It had been three days, and still no sign of Wesley. Maybe things were starting to be on my side again after all. I sit at my small desk in the corner of my living room, mindlessly scrolling during my lunch break. Surprising, I know, but I do actually have a job. A work-from-home job, thankfully, but a job nonetheless. 

Ping! A notification flashes on my screen, “New notification from: unknown number,” the robotic voice reads out. I really need to turn that voice off, it’s so annoying. I open the message, expecting it to be some random spam, but what I see makes my blood run cold.

“It’s been a while, Phantom Darkness. You didn’t think you could hide forever, did you?”

I stumble out of my chair, falling to the floor, my chest feeling tight. I fall to the floor, the room shrinking around me. An all-consuming void fills the room around me as the name ‘Phantom Darkness’ repeats in my head over and over. Who was this? How did they know that name? How did they find me?

I pull at my hair, chunks falling out as I tug anxiously. This wasn’t supposed to happen. How is it even possible? I had been so careful. Not careful enough, I guess. Painful memories come flooding back to me, and I open my mouth to scream, but nothing comes out. Shit, this is bad, really bad. I feel tears pricking at the corners of my eyes, threatening to spill over. 

This all just has to be a bad dream, right? I can’t have this happen now, not when I had just gotten settled. I had just gotten my life back, and now here comes my past trying to rip it all away again. I already have to deal with guilt and the weight of what I did, I don’t need more reminders. This all feels like a cruel joke that I’m at the butt of, that's what my whole life has felt like, one big joke for people to laugh at, and nothing more than just that.

I’m yanked out of my mind by the sound of the front door opening and a voice. “Edi…are you ok?” Wesley asks, getting down on his knees to be on my level. Why is he here? Then I notice he’s back in his old clothes. Oh, I guess he was serious about giving me my clothes back, but why, why did he pick now to drop them off?

He reaches out to place his hand on my shoulder, and I flinch away out of reflex. “Ok, so no touching, got it. If I can’t physically comfort you, then can you at least tell me what’s wrong?” He gets up and grabs a piece of paper and a pen. He remembered. He actually remembered that I don’t talk. I stare at him, eyes wide and glossy with tears. I can’t tell him, I can’t tell anyone, especially not Wesley. When he places the paper in front of me, I stare at the blank page. I know he’s waiting for me to write something, but I don’t know what to write. I’m not going to tell him the truth, but for some reason, lying feels just as bad.

“You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to.” He says gently, “Just let me know if there is anything I can do to help.” Help. I couldn’t remember the last time someone offered to help me. ‘Water please,’ I scribble quickly. It was embarrassing that I couldn’t even get myself water in the state I’m in. Without question, Wesley goes to get me a glass of water. I try to calm myself down. In, out, in out. The only good thing I got out of therapy was the breathing exercises.

When Wesley comes back with the water, I can actually stand up again. I take the glass from him and down the entire thing within seconds. Wesley stares, shocked, like he has never seen someone chug 12 ounces of water before. 

I wipe my mouth with my sleeve and nod at Wesley, a sign of appreciation. Wesley looks at me as if expecting something more. I don’t know what he expects to happen, but it sure as hell ain’t gonna happen. I need to get Wesley out of here before he starts snooping around. I set the glass down on the coffee table and start ushering Wesley to the front door. 

“Wait! Why do I have to leave?” Wesley asks, clearly confused. It’s not like I can tell him, ‘Oh yeah, my horrible dark past has finally caught up with me and now I have to deal with the consequences! And you probably don’t want to be around to watch it play out because it won’t be pretty, and it will most likely traumatize you!!’ because if I said that, it would make me sound absolutely insane. So instead of doing that, I continue to silently push him towards the door. And plus I can’t have him knowing all of my deep, dark secrets, especially since this will most likely be the last time we see each other.

I open the front door and push him out. “Will I see you again soon?” Wesley asks, hope and another emotion I can’t quite place filling his voice. Without answering his question, I shut the door on his face and dash back over to my computer.

There was a new message from that same number, “Even here in this ‘perfect’ world the government likes to call The Colony, there are bad people, and those bad people need you, Phantom. They need you to do the dirtiest part of their job for them. You won’t refuse if you know what's good for you and that new little friend of yours.”