Page 24 of Stay Scared

“You were close enough to see my screen.”

“The shop window reflected it when the angle was right.”

“You read my messages?”

“Whatever the reflection exposed.”

My fingers tighten against the doorframe.

Owen looks at my hand. “You save criticism from strangers. You delete it when it comes from someone you respect.”

“That observation becomes less impressive when stalking is how you got it.”

“I wasn’t trying to impress you.”

He gives me nothing soft enough to mistake for an excuse.

Cade looks at him. “He knew more about your life than I did.”

“You were blocked.”

“Because you blocked me.”

“It was necessary.”

“You decided I was never getting another shot before I had the chance to change.”

“We had this argument before I left.”

“We had half the damn argument. Then you blocked every way I had to reach you.”

His voice remains steady, and I can hear the old fight beneath it.

“You treated every problem like getting closer would solve it,” I say. “I could not breathe inside that.”

Cade steps toward me, but the masked man raises one hand before he reaches me, then he stops.

No warning or force comes with the gesture. The masked man barely moves, yet Cade gives him the distance immediately. Only after Cade settles does the hand lower.

I want to see what that control looks like without the shell hiding his face.

“You think blocking me made it honest?” Cade asks. “You disappeared because hearing me apologize would’ve made leaving harder.”

“You don’t know why I left.”

“You still checked my page from burner accounts.”

My grip slips slightly on the doorframe, and Cade sees it.

I look at the glowing mask instead. “Did he join Final Girl Protocol because of me?”

“He did,” the masked man says. “Cade had already worked with us for a season. He joined this project after he learned you were the participant.”

“So the original design didn’t include him.”

“Cade wasn’t in the original design.”

“And Owen?”