The respite didn't end on Saturday.
On Sunday afternoon, the four girls met up again, this time without any big plans. Just walking around the park near downtown, buying something cold to drink, and not talking about notebooks. Ana had managed to stay another day with a decent excuse, and Madeleine had accompanied her. Vivian and Brittany arrived first and waited for them at the entrance, where the October sun was still providing a little warmth.
They weren't dressed up as anything. They were simply being themselves.
Vivian, with her bright red hair hanging loose, light green eyes, and that captain-like posture she couldn't shake even when trying to go unnoticed. Brittany stood beside her, her black hair half tied back, her striking features, and an easy smile whenever she felt like using it. When Ana and Madeleine joined them, the group became impossible to ignore: Madeleine, with her delicate features and serene presence; Ana, more reserved, with brown hair and large eyes, but possessing a gentle beauty that drew attention all the same.
It was no coincidence that, a few minutes later, a couple of guys from the football team greeted them from a distance. Another, more forward, tried approaching Brittany with a bad joke. She dismissed him politely and without hesitation.
"Not today," she told him, still smiling. "We've got other things going on."
The guy walked away laughing, not entirely offended.
Farther ahead, in the same park, Madison and Chloe were there.
Madison wore her black hair loose, her blue eyes standing out, with that natural elegance of someone who didn't need to try to look good. Chloe stood beside her, equally striking, laughing at something only the two of them understood. Together, they seemed to exist on another frequency: polished, confident, accustomed to people looking at them.
Vivian raised her hand.
"Fancy seeing you again."
Madison spotted them and smiled genuinely.
"You girls are here again? Nice."
Chloe looked at Ana and Madeleine with recognition.
"The girls from Sussex. Hi again."
There was no need for introductions anymore. They joined up without any formalities, as if the previous afternoon had left a door open. They talked about silly things: an upcoming exam, a store that had changed owners, whether autumn felt different in Morris than it did in Sussex. Ana said that in Newton, the air smelled more like the forest. Chloe replied that here, it smelled more like coffee and car exhaust. They laughed.
A group of guys passed nearby, and one let out a quiet whistle, not particularly clever. Madison didn't even turn her head. Brittany rolled her eyes. Madeleine lowered her gaze slightly, already accustomed to that kind of attention, while Ana muttered:
"Same everywhere."
"Everywhere," Chloe agreed. "The worst part is when they think they're entitled to it."
There was no drama. Just that quick understanding between girls who knew they were being watched and kept walking anyway.
From a somewhat secluded bench, wearing a low baseball cap and keeping a low profile, Ryan watched them.
He hadn't come to scare anyone. He'd come because the mark was quiet, Nexum had nothing urgent demanding his attention, and, frankly, he was curious to see them like this: without the weight of the notebook hanging over them.
The six of them together were a visual problem for anyone who happened to look their way. Too much presence concentrated in a single group. Vivian and Brittany alone were enough to turn heads at school; with Madison and Chloe, the effect multiplied. Madeleine and Ana, despite coming from another county, fit right in. For a while, they looked like a normal group of beautiful teenage girls wasting time on a Sunday.
Ryan rested his elbows on his knees.
Madison and Chloe…
They had treated him well.
Madison had invited him to the game without making fun of him. She had sat with him. She had spoken to him like a person, not like the weird orphan in the back of the classroom. Chloe hadn't looked at him with pity or disgust either. In a world where Victor and half the school enjoyed reminding him what he was, those two had simply been decent.
Dragging them into this would be stupid.
The Clown, the alleys, the Entities, the letters, the money, the mark… all of that was dirty territory. Madison and Chloe shouldn't even come close to it. If the game ever spilled over into their lives, it would mean he had failed to maintain the line.
He sighed quietly.
"Stay where you are," he thought, watching Madison laugh at something Chloe had just said. "There's nothing good for you on this side."
It was already too late for Vivian, Brittany, Ana, and Madeleine. They had seen too much. They had touched the edge. But even with them, at that moment, he preferred seeing them like this: buying drinks, playfully shoving one another, letting the afternoon sun fall across their faces.
Among the group, the conversation drifted toward silly plans.
"Next time, you girls should come to Newton," Ana said. "There's a little lake. It's nothing special, but you can sit there without someone trying to sell you something every two minutes."
"Sounds peaceful," Madison replied. "We could use some of that around here."
Brittany glanced sideways at Vivian. Vivian understood the gesture: See? We can do this.
Neither of them said anything about clowns, Trenton, or envelopes. The uncertainty was still there, quiet as a stone in a shoe that wasn't quite hurting yet. But nobody brought it up.
A child ran between them, chasing a ball. Madeleine stopped it with her foot and kicked it back to him. The child shouted thanks and kept going. Chloe jokingly applauded.
"Hero of the day."
"He almost ran me over," Madeleine said, though she was smiling.
Ryan watched them move a little farther toward the long benches. He didn't get up. He didn't send balloons. He didn't prepare any lines. He simply stayed long enough to confirm what he already knew:
That they could still have this. That he could still let them have this. And that dragging Madison and Chloe into the same mud would mean crossing a line he wasn't willing to cross. Not yet.
When the sun had finally set, the group began to split up.
Madison and Chloe said goodbye with a vague promise to meet up "again sometime." Ana and Madeleine checked the time for their bus. Vivian and Brittany lingered a little longer at the park entrance, in no hurry.
"Today was nice too," Brittany said.
"Yeah," Vivian replied. "Tomorrow, the world goes on. But today… today was good."
They did nothing else. They didn't open the notebook. They didn't talk about the money.
They simply walked home with the echo of an ordinary afternoon still clinging to their skin.
And somewhere behind them, far away, Ryan teleported back to his room with one simple conclusion:
As long as they could still laugh like that, he could wait a little longer before pulling the string again.