Alisha POV
Mandy didn't remember screaming.
That was the first thing she said.
She lay in the hospital bed with her arm wrapped in white bandages, her skin too pale against the sheets.
The machines beside her hummed softly, steady, like they were trying to convince us everything was fine.
But nothing felt fine.
"I don't remember screaming," she repeated, her voice calm. Too calm.
I sat beside her, my fingers clenched together so tightly they hurt. "You were terrified," I said softly.
"You were crying. You kept calling my name."
She looked away.
"I must've panicked," she said. "Anyone would."
That wasn't an answer.
A nurse came in and out. A doctor asked questions. Mandy answered all of them smoothly, politely, like she had practiced every word beforehand.
Someone chased her.
She fell.
She didn't see their face.
She didn't know why.
Every sentence felt… empty.
When the doctor finally left, the room felt heavier.
"Mand—" I started.
"I'm tired," she said quickly. Too quickly.
"Can we talk later?"
I swallowed my frustration and nodded.
"Okay."
But later never came.
She was discharged that evening.
Alex came to get us.
The moment he walked into the room, something shifted.
I felt it before I saw it—like the air tightening.
He looked the same. Calm. Collected.
Hands in his pockets. But his eyes went straight to Mandy, scanning her carefully, like he was checking for something invisible.
"You good?" he asked her.
She nodded. "Yeah."
Their eyes met for a second longer than normal.
I didn't understand it, but my stomach twisted.
Alex turned to me. "You okay too?"
I hesitated. "I should be asking you that."
A faint smile touched his lips, but it didn't reach his eyes. "I'm fine."
Another lie.
Back at the dorm, Mandy went straight to bed.
No tears.
No shaking.
No questions.
Just silence.
I sat on my own bed, watching her back rise and fall as she slept. Or pretended to.
"Mandy," I whispered. "You can tell me."
She didn't turn around.
"I don't know what you want me to say," she replied quietly.
"The truth."
There was a pause.
Then she said, "I already told you."
My chest tightened. "You said someone chased you. You didn't see them. That's all?"
"Yes."
"But you told me I shouldn't have come alone," I said carefully.
"Why would you say that if you didn't know anything?"
She stiffened.
"I was scared," she said after a moment.
"People say things when they're scared."
"That's not—"
"Ali," she cut in softly, but firmly. "Please."
I fell silent.
Because something in her voice told me to stop.
Not please understand.
But don't go further.
Days passed.
Mandy healed quickly. Too quickly.
Physically, at least.
But she changed.
She stopped staying out late.
Stopped laughing loudly.
Stopped leaving the room without checking her phone.
Sometimes I caught her staring at the door like she expected it to open on its own.
When I asked if she wanted to report what happened, she shook her head.
"It's over," she said.
Nothing about it felt over.
Alex stayed close.
Not obviously. Not in a way anyone would question.
But he walked Mandy to class.
He waited outside lectures.
He watched.
And sometimes—when he thought no one noticed—he watched me.
Like he was trying to decide something.
One evening, I confronted him.
"You know more than you're saying," I told him.
We were alone outside the dorms. The sky was dark, the air cold.
He looked at me calmly. "About what?"
"That night," I said. "About Mandy."
He didn't react.
"That was a horrible thing that happened," he said evenly. "But it's done."
"You're avoiding the question."
A beat.
Then he stepped closer, just enough that I could smell his cologne. His voice dropped slightly.
"Some things," he said, "are better left alone."
A chill ran through me.
"That sounds like a warning."
His eyes met mine.
"It's advice."
That night, I couldn't sleep.
I kept replaying Mandy's voice in my head.
You shouldn't have come alone.
I kept seeing the way Alex looked at her.
Protective.
Controlled.
Almost… afraid.
And for the first time, a thought crossed my mind that made my breath hitch.
What if Mandy wasn't refusing to talk because she didn't know?
What if she was refusing to talk because she did?