**(Elle's POV)**
Callum Reyes smelled like ink and impatience.
Elle cornered him by the chemistry lab before first period, her pulse still jagged from the nightmare. He stiffened when she said Dora's name, his fingers tightening around the strap of his bag.
*"You don't know what you're messing with."* His voice was low, frayed at the edges.
*"Then tell me,"* she shot back. *"Because I'm seeing things—her things. Like how she—"*
*"Don't."* His knuckles went white.
A slip of paper peeked from his notebook, the edges charred. Elle lunged for it.
Callum jerked away, but not fast enough—she caught a glimpse of spidery handwriting:
**>>Forgive me. I tried to stop them.<<**
Then the bell screamed, and he was gone, leaving behind the scent of smoke and something bitter.
Like guilt.
---
**(Dora's Echo #2 – Reverse Chronology: The Spell)**
*One week before the fall.*
Dora's hands shook as she pressed them to Callum's temples in the empty auditorium.
*"You won't remember this,"* she whispered. *"Or me. Or what they'll do."*
His eyes were glassy, drugged with the chamomile tea she'd laced with valerian root. The ledger's magic coiled between them, hungry.
A tear slid down her cheek.
*"It's better if you hate me."*
She kissed his forehead.
And stole every memory of the last three years.
---
**(Elle's POV – After School)**
The burned scrap of paper weighed nothing in Elle's pocket, but it dragged her down the hallway like an anchor.
Nina squinted at it in the dim glow of her laptop. *"Okay, creepy. But why burn it? Unless…"* Her fingers flew across the keyboard. *"Callum Reyes. Suspended twice—once right after Dora died. Fistfight with Tyler Knox."*
Elle's breath caught. *"Tyler was there. The night she—"*
A shadow moved in the hallway.
Mr. Halden stood by Locker 47, mop in hand, watching them.
*"You girls shouldn't linger,"* he said, smiling with too many teeth. *"The dark gets in through the cracks here."*
Behind him, the locker's door creaked open—just an inch.
Empty.
Except for the sound of breathing.
---