From Athan's Papers and Leonard's Notebooks98Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8bbGPtL0Zo
✦ [Undated scrapbook - in unclear handwriting, signed: A.]98Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWeiaa9Xa6G
“Every time they rejected what I wrote, they said, 'This doesn't sound like us.'98Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡETPXy8tK7Y
But they never said, 'This doesn't sound like the truth.'98Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZDCJ5blRU5
So I gave them the truth, and asked only that it be said in an anonymous voice.98Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgWogXzCiMO
And I became that voice.98Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2b7AF5eTyL
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]98Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnFtUW8qN4L
“Sometimes I feel like I'm not writing anything. I'm just covering up the sentences others write with my own voice.98Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1ASOT1R4x9
Athan wasn't a name... he was a gap.98Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡi8aHsJqtwO
And we all inhabited it.”
✦ [Letter not sent – folded inside a worn book]98Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2iYJI7aKya
“Thomas,98Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGJNkz3Oi8g
I know you read my last text.98Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkgpMiF1zFS
I know you were afraid.98Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcVgSW2OL9j
But not of me… but of yourself, because you know I said what you couldn’t.98Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsCxEliEy9j
If I die, don’t publish anything else under Athan’s name.98Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNZqbn3j3Y2
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]98Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9XbQDj0ZP0
“Athan wasn’t a murderer.98Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡARIV3FTpxU
He wasn’t even a person.98Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpEJwIDYyyN
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]98Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ00Gee8Noen
“The lake doesn’t forget.98Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡr67eaoYCoS
Water doesn’t drown those who tell the truth, but those who have no one to listen.98Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtMjuOcuP42
I’m going to go to him tonight.98Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbL6nnvoVuX
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]98Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0ewE575uk3
"No one kills a shadow.98Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTd2FZH4UKV
But a shadow can decide to follow no one anymore."
Letters from the Circle98Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeCeKWfm1Zm
✦ [Letter from Laura Quinn – in ornate handwriting, dated months before the incident]98Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQn6p05uslc
"I thought we were sheltering behind Athan.98Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡicVha8jR72
But the truth is, we were hiding behind him, the less we felt.98Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpUZLItMoNW
I didn't like Leonard much, but he was the only one who wanted to give the Shadow a face.98Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡECOmEU2PdY
I was afraid that face would be seen."
✦ [Letter from Thomas Reilly – typed, appended to an unpublished article]98Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTwHf6UIi5W
"If there is a killer, it's time.98Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGRZy2F4bPn
Athan was an experiment… an abstract idea.98Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqI8aEgfzMn
But Leonard, with his stupid idealism, wanted it to become a tangible reality.98Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡg5j52PIbGw
And because we don't have the power to give life, we did what cowards do:98Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9VYqvjSmlx
We silenced him, made his death seem like a personal decision."
✦ [Short note from James Holloway – in pencil, just a few words]98Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLEO3Oe0RWs
"There were five of us…98Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡoWXdss9j0u
Then there were four…98Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqmCqp9U2fD
Then there were even fewer."
✦ Investigator Ella Moore's Final Report98Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsdtG4SLDsC
File: Death of Leonard Wilkes – Cascade Lake, New York98Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡH4517iiYYT
Date: March 1798Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtyQtrP6Ida
Reporter: Department of Special Literary Investigations
🕯️ Narrative Analysis:98Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8G2vnQ71eQ
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:98Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAFaB5Ypljg
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.98Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡasXmaMILKs
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?98Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡaGywayKjue
Everyone, and no one.98Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0x57xF3Usa
The circle killed Leonard with its silence, with its cowardice, by making the writing a wall, not a mirror.
📝 Final word:98Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzNKsJVz8DS
Ella wrote:
"Athan may have been just a name... but Leonard was a human being.98Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCSF43OJ0BA
And in the world of literature, when a human being is killed so that the name remains,98Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2v5D67bA9m
we no longer write... we bury."
✦ End of the novel✦
ns216.73.216.224da2
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