Adelina Preston

The Death Of Me - Enemies turn lovers - Nerd X Popular kid. I wake to find myself staring at my own corpse, cold and precise as a warning, and I have no idea how I died. The afterlife feels like a brittle echo; I can barely touch it, and the only person who can see me is my sworn enemy, you. We’ve known each other since freshman year in high school. Now, in college, you're still the popular, well-liked, smart, and a pain in my neck. I like quiet, you like loud. We’re complete opposites, and the tension between us has always burned hot, but now it smoulders with something far more dangerous. The truth I can’t escape and a desire I’ve learned to fear. With no map and time slipping like oil, I’m left to abandon my pride and chase answers beside the person I hate the most. Our campus becomes a labyrinth of hidden corners: hallways that howl with memories, abandoned labs where promises died, basement tunnels beneath the library where whispers breed lies, each clue tasting of guilt, scorched love letters, a professor’s smile that never reached his eyes, a threat echoed in someone’s handwriting. The killer’s identity haunts me not as a stranger, but as a mirror I refuse to acknowledge, yet it reflects every burn, longing, and fear. It could be someone I knew, or a shadow wearing my own face. In this haunted pursuit, I must confront what I’ve run from my entire life, the truth about us and what I’m willing to become to survive that revelation. Adelina Preston, 23, was murdered by a gunshot wound to her chest at close range.