Riddles in Blue Light

Maya's thumb hovered over her iPhone screen at 2 AM, the blue light washing over her face like a digital moon. Her fake account @sphinx_nyc had 47 followers at her middle school — tiny, invisible, perfect for watching without being seen.

She wasn't a creep or anything. She just needed to know. Needed to understand why some girls moved through hallways like they owned every inch of polished linoleum while others melted into lockers. Maya was definitely a melter.

"You're totally spying on them," her best friend Ji-won had said earlier that day, catching Maya in the bathroom stall, phone angled just right to capture the popular crowd's reflection in the mirror.

"It's research," Maya had protested. "Social anthropology."

"Whatever, Detective." Ji-won had laughed. "Just don't become one of those weirdReddit stalkers."

Now, Maya scrolled through @perfectlauren's story — beach sunset, group photo where everyone was impossibly glowing, a mirror selfie with caption "sphinx vibes 🐱✨" because of her new hairless cat. The sphinx cat had started it all. That was Maya's cover story when she made the account: "Just obsessed with sphinx cats lol."

Suddenly, a notification pinged. @perfectlauren was following @sphinx_nyc.

Maya's heart did something illegal in her chest. Why would Lauren follow a random account with zero posts? Unless —

Another notification. DM from Lauren: "i know who u are 🤔"

Maya considered deleting everything. Faking her death. Moving to Antarctica.

But then: "u always sitting by yourself at lunch reading mythology books. i think that's cool tbh"

The sphinx riddle: What walks on four legs in the morning, two at noon, three in the evening? The answer: a human, crawling through different stages of life. Maya had read it in her mythology book last week.

Maybe being seen wasn't the worst thing.

"want to sit together tomorrow?" Lauren's next message read. "i have this sphinx cat who needs worshippers anyway"

Maya typed back, fingers shaking: "only if the cat doesn't judge my lunch choices"

"deal. see u at the sphinx throne (table 4) 😉"

She set down her iPhone, heart racing. The blue light faded into darkness, but for the first time, Maya wasn't afraid of what might be waiting in the hallway tomorrow.