Lucy Monroe’s exclusive interview aired on November thirtieth.

She sat across from Evie, Claire and Nora inside Oliver’s studio. Oliver remained behind the glass in the control room, still moving carefully as he monitored the soundboard. A scar ran beneath his shirt, and several weeks of physical therapy waited ahead of him, but he was alive and exactly where he wanted to be.

Lucy folded her notes in her lap.

“The official report states that Nora survived because the blade struck a rib and was deflected away from her heart. Is that when Gideon lost control of the situation?”

Nora shifted carefully in her chair. “He lost control the moment he assumed he couldn’t make a mistake.”

“You remained in the woods for almost 24 hours.”

“I was unconscious for most of them. When I woke up, I used part of my shirt to slow the bleeding and followed the trail back toward the cabin. I hid beneath the rear porch until I saw Gideon return with supplies.”

“That’s how you entered without him seeing you?”

“He left the utility door open while carrying things inside. I slipped in and found Officer O’Hara’s gun in a cabinet.”

Lucy looked toward Evie. “And after Gideon was killed?”

“We called for help using his phone,” Evie said. “Ortiz and the department traced the call. Nora and Claire were taken to the hospital. I was treated for a concussion and several other injuries.”

“Do you regret killing him?”

Evie considered the question.

“I regret every moment that brought us to that cabin. I regret the people we couldn’t save. I regret believing his puzzles had rules.” She looked through the glass at Oliver, then toward Claire and Nora. “But I don’t regret surviving him.”

Lucy turned to Claire. “Gideon believed he had transformed himself into the Pallbearer the night he carried his brother’s body into the Vannick house and set it on fire. After everything you endured, what do you believe he was?”

Claire was quiet for a moment.

“A coward,” she said. “He hid behind different names, different lives and dead people. He wanted us to think he was more powerful than everyone else because he controlled the game.”

Nora leaned toward the microphone.

“He was also an arrogant asshole.”

A laugh escaped Oliver from behind the glass.

Lucy smiled. “And what happens now?”

Evie looked through the glass at Oliver. His hand rested on the soundboard, waiting.

“We keep going,” she said.

Lucy glanced between them. “You’re continuing the podcast?”

“We talked about ending it,” Nora said. “For a while, none of us could imagine sitting in this studio again.”

“Gideon used Dead Air to reach Evie,” Claire said. “He took something they created and tried to make it belong to him.”

“But it never did,” Evie said.

She thought of Samantha listening without judgment. Brooks standing between them and danger. Kevin Doyle carrying the truth for years after everyone else had stopped believing him. Martha, Maggie, Ryan and every person Gideon had reduced to a role in his story.

“They were more than victims,” Evie continued. “They were people with entire lives Gideon believed he had the right to end. We won’t let him be the reason their stories stop being told.”

“If we disappear because he wanted us frightened,” Nora said, “then he still gets to decide what happens after him.”

Evie reached for Claire’s hand.

“Dead Air will return when we’re ready. We’ll tell these stories more carefully, and we’ll make sure the people who were taken are remembered for more than the way they died.”

Oliver’s voice came through the studio speakers.

“For the record, I’ve already started planning the next season.”

Lucy looked toward the control room. “You almost died.”

“And yet,” Oliver replied, “the production schedule remains deeply inconsiderate.”

Claire laughed. It was quiet and still unfamiliar after everything they had survived, but it was real.

Lucy lowered her notes. “So this isn’t the end of Dead Air.”

Evie looked at Claire, Nora and Oliver.

“No,” she said. “Giving up now would be an insult to everyone who never got the chance to keep going.”

For the first time since October 1st, Evie allowed herself to imagine what came next.

“We live,” she said. “And we make sure they’re remembered.”

Miles away, the interview played on a television inside a darkened room.

A man sat forward when Claire called Gideon a coward.

His hands rested against his knees. The skin across them was thick and uneven, drawn tight by old burns that continued beneath his sleeves.

When Nora laughed, his fingers curled.

The television showed the three women together. Alive. Smiling. Speaking about Gideon as though he had been ordinary.

As though he had been defeated.

The man rose.

He crossed the room and drove his bare fist through the television screen.

Glass shattered around his scarred hand. The picture collapsed into darkness, cutting off Evie’s final words.

For several seconds, the man remained motionless.

Then, in the broken black glass, the faint reflection of his face appeared.

Beneath the scars, he looked exactly like Gideon.