You're very welcome! Here's your next intense, emotional, and suspenseful chapter—flowing directly from where Chapter 18 ended, as always.
CHAPTER 19: One Step Closer
The art center slept behind them, cloaked in night. Ava sat on the bench, her fingers curled around the damp sketchbook Eli had pressed into her hands.
But her eyes weren't on the page.
They were on him.
Eli sat with his head tilted slightly upward, as if listening to something she couldn't hear. A breeze moved through the wind chimes above, each note soft, haunting, like the ghost of a lullaby.
"You really want me to paint her?" Ava asked.
His lips parted, and for a moment, he looked… scared. "I need to know if she looks like the girl in my memory."
"You remember her?"
"Not clearly. Just... a flash. Long hair. Bare feet. And eyes that looked right at me through the smoke."
Ava swallowed. That description—it could've been her.
She opened the sketchbook slowly.
Page by page, blank canvases waited. Her hands were still shaking. Not from fear. From the weight of what might come out.
She picked up a pencil.
Eli reached forward and gently touched the side of her face. "Don't force it. Just let her come."
So she drew.
Slowly. Lines at first. Then shadows. A face forming from fog. She didn't guide the pencil—it guided her. Like her hand remembered something her mind refused to.
When she was done, she passed the book to Eli.
He ran his fingers along the grooves. His hands paused at the girl's eyes.
"They're… familiar," he whispered.
Ava watched him carefully. "Is it her?"
"I don't know." He touched the girl's hair, her lips, her shape. "But it's someone."
He closed the book.
And the moment shattered.
A loud thud echoed from inside the building.
Ava jumped. Eli turned sharply, body tense. "Did you hear that?"
She nodded.
Footsteps.
Not loud—but deliberate.
"Maybe it's a staff member," Ava whispered.
"Staff don't walk like that," he said, standing slowly. "They don't hide their steps."
Ava's blood chilled.
Another sound—a whisper of movement—then silence.
Eli took her hand. "Back door. Now."
They slipped around the building, hearts racing. But as they reached the back, the door creaked open—from the inside.
A shadow stood there.
Eli tensed. "Who's there?"
No answer.
Ava gripped his arm. "Say something!" she called out.
The figure finally spoke. Soft. Male. Familiar.
"I was wondering when you'd remember me."
Eli's breath hitched.
That voice.
He hadn't heard it in years. But it burned like acid.
"Jonas," he whispered.
Ava looked at him. "Who's Jonas?"
But Eli didn't answer.
He took a step back, as if distance could undo the past.
"Jonas was my friend," Eli said. "Before the fire."
The shadow stepped forward, into the moonlight.
"I'm the one who told you not to go inside that day," Jonas said. "But you didn't listen."
His gaze flicked to Ava. "And she… she's the reason we're all broken."
Ava froze.
Jonas smiled. But it wasn't kind.
It was a warning.