Episode Two: Everywhere I Go

At first, it started as something small. Something Zara could still pretend was normal. A laugh that came too quickly. A sentence she didn’t fully remember forming. A feeling that someone else had already spoken before she did.

“Kade said we should take the longer route,” she told her friend one afternoon as they left class. Her friend paused mid-step. There was a long silence. Then a careful voice. “Zara. who are you talking to?”

Zara blinked like she didn’t understand the question. “Kade,” she said simply. “My boyfriend.”But something strange happened after she said it. Her friend didn’t laugh. Didn’t smile. Didn’t tease her like before. Instead, she looked away quickly, like she was uncomfortable being seen.

Oh,” she said softly. “Right.” And they kept walking. But Zara noticed something she had never noticed before. Her friend didn’t ask about Kade again. Not that day. Not the next. Not even when Zara mentioned him again. But Kade didn’t disappear. He grew. At least, that was how it felt.

He was in the space between her thoughts and her words. He was in the pause before she answered questions. He was in the way she tilted her head when she was thinking. “Kade likes this song,” she said once in a taxi, tapping her fingers softly against her leg. The driver glanced at her through the mirror.

“Who?”

Zara frowned. “Kade.”

A pause.

Then the driver nodded slowly, like he was agreeing with something he couldn’t see. “Of course,” he muttered. But his eyes stayed on the road a little too long after that.

At home, Zara began setting things for two without thinking. Two cups of tea. Two plates. Two pillows arranged neatly on the couch. She would stop sometimes and stare at it. Then laugh softly. “What am I doing?” she would whisper. But she never changed it. Because it felt correct. Like correcting it would make something important disappear. Something she couldn’t afford to lose.

The next morning, Zara woke up earlier than usual. The room was quiet, but not empty. That was the strange part. It never felt empty anymore. “Kade?” she said softly, before she even opened her eyes fully. A pause. Then

“I’m here.”

Her lips curled slightly into a smile. “Did you sleep?”

“I don’t sleep,” the voice answered gently.

That made her pause. She frowned a little. “That’s weird,” she said. A soft silence followed. Then Kade spoke again. “You’re thinking too much again.”

Zara exhaled, relaxing into the mattress.

“Sorry.” “It’s okay,” he said. “I’m still here.” And just like that, the unease disappeared. But outside her room, something was changing. People were starting to behave differently around her. Not openly. Not in a way she could easily point at. But in small things. In hesitation. In silence that lasted too long. In eyes that avoided hers a second too quickly.

One afternoon, she sat with her friends again. She was smiling. Talking. Laughing softly at something one of them said. Then she leaned forward slightly. “Kade thinks you’re funny,” she said. The table went still. Not dramatically. Just. still. Like someone had paused a video. One of her friends blinked.

Then slowly asked, “Zara. are you okay?”

Zara tilted her head. “I’m fine,” she said.

“No,” another friend said quietly. “I mean really okay.” That question felt heavier than the others.

Zara smiled anyway. “Why wouldn’t I be?”

Silence.

Then one of them spoke again, carefully. “Because there’s no one here.” Zara stopped smiling. Just for a second. Then she laughed lightly. “What are you talking about?” But no one laughed with her. No one smiled back. And for the first time, Zara noticed something she had been ignoring for a long time.

When she mentioned Kade. People didn’t react like they were hearing a joke. They reacted like they were hearing something they could not see. That night, Zara walked home alone. The streetlights flickered slightly above her head. Each step felt louder than it should have. Tap. Tap. Tap.

“Kade,” she whispered as she walked, “are you here?” A pause.Then “Always.” She smiled faintly. But then she stopped walking. Because something felt wrong. Not outside. Inside her. A missing weight. A missing pressure. Like she had been holding something for a long time. and just realized it was gone.

“Kade?” she said again, slower this time. Silence. Her chest tightened. “Kade?” louder now. Nothing. Her breath started to shake. “No,” she whispered. “Don’t do this.” The wind moved through the street. But there was no answer. For the first time in a long time. There was nothing. No voice. No presence.

No warmth behind her thoughts. Just her. Alone. Zara ran the rest of the way home. Her hands were shaking as she pushed the door open. “Kade!” she called immediately. Her voice cracked.

Silence.

She rushed into the room. “Kade, stop it! This isn’t funny!”

Nothing.

She checked the kitchen. Two cups were still there. But one of them was cold. Untouched. She froze. Slowly, she turned toward the living room. The second pillow was still neatly placed. But something was different. It looked. unused. Like it had never been touched. Like it had only ever been arranged.

Zara stepped back. “No,” she whispered. “No, no, no.” Her breathing grew uneven. Then A sound. Soft. Behind her. A voice. But not where she expected it. Not beside her. Not in her head. Not comforting. This time. It came from the hallway. A little deeper. A little darker. And it said something she had never heard before. Something that didn’t sound like Kade at all.

It said: “Zara. why did you stop seeing me?”

Zara turned slowly. Her heart slammed so hard it hurt.The hallway was dark. Too dark. And standing at the far end of it. Was a shape. Not fully formed. Not fully clear. But tall. Still. Watching.And for the first time. Zara realized something terrifying.

Kade was never gone. He had only stepped out of where her mind could protect her. And now He was standing where she could finally see him. But in her thinking. Kade was not physically there. Or visible. He is invisible, she is happy creating a man in her head. That she fell inlove with.

He had only retreated into the part of Zara’s mind where reality could no longer reach him. He had never been a man standing beside her. He had never been flesh and blood. He existed only where she allowed him to exist inside her thoughts, her loneliness, her desperate need to be loved.

And to Zara. That was enough. She smiled into the empty room, her heart racing as if someone had just whispered her name. Her eyes followed an invisible figure across the floor. She laughed softly at words no one else could hear, then reached out, her fingers curling around nothing. Yet she felt his hand. Warm. Real.

She closed her eyes and leaned into the embrace that existed only inside her mind. “ Kade,” she whispered, smiling through happy tears. “You came back.”

Silence answered.

But in Zara’s world. Silence had always sounded exactly like him. Then, somewhere in the house. A man’s voice whispered her name.

“Zara.” Her smile widened. Because she believed it was Kade.The terrifying question was.

If Kade existed only in her mind. who had just spoken?

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