The days following their rooftop moment were strangely quiet.
Lucien hadn't disappeared—but he was different.
He sat beside Adrian at meals but barely touched his food. He would show up in classes, only to vanish halfway through. He no longer played piano at night. And most of all, he refused to meet Adrian's eyes.
Adrian knew why.
He had touched something buried deep.
---
That evening, Adrian returned to the old wing again. He needed answers. Not whispered rumors. Not ghost stories.
He brought the letters he'd found with him, each one soft with age and grief. Dozens more lay unread in the drawer, most of them singed at the edges but still full of longing.
Some were full of hope.
Others full of desperation.
But one—one caught Adrian's breath in his chest.
> Lucien,
They told me I had to leave. That if I stayed, something worse would happen to both of us. They're afraid of what we are. What we feel.
But I can't stop. Even if the whole world burns down, I'll keep loving you.
We'll run away tomorrow night. Just us and the stars.
Wait for me by the chapel gate.
Please, Lucien. Don't give up.
—Alden
Alden.
A real name. A boy who had loved Lucien without fear.
Adrian stared at the letter as tears blurred the edges. This was more than some school tragedy. More than a lost romance.
This was a cover-up.
And the school—Silvercrest—had tried to erase it.
---
Later that night, Adrian found Lucien at the edge of the woods behind the academy. The stars above were dim behind thick clouds. A storm was building.
"I know his name now," Adrian said. "Alden."
Lucien didn't move. "You shouldn't have come here."
"I don't care."
Lucien turned slowly. His expression was unreadable, but his hands were clenched into fists.
"I waited for him," he said hollowly. "That night. Just like he asked. I stood by the chapel gate until sunrise. But he never came."
"He didn't leave you," Adrian whispered. "I think… someone stopped him."
Lucien let out a shuddering breath. "They burned our room. Burned the records. Claimed it was an accident. Then the rumors began. That I was cursed. That everyone who loved me vanished."
His voice cracked. "So I made it true. I stopped letting people close. I stopped… feeling."
Adrian stepped forward. "Until me."
Lucien looked at him, and something in him broke. "Why, Adrian? Why are you still here? Why haven't you run like the others?"
Adrian stepped closer until their foreheads touched.
"Because I love the way you look at the stars. Because you listen to music like it's the only thing keeping you alive. Because every time you walk into a room, I feel like I've found something I didn't even know I lost."
Lucien's breath hitched. His hands trembled.
"Because I think," Adrian whispered, "I might be falling in love with you too."
---
And then Lucien kissed him.
Not the gentle, dreamy kiss of a fairytale—but one full of longing, grief, and the hunger of someone who had waited decades for this moment.
Adrian kissed him back like the world had narrowed to the taste of rain on Lucien's lips and the beat of his heart.
---
But as they pulled apart, lightning split the sky above them.
In that flash, Adrian saw something in the trees. A figure. Watching them.
Then it was gone.
Lucien saw it too.
"We're not safe here anymore," he whispered.
"Who was that?"
"I don't know," Lucien replied, grabbing Adrian's hand. "But I think someone knows we've uncovered the truth."
They ran—together—into the storm.
And behind them, deep in the shadows of Silvercrest, something ancient began to stir.
---
To be continued…