( this chapter is told from Ethan's pov )
Raina had just come back from Japan.
To be honest, I was glad she was back.
The house felt less empty when she was around. Even when she was busy, even when she was glued to her phone dealing with work or streams or whatever crisis seemed determined to follow her around these days, her presence alone made things feel normal.
At least that was what I kept telling myself.
Because something wasn't sitting right with me.
Something hadn't been sitting right for a while and her coming back did not fix it. If anything it made the feeling more specific, like her presence had given the wrongness a shape it did not have when she was absent.
Before she left for Japan, I had received a text from a number I did not recognize.
The message said it was Felix.
Felix Stein. My college roommate. My closest friend for two years. The person who had simply stopped existing one semester and left no explanation behind him.
