It buzzed again as he lifted it, the screen lighting up to show two missed calls were from an unknown number, and one was from him.
The call he'd placed earlier. The one that hadn't rung. It hadn't gone to voicemail because the phone was off.
It had gone to voicemail because the phone was here.
He stared at the screen for a moment, not moving. Not blinking.
Ruo didn't go anywhere without her phone. She treated it like a second limb, used it for everything. Notes. Calls. Alarms she never followed. She'd once panicked for twenty minutes when she'd left it in the fridge by accident.
He swiped the screen cautiously, careful not to smudge the edge of the glass.
Her wallpaper was different.
Before he left for the dorm, it had been a grainy balcony photo of them laughing, his hand blurred mid-gesture, Ruoxi throwing a peace sign like it was a gang threat. She had scrawled something over it in red marker with one of her editing apps. He couldn't remember what now. Probably something stupid.
But it was gone.
Replaced by a black screen with a block of white text.
Don't trust the Gods.
Do not trust him.
'I swear, Ruo, if you play with my nerves again, I'll kill you.' Elias thought, staring at the two sentences like they might rearrange themselves into something less dramatic if he waited long enough
They didn't.
He raked a hand through his hair, fingers catching briefly in the strands before falling to his side. The silence in the apartment pressed in a little tighter. He took the phone with him and moved into the living room.
The couch was cold.
He sat down anyway, tucking one leg under the other, phone resting in his palm like it might explain itself if he held it long enough.
He didn't feel right digging through her things.
He stared at it, thumb hovering just above the screen. Then he sighed and set the phone down on the coffee table.
This wasn't a puzzle he wanted to solve alone.
After a few seconds, he pulled out his own phone and scrolled through contacts until he found the right name.
Monica Elwin was last seen online three hours ago, likely still working one of her tutoring shifts.
She was Ruoxi's best friend. If anyone knew where she had gone, it would be her.
He tapped call and brought the phone to his ear.
It rang. Once. Twice.
Then clicked.
"Monica," he said as soon as the line picked up. "Tell me Ruoxi is just being dramatic and hiding in your apartment again."
There was a pause.
Then her voice, quiet and wary. "What are you talking about? Ruo is with her family this week. She just texted me."
Elias leaned back on the couch and let himself sprawl into it, one arm draped over the side, the other still holding his phone loosely to his ear. His knees bent slightly, heels nudging the edge of the coffee table. The cushions shifted under him with a sigh, the room around him too quiet to be comforting.
He stared at the ceiling, letting the silence stretch long enough for the words to settle.
Monica was lying.
Or someone was lying to her.
Either way, the truth didn't line up.
The phone she was texting from wasn't the one sitting ten inches from his elbow. The one still warm. Still unread. Still echoing that warning on the lock screen.
He ran his fingers through his hair to ground himself, his usual tick when his thoughts started to fragment into pieces he couldn't quite place yet.
"Did Ruo change her phone?" he asked, his voice too steady for how off everything felt.
There was a pause on the other end. Then, "No? I don't think so. She still uses that clear case, right? The one with the broken corner?"
"She does."
"Why?"
Elias didn't answer right away. He sat up, slow and deliberate, elbow resting against his knee, the phone pressed a little firmer to his ear. His free hand reached out, brushing against Ruoxi's phone on the table like he was expecting it to flinch.
"She left it here," he said finally. "Her phone. It's in the apartment. In her drawer, under a sweatshirt."
Another pause. This time longer.
"That's weird," Monica said, though her voice had shifted. She wasn't brushing him off. She was rewinding the last two days in her head.
"Well, she didn't tell me anything about her family," Elias said, adjusting the glasses on the bridge of his nose. "Usually, if she was forced to see them, she would let it be known."
"With a soundtrack," Monica added. "And a three-paragraph rant."
Elias made a small sound in agreement. Not quite amusement.
He stood up again, phone pressed to his shoulder as he wandered back toward the hallway. The air felt heavier the closer he got to Ruoxi's room. Not literally, just memory, maybe. Familiar walls holding unfamiliar quiet.
"She left everything," he said. "Clothes, charger, even her favorite boots. Her phone was in her drawer. Still warm when I picked it up."
Monica didn't respond right away.
"She would've told me," he added, more to himself than to her. "Even if she was spiraling. Especially if she was spiraling."
"I know," Monica said. Her voice was flatter now. "She wouldn't leave both of us out."
Another pause stretched between them.
"Elias, do you think she's in trouble?"
He looked into the dark of Ruoxi's doorway. The faint jasmine scent hadn't faded yet. Her chair was still turned just slightly toward the window, like she'd been sitting there the night before.
"I think," he said slowly, "that she didn't leave on her own."
"And what are we going to do?" Monica asked, her voice tense. "There's little to no chance her family will help. You know them, the almighty Numen."
"I know." Elias sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose. "I'll file a missing person report. We'll start there."
There was silence on the other end. The kind that meant Monica wanted to argue but knew there wasn't a better option. Not yet.
"They'll stonewall it," she said eventually. "The moment her name hits the system, her father will have it pulled."
"We shall see," Elias said, voice even. "They haven't exactly been invested in what Ruo's doing lately. If they block the report, then I'll know where to start."
He leaned back slightly, resting the back of his head against the couch cushion, the phone balanced loosely between his fingers. The words felt heavier than he'd expected, not because they were dramatic, but because they were starting to sound like a plan.
He didn't like plans. Not like this.
Plans meant something was real.
"They'll see it coming," Monica said. "If you poke them."
"I'm not poking them. Not yet." He let out a slow breath. "I'm just watching where they flinch."
Monica didn't respond for a moment. He could hear faint rustling on her end, probably pacing or sitting down for the first time in hours. Then she said, "Elias?"
"Yeah?"
"Be careful."
He ended the call without replying.
He set his phone down, just beside Ruoxi's, and stared at the two of them. Her phone was identical in size, color, and shape, with the exception of a minor crack in the case that caught the light.
Monica was hiding something, and her attempt to persuade him to give up on looking for Ruo only made him more determined to find her. Dead or alive.