NOVEL ONLINE FREE Chapter 6: Chapter 6 — The Voice in Her Handwriting
The day passed like fog drifting through glass.
Elliot worked. He walked. He existed.
Nothing more.
By the time he returned home, the sky was dark and expressionless.
The apartment greeted him with silence.
The kind that settles into your lungs and sits there.
He removed his coat, stepped into the kitchen — and there it was.
Still.
The letter.
Exactly where he left it.
Unopened. Untouched.
Waiting.
He stared.
He hadn't planned on reading it.
He thought maybe, over time, it would just disappear.
Turn to dust. Or guilt.
But it hadn't.
The wall clock ticked behind him.
Tick.
Tick.
Tick—
Ti…iiiiiiiick…
The sound stretched. Slowed.
Time itself warped.
The lights dimmed. The shadows thickened.
And then—
"Aren't you going to open it, my dear Ellie?"
A voice.
Soft. Feminine. Smooth as wine and velvet.
Elliot's heart stopped for a beat.
"…Claire?"
A faint laugh echoed — elegant, restrained, almost playful.
"You really are the same, you know. Still staring at things like they'll explain themselves if you wait long enough."
His body tensed.
He didn't speak. Didn't move.
"Tell me—are you afraid of what I wrote? Or afraid it'll feel real again?"
The air shifted.
He felt her presence.
Not a figure. Not a face.
But a weight, like a memory leaning against his back.
"You always hated questions with no answers. But this one's easy, isn't it?"
"You open it. Or you don't."
Silence.
"But if you don't… then maybe it was never me who gave up on us."
Her voice lingered.
Like perfume from a door that just closed.
The ticking resumed.
Elliot stood frozen for a moment longer, jaw clenched, eyes locked on the paper.
Then, slowly, he reached out.
His fingertips brushed the corner.
He unfolded the letter.
End of Chapter 6