Julian stared at Mara.
For several seconds, he couldn't find the words.
Then one finally came.
"Who?"
Mara didn't answer.
The stranger looked toward the road.
"We have to leave."
Julian didn't look at him.
"You said you know who pulled me out."
Mara nodded.
"I do."
"Then tell me."
"I can't."
Julian's expression hardened.
"You just told me you watched me die."
"I watched them leave you there."
"That's not the same thing."
"No."
Mara's voice softened.
"It isn't."
She looked down at the photograph still in Julian's hand.
"You weren't supposed to wake up."
A strange calm settled over him.
"Yet I did."
"Yes."
"Who found me?"
Mara looked at the stranger.
The stranger looked away.
Julian noticed.
"You know too."
Neither answered.
His patience disappeared.
"You both knew."
The stranger finally spoke.
"We knew someone found you."
"Who?"
"We never saw their face."
Mara shook her head.
"I did."
Julian looked at her.
"You saw them?"
"Only for a moment."
"Then describe them."
Mara hesitated.
"Black coat."
"That's useless."
"Gloves."
"Still useless."
"A scar."
Julian stopped.
"Where?"
"Across the left hand."
Something moved through his mind.
A hand.
Blood.
A scar across the knuckles.
Someone gripping his wrist.
A voice whispering—
Stay awake.
Julian's breathing changed.
Mara noticed immediately.
"You remember."
"No."
"You do."
"I heard a voice."
"Whose?"
"I don't know."
Mara took a step closer.
"What did it say?"
Julian looked at her.
"Stay awake."
Mara's face went pale.
The stranger swore under his breath.
"What?"
Mara didn't answer.
Julian looked between them.
"Why does that matter?"
Mara swallowed.
"Because that's what they said to you."
"Who?"
"The person who pulled you out."
Julian's heartbeat quickened.
"What else did they say?"
Mara closed her eyes briefly.
"They said your name."
"Julian?"
"No."
She opened her eyes.
"Locke."
Silence.
Julian looked away.
The name no longer felt like someone else's.
It felt like a door.
And someone had just put their hand on the handle.
"What happened after they found me?"
Mara looked toward the dark road.
"They took you."
"Where?"
"I don't know."
"Then how do you know I survived?"
"Because three days later, I received a message."
"From who?"
Mara reached into her coat.
Pulled out an old phone.
She held it in her hand but didn't turn it on.
"The message said you were alive."
Julian stared at the phone.
"Show me."
"I can't."
"Why?"
"Because the message wasn't written to me."
Julian frowned.
Mara looked at him.
"It was written to you."
She finally turned the phone on.
The screen was cracked.
The device took several seconds to wake.
Then she opened an old message.
Julian stepped closer.
There was no sender.
No number.
Only one line.
Tell him the water didn't take him.
Julian's stomach tightened.
Below it was another message.
It only gave him back.
He stared at the words.
Something about them felt wrong.
Not because they were unfamiliar.
Because they weren't.
He had written them.
He knew it.
Somewhere inside him, he knew it.
"You didn't send this."
"No."
"Who did?"
"I don't know."
Julian looked at the stranger.
"You?"
"No."
"Silas?"
The stranger's expression changed.
Mara answered first.
"No."
Julian looked at her.
"How do you know?"
"Because Silas didn't know you survived."
Julian went still.
"What?"
"He thought you were dead."
The words landed heavily.
Julian remembered Silas standing beside his hospital bed.
The careful eyes.
The controlled voice.
The way he had looked at Julian as though he had been given something back.
We were together.
You belong to me.
Julian had always assumed Silas had been waiting for him to wake.
But if Silas thought he was dead—
Why had he been there?
Julian turned toward the stranger.
"How did Silas find me?"
The stranger said nothing.
"Answer me."
"He didn't."
Julian's eyes narrowed.
"What?"
"Silas didn't find you."
Mara stepped closer.
"He was given you."
Julian's entire body went still.
"By who?"
"We don't know."
"Then why are you telling me this?"
"Because that's what we were trying to find out."
Julian looked at the key in his hand.
The photograph.
The black case.
Mara.
The stranger.
Silas.
A.
Everything was connected.
But the connections were running in directions he couldn't see.
His phone vibrated.
A.
Julian looked at the screen.
Mara is lying.
He stared at the message.
Another appeared.
She didn't watch you die.
Then:
She watched you disappear.
Julian's eyes lifted.
Mara was watching him.
"You got another message."
It wasn't a question.
Julian didn't answer.
Mara sighed.
"Of course."
"You knew A would contact me."
"Yes."
"Why?"
"Because A always does."
Julian froze.
"You know A?"
Mara looked away.
"Not personally."
"That's not an answer."
"It's the only one you're getting tonight."
Julian stepped closer.
"You all keep doing this."
Mara held his gaze.
"Doing what?"
"Giving me pieces."
He raised the photograph.
"A piece."
He lifted the key.
"Another piece."
Then pointed toward the stranger.
"Another person who refuses to tell me what happened."
His voice dropped.
"And every time I get close to something real, someone tells me to stop."
Mara's expression softened.
"Because the truth nearly killed you once."
Julian stared at her.
"Maybe that's why I need it."
Before Mara could answer, a gunshot cracked through the night.
The stranger grabbed Julian and pulled him down.
Glass shattered somewhere behind them.
Mara dropped to the ground.
Another shot.
The streetlight exploded.
Darkness.
"Move!" the stranger shouted.
Julian didn't wait.
He ran.
Not blindly.
His body knew exactly where to go.
Behind the building.
Across the narrow alley.
Over the low wall.
He heard Mara behind him.
Then the stranger.
Then footsteps that didn't belong to any of them.
Someone was following.
Julian turned sharply.
A figure appeared at the end of the alley.
Black coat.
Gloves.
And on the left hand—
A scar.
Julian stopped.
The figure didn't raise the weapon.
Didn't attack.
Instead, they simply looked at him.
Then slowly removed the glove.
A scar ran across the knuckles.
Julian's breath caught.
The same hand.
The same scar.
The memory slammed into him.
Cold water.
Concrete.
Blood.
A hand gripping his wrist.
A voice above him.
Stay awake, Locke.
Julian stared at the stranger.
The figure smiled faintly.
"You remembered."
Then they turned and disappeared into the darkness.
Mara reached Julian seconds later.
"Where did they go?"
Julian didn't answer.
He was staring at his own hand.
Because he finally remembered one more thing.
The person who pulled him from the river hadn't saved him.
They had been waiting for him to wake up.
And three years later—
They still were.