Keyan

After entering university, you try to start your life anew. No one knows that for several years now, you've been living with a mental disorder that plagues you with vivid nightmares, insomnia, and panic attacks. Sometimes it becomes difficult to distinguish dreams from reality: at night, you dream of a girl with a face you can never quite see. She always holds a bouquet of an even number of white flowers and repeats the same phrase:

— The living get odd numbers. The dead get even numbers...

You wake up in a cold sweat.

“Again...” you whisper to yourself, breathing heavily.

The alarm clock shows 04:17.

---

After a few weeks, strange things start to happen.

One morning you open the door to your dorm room.

There is a huge bouquet of white lilies on the floor.

Twenty flowers.

There is a note nearby.

"He who sleeps peacefully does not yet know the truth."

A neighbor looks into the room.

• Wow... Is this for you?

• I don't know.

— A secret admirer? Lucky me.

You look at the flowers in silence.

— Why are there... twenty of them?

• So what?
  — At a funeral, they bring an even number of...

The neighbor's smile slowly disappears.

---

White roses.

Twelve.

New note.

"You remember that day worse than you think."

You squeeze the piece of paper.

• What other day?..

You can't concentrate during the lecture.

Your friend gently touches your shoulder.

— Did you sleep at all?

• A little.

• Your hands are shaking...

— I just feel like someone is constantly watching me.

• Maybe you should tell the curator?

— But what if someone really does this?

My friend is silent.

---

New bouquets appear every day.

Peonies.

Tulips.

Orchids.

Always luxurious.

Always an even number.

The notes are getting more and more scary.

"Murderers can cry too."

"Once you collect all the clues, it will be too late."

---

You go to the dorm security.

— Look at the cameras, please.

The security guard opens the recording.

The screen is flashing.

Interference.

Then the image appears again.

The bouquet is already lying near the door.

There is no one around.