Riven froze.
The world around us, once so quiet and contained in the eerie silence of the forest, now felt like a cage. The weight of the question I'd just asked hung between us like an accusation.
"What do you mean?" His voice was low, controlled, but I saw the flicker in his eyes — a crack in the armor he'd spent years building.
"I'm saying," I whispered, "what if you weren't born first?"
He didn't answer immediately. Instead, he turned away, his jaw working as though he were chewing on the words, trying to figure out if this was just another of my desperate attempts to make sense of the chaos.
But I wasn't making it up. Not this time.
"The note," I said, my voice shaky. "The one Ryker left. 'Trust your heart. Not the face.' If Gregory knew… If whoever took him knew… Maybe they didn't just take Ryker. Maybe they took you, too."
He stared at me, then glanced back at the sycamore, his mind clearly working in overdrive. "That's crazy. You're saying there's someone who looks like me?"
"What if there's more than one?" I pushed.
He turned to face me. "You mean what if I'm not me?"
"I don't know," I admitted, swallowing hard. "But everything about this… the way people have lied, the way things have disappeared… it's all pointing to something bigger than us. Something about you."
Riven's face went pale, his expression unreadable. The distant hum of the forest seemed to close in on us. There were no answers here, just more questions. And the weight of each one was slowly crushing me.
"I've always felt like I didn't quite fit in with my family," he admitted, his voice barely above a whisper. "But I never thought it was because I wasn't supposed to be in it."
I took a step closer to him, feeling the pull of his fear, his pain. The walls he'd built around himself were crumbling, piece by piece. "What if they took you, Riven? What if they took you first and replaced you with someone else?"
His eyes burned with a mix of confusion and rage. "Then why didn't I ever know? Why didn't I see any of it? Why didn't I notice?"
"That's the part we need to figure out," I said. "Because what if Ryker's been hiding the truth from both of us? What if the person who's been watching us all this time isn't a stranger… but someone who's been with us since the beginning?"
We both stood there, the chill of the forest air creeping into our bones, as the weight of our words settled between us. We were no longer just looking for Ryker. We were hunting for the truth of who we were — and who had been playing us both.
---
We spent the rest of the evening at the cabin, the USB still in my hand. The message on it burned into my mind like a cruel riddle. Trust your heart. Not the face. It was as if Ryker had known that one day we'd be standing here, trying to piece together a story that felt too impossible to tell.
Riven sat across from me, his face pale, his hands gripping the edge of the table like they were the only thing holding him together.
"I'm not… I don't even know what to believe anymore," he muttered, his voice breaking. "If you're right, then everything I've known… everything I've trusted... is a lie."
"Then we need to find out the truth," I said firmly, though even I wasn't sure what that truth was anymore.
I loaded the USB into the laptop again, my fingers trembling as the files opened. There were no photos. No videos this time. Just a simple, encrypted folder.
"I need your password," I said, glancing up at Riven.
He hesitated. "I don't have one. It's always been open."
The folder opened without resistance, and a single document popped up. I clicked it, but before I could read it, my phone buzzed.
A message.
"Don't go further. Trust no one."
It was from an unknown number.
Riven stood, his eyes narrowing. "Who the hell is that?"
"I don't know," I said, my heart racing. "But someone's watching us."
He stepped forward, snatching my phone from my hand. "We need to move. Now."
I barely had time to process his words before the door to the cabin burst open.
Two figures stepped inside.
"Riven," one of them said, their voice smooth, like velvet wrapped around cold steel. "I think it's time we had a conversation."
I didn't recognize them at first — they were dressed in black tactical gear, faces obscured by masks.
Riven moved in front of me protectively. "What do you want?"
"Everything," the masked man said, a smile in his voice. "You and your sister have a lot of catching up to do."
---
My world tilted.
I stumbled backward, my mind whirling. Sister? What? I had no siblings. I never had a sister. Had Ryker known about this? Had he been trying to warn me?
The man who spoke stepped forward, his presence intimidating. "Don't bother running. We've already taken what we needed. The rest is just a formality."
A second figure appeared behind him, holding a briefcase. He opened it, revealing a stack of papers.
"Sign," he said.
I looked at Riven, confused. "Sign what?"
"Your life," the first man said. "Sign this contract, and you'll find out everything. If you don't, the clock's already ticking. Your brother's fate is in your hands."
---
I stood frozen, my mind racing as I glanced between Riven and the masked figures. My thoughts were scattered, but one thing was clear: the lies, the mysteries, the darkness — it had all been leading to this moment. Whatever they wanted from me, whatever they were hiding, it was bigger than anything I could've imagined.
I took a deep breath.
The decision, it seemed, was no longer in my hands.