From Athan's Papers and Leonard's Notebooks134Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQSNles1aPc
✦ [Undated scrapbook - in unclear handwriting, signed: A.]134Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMwErK6udIb
“Every time they rejected what I wrote, they said, 'This doesn't sound like us.'134Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrDVFLH8cUR
But they never said, 'This doesn't sound like the truth.'134Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡc5T08aZnei
So I gave them the truth, and asked only that it be said in an anonymous voice.134Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgBNKArrmqv
And I became that voice.134Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9zlY2Ns6Hs
And in time, they came to rely on me whenever they wanted to lie in the name of truth.”
✦ [From Leonard's Diary - Second Year of Joining the Circle of Five]134Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7jwD7VTeUj
“Sometimes I feel like I'm not writing anything. I'm just covering up the sentences others write with my own voice.134Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡs4CGLLkEDL
Athan wasn't a name... he was a gap.134Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1pNQ2pR30N
And we all inhabited it.”
✦ [Letter not sent – folded inside a worn book]134Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBmlTX8ji1U
“Thomas,134Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ22y92J09FZ
I know you read my last text.134Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡW1OmNeGG9L
I know you were afraid.134Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqZeOm5eON1
But not of me… but of yourself, because you know I said what you couldn’t.134Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ48XaGWKanf
If I die, don’t publish anything else under Athan’s name.134Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKoTrzxnH8y
Let him die in me… or let him live if someone finds him worthy.”
✦ [Note in Ella’s handwriting – in the margin of the investigation paper]134Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡknbLLJAkdc
“Athan wasn’t a murderer.134Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6i0d6u5urw
He wasn’t even a person.134Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡaEOLWir9Y5
He was a chokehold in the voice of everyone who wrote, and he was afraid to be attributed with what he believed.”
✦ [Last page of Leonard’s notebook – the day before the incident]134Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTPWmduN0cj
“The lake doesn’t forget.134Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ77jVUwZroO
Water doesn’t drown those who tell the truth, but those who have no one to listen.134Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfx9NqDDiGN
I’m going to go to him tonight.134Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡq5pAYvWlZr
And if I come back, I’ll write under Athan’s name… not to hide behind me, but to apologize to him.”
✦ [Epilogue – Unknown handwriting, found inside Leonard's coat fold]134Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyCegtNPu5q
"No one kills a shadow.134Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJtLs1azG5Z
But a shadow can decide to follow no one anymore."
Letters from the Circle134Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJc51NH7Tq0
✦ [Letter from Laura Quinn – in ornate handwriting, dated months before the incident]134Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡswMdR67ftj
"I thought we were sheltering behind Athan.134Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWul5H3cYfu
But the truth is, we were hiding behind him, the less we felt.134Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAMOJazQIpz
I didn't like Leonard much, but he was the only one who wanted to give the Shadow a face.134Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3mvZtnUaxf
I was afraid that face would be seen."
✦ [Letter from Thomas Reilly – typed, appended to an unpublished article]134Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0gLxO7ObdO
"If there is a killer, it's time.134Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtwVvrgmSXV
Athan was an experiment… an abstract idea.134Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbGG9VEyQGs
But Leonard, with his stupid idealism, wanted it to become a tangible reality.134Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnrXJ1eD4Xb
And because we don't have the power to give life, we did what cowards do:134Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFT8UjJPFdS
We silenced him, made his death seem like a personal decision."
✦ [Short note from James Holloway – in pencil, just a few words]134Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9QwepDlxkM
"There were five of us…134Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡq9Oo6Go8od
Then there were four…134Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpbvkClMRm7
Then there were even fewer."
✦ Investigator Ella Moore's Final Report134Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡX16d4Txo4y
File: Death of Leonard Wilkes – Cascade Lake, New York134Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeFnKoYGCW8
Date: March 17134Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSy77pttI2P
Reporter: Department of Special Literary Investigations
🕯️ Narrative Analysis:134Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhaLbbX25fN
The "Five" literary circle created a fictional literary persona named Athan, which served as a disguise for writing highly daring or identity-blurring texts, published under their real names.
Over the years, Leonard Wilkes, the youngest member, began to give Athan a personal life. He wanted to transform from a shadow into a real author.
This approach was strongly opposed by the members, who feared it would expose the true identities of all those who contributed under that name.
He was subjected to indirect threats and gradually removed from the group.
On the day of his death, a gun was found in his hand, a gunshot wound to his mouth, and his ear was severed, as in some of Athan's self-written stories.
🔍 Conclusion:134Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡj2JblZuQE4
It was not a pure suicide. Leonard went out to perform a symbolic ritual similar to what was written, hoping to find someone to stop him, to bring him back from his pre-existing madness.
It wasn't a direct murder.134Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnWXj3NANhe
There's no physical evidence of another person at the scene, but the psychological pressure, the symbolic threat, and the literary betrayal were all an invisible bullet.
🧩 The killer?134Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpgCTmDXs0Y
Everyone, and no one.134Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDKE1JQZfmU
The circle killed Leonard with its silence, with its cowardice, by making the writing a wall, not a mirror.
📝 Final word:134Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡewnup1trTI
Ella wrote:
"Athan may have been just a name... but Leonard was a human being.134Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkNhB6AL6ir
And in the world of literature, when a human being is killed so that the name remains,134Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡthVbDboMcy
we no longer write... we bury."
✦ End of the novel✦
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