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The Last Letter : Part 2

Part 2: 

(...On the floor: another letter with her name on it... Read Part 1)

Read Part 1

Another letter

Maya,
I’m sorry. I can't stop myself.
I shouldn't care for you… but I do.  I shouldn't have fallen for you... but I did.

If you're reading this, I've already left.

---A

A sudden creak made her turn 

A man in a dark blue jacket stood in the doorway. Not Arjun, someone else.

"You shouldn't be here," he said with a trembling voice---not with threat, but with fear.

"Where is Arjun?" she demanded.

He swallowed. "Do you know what he did? Years ago? The reason he keeps moving from city to city? You think he is sweet? You think he is gentle?"

She took a step back, comfused. "What are you talking about?"

The man stepped closer, raising his hands animatedly.
"I'm not here to hurt you. I've been tracking him since the last incident. He gets close to someone--fixates on them, and... and it never ends well."

Maya’s heart pounded.
"No. Arjun isn't..."

"He didn't tell you, did he?" the man asked softly. "About the girl before you?"

Before she could respond---
The door slammed.

Arjun stood there.

His expression wasn't warm this time.
It was empty. like a blank grey sheet of paper. Like the sky before the storm.

The man froze. "Maya," he whispered urgently. "Run..."

But, Arjun moved first and fast—swift, silent, terrifyingly controlled. In seconds, the man was on the ground, gasping for breath. Arjun did not even blink, he did  not even huff.

"Maya," Arjun said gently, as though nothing unusual had happened. "You shouldn't listen to strangers."

Her voice cracked.
"What did you do to him?"

He smiled the same soft smile she saw on the bridge, but now she saw the void behind it.

"Only what was necessary."

She took a step back.

He took a step forward.

"I left you the letter because I was trying to protect you from me," he said. "But then you came looking. You followed me. You want me as much as I do."

"Arjun… what was he talking about? The girl...what happened to that girl?" she whispered.

His jaw tensed.
"She left."
A pause.
"I don't like being left."

Before she could react, he reached into her bag and pulled out the first letter she had kept.

"You kept it," he murmured, "I knew you felt it too."

Sirens wailed somewhere far away.

His eyes darkened.

"We don't have much time. People don't understand me like you do, Maya. Because we are the same, I followed you and you followed me. I'll explain everything. You and I...we are the endgame."

"Arjun… please," she pleaded in a whisper. "Let me go."

He tilted his head, disappointed.

"You're scared of me now?"
Another pause, and then he smiled.
"That's okay. Fear keeps love awake."

Footsteps echoed in the hall---neighbors or police, she couldn't tell.

Arjun's expression shifted again, colder than the winter air.

"I'll come back for you," he said, walking toward the window. "I always come back."

And then...he jumped.

By the time Maya reached the window, he was gone.

Only the wind remained, carrying a strange scent. A combination of something rotten yet strongly metallic…
and the faintest rustle of a letter fluttering to the floor:

See you soon.

Part 3...

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