> "Before they erased her, she had a name.
Now she's just a warning no one dares speak."
— Sade's Hidden Journal
---
🔦 The Observatory
They waited until after lights-out.
Sharon and Reina slipped out through the emergency stairwell and crossed the gravel path to the old observatory, long sealed and unused.
Reina picked the lock like she'd done it before.
The door groaned open, revealing a round, domed room with a cracked telescope and dusty furniture. Moonlight filtered in through the glass ceiling.
Reina walked to the wall mirror.
"Here," she whispered, pulling out a switchblade. "Behind this."
She wedged it under the edge and popped the glass loose, revealing a narrow, metal compartment inside.
There was only one item inside:
> A leather-bound, worn journal with a red thread tying it shut.
Sharon reached for it, heart pounding.
Then Reina stepped back.
"You're on your own now," she said quietly. "If I go further, I won't be invisible anymore."
And just like that — she slipped away into the dark.
---
📖 The Hidden Journal
Sharon opened the journal carefully.
Inside were entries Sade never wanted found — written in a frantic hand, paragraphs half-scribbled, some pages water-stained or torn.
Midway through, a single line stood alone:
> "She warned me. They erased her. But I remember."
Then: a name.
Scratched out. Twice.
Sharon held the page to the moonlight.
Tilted it.
Traced her fingers along the indentations.
> "...Ma...e...a..."
Not enough to be sure.
But the page beneath it held a memory:
> "She was soft-spoken. Brilliant. Wore her hair in braids. Everyone underestimated her — even Bianca."
> "And then one day, she stopped showing up. No explanation. They said she transferred. But no one ever saw her again."
---
🔥 Smoke in the Archives
The next morning, Sharon raced to the archive building.
She had to cross-check that name fragment. Match it with photos. With records.
But as she neared the back staircase…
Smoke.
A fire alarm was going off — faint, distant. And staff were already cordoning off the entrance.
"Electrical short," someone said. "One of the older storage units caught fire."
But Sharon knew better.
She caught a glimpse of what had been burned before they covered it:
Old yearbooks.
2001. 2002. 2003.
> The exact years she needed.
---
😶 Zuri Changes
That night, Sharon returned to their dorm to find Zuri… changed.
She was cleaning. Quiet. Almost too calm.
Sharon watched her.
"You okay?"
Zuri nodded without looking up. "Yeah. Just tired."
But her posture was off. Her eyes didn't meet Sharon's.
Something had changed.
Something or someone had gotten to her.
---
🕷️ And Then…
At midnight, another envelope appeared under Sharon's door.
This time, it wasn't black.
It was white, with a red ribbon and one typed sentence inside:
> "Let the past stay buried. Or you'll join it."
There was no signature.
But the corner of the paper had one small, familiar symbol.
A chess queen.
Scratched out.
---
📌 End of Chapter Fifteen
> The girl with no name was gone.
But her story wasn't over.
Because Sharon wasn't done digging.
And now, someone new was watching her every step.
---
🔜 Coming in Chapter Sixteen: Red Hands, Silent Mouths
Sharon confronts Zuri about her shift — and what she's hiding.
She tracks down a teacher who taught during Ade's time — someone who might remember the erased girl.
But that teacher? Is already being watched.
And a shocking photo from the past shows Sade… with someone Sharon never expected.