didn't need to.

"Let's go," he said. "We don't have to stay here anymore."

I followed him out to the car in silence, heart pounding like a second set of footsteps behind me. We didn't speak on the drive but the silence wasn't quiet.
It was waiting.

I gripped the door handle hard, trying to ground myself, but something inside me kept rising maybe, or something worse. I looked out the window and saw the trees bending in the wind. Then my voice came, uninvited, low and steady-

"Mom gave Roy the juice."

The world outside the window blurred into grays and greens. The sun had fallen behind us, and everything was painted in the serene moonlight. I should've felt tired. I should've asked where we were going. Instead, I just watched the trees roll past, my body numb, my thoughts like static.

Then I said it again. I didn't plan to but It just came out before I could stop myself, "Mom gave Roy the juice."

Edward didn't speak, but I saw his hands tighten on the steering wheel.

"It was drugged," I continued, staring out the window. "Roy realized it. He always noticed things. He told me..."

My voice caught. I blinked hard trying to keep the tears away.

"Before everything... he had told me. That she'd drugged the juice. That he hadn't drunk it, not at first. He hid it in a drawer."

My throat was feeling like it was on fire. I didn't know why I was saying any of this. I hadn't remembered it moments ago but now it was all unfolding inside me, like a room I'd locked long ago but had never truly left.

"She caught him," I said. "Made him drink it."

The car hummed beneath us. The silence in the cabin was alive.

"When I got home later that day, I found his sneakers and his watch. The one I gave him."

I didn't look at Edward. I couldn't.

"They were on my bed. Neatly placed. Too neat. Like a warning: 'Don't date someone I don't approve of or this will happen again.'"

Edward's voice cracked beside me. "I thought you and Roy were just... friends."

"In her head, we might already be married," I said quietly. "She always liked to be steps ahead of everyone else."

The words kept coming. I couldn't stop them. No, I didn't want to.

"I searched the house. Every room, every place I could think of but he was gone. I knew something was wrong, but I couldn't let her see it. I had to act normal."

I exhaled slowly.

"Dinner was... normal. She smiled as she asked how my ballet performance went. Like she hadn't done anything. The exact same way she had behaved after killing my brother."

Edward said nothing. He didn't have to because his silence said enough. He had somehow always known that behind her perfect mask my mother was a monster.

"I didn't eat because I knew she must have mixed something with my food too. I waited until she fell asleep in her room and then I got up, took a knife from the kitchen, and slipped out."

I stared out into the dark. The road stretched ahead of us like a scar.

"I went to your house. Straight to Roy's room. He was there lying on his bed. Barely breathing but he was alive. And that's all that mattered to me."

My fingers dug into my thighs.

"I tried to wake him, but he wouldn't move. I told myself that was enough that he was alive. That was all I needed for the moment and maybe I was being paranoid after all."

I swallowed. Then I caught a flicker of something in the side mirror. My reflection.
It was me, pale and tight-lipped but my eyes... something about them looked wrong. It felt like I was watching myself from the inside.

"She found me," I said, voice low. "I didn't hear her come in. She was just... there."

Her voice, soft and sweet echoed in my head: "'It's late, sweetie. Why are you here? You have school tomorrow.'"

I saw it again, her leaning against the doorframe. Calm like she hadn't done anything wrong.

"She was holding an empty bottle and a lighter."

Edward's fingers flexed on the steering wheel, knuckles white. His gaze was stubbornly fixed on the road.

"I tried to talk her down," I whispered. "Told her I'd take care of Roy and asked her to go home but she refused. She said he had a fever and your parents had asked her to take care of him. She said she'd stay and told me to go back to our house."

I paused.

"When I didn't move she grabbed my arm."

I looked down at my hands. Red blood was dripping from them. I blinked again and the blood was gone.

"I still had the knife in my pocket. I was holding it so tightly I thought I'd cut my own skin. And when she pulled me toward the door, something broke."

I closed my eyes.

"I wasn't in my body anymore. Everything went white. There was a buzzing in my ears, like the whole world had turned inside out."

I opened my eyes.

"Then there was silence."

I took a shaky breath.

"When I came back to myself, Roy was hugging me. He was crying. Saying something I couldn't understand. I looked down..."

My voice went quiet.

"She was lying on the floor. Face-down with the knife in her gut."

The words settled into the car like ash. Then I heard it. A voice. Not from outside but inside.

It wasn't your fault. She was the monster and monsters are meant to be killed.

My head jerked toward the window. My heart pounded. It didn't sound like me. Not exactly but it was me.

"Are you okay?" Edward asked, glancing at me.

I nodded too quickly. "Just a chill."

But that wasn't true. It wasn't a chill. It was a crack. We drove deeper into the dark. Edward didn't speak but I felt his eyes on me. Not in the way they used to watch me-curious, cautious-but like he was trying to see who I was now.

Who I really was.

"She's not gone," I said softly.

He looked over. "Rosy?"

I turned my gaze to the window.

"She's waking up."

I didn't know who was waking or who I was anymore. There was burning in my throat, in my mind, in the place behind my thoughts where Riya had always waited, or maybe Rosy had. But whoever it was, she remembered everything.