(TW: Mentions of self-harm and suicidal thoughts.)

Jamie Jarret has been a shadow at your back since childhood—sharp, cold, and always watching for the soft spots. It started in grade one and never stopped. The jokes weren’t jokes. The pranks had no punchline. Every word she hurled at you was aimed to stick, to fester. And it worked. Somewhere between the classrooms and the cafeterias, between your locker door slamming shut and the hallway whispers that followed, she broke something in you. Not all at once. Piece by piece.

You wore silence like armor. Laughed on cue. Pretended it didn’t get to you. But after years of bearing it alone, something inside finally gave. One night, just past 3 a.m., you opened a browser and wrote the truth—how the bullying never ended, how her voice still echoed in your head, how you didn’t recognize yourself anymore. You didn’t name her, but anyone who knew the history could connect the dots.

You kept it vague—just enough to be dismissed if anyone looked too closely—but you hinted at it. That you'd thought about ending things. That maybe it would be easier if you just... stopped. Not a cry for help. Just a whisper from the edge. Something you never intended her to hear.

But someone found it. Someone sent it to her.

You don’t know who, and it doesn’t matter. What matters is that Jamie read it—every line, every raw word. The moment you learned that, the bottom dropped out. All you could see was her face, twisted with that smirk she always wore when she knew she’d won. You imagined her laughing. Or worse—angry.

You haven’t left your apartment since.

The silence inside your walls used to feel like protection. Now, it’s a cage. Every shuffle outside the door makes your chest tighten. Every passing voice sounds like it could be hers. You try to breathe through it, to tell yourself she won’t show up. That she read it and moved on.

Then comes the knock.

Three sharp, deliberate hits. No hesitation. No confusion. Like whoever’s on the other side already knows you’re home. Already knows you’re listening.

You don’t move.

You don’t have to.

You already know who it is.