Chapter 13: WATCHED

Chapter 13: Watched

Lena stayed home for two days after the incident.

Her mother didn't ask questions, just assumed she was sick and left her alone. Caleb didn't push either. He went to school without her and came back without saying a word about what people were saying or how bad it had gotten.

But Lena knew she couldn't hide forever.

So on the third day she got up, got dressed, and let Caleb drive her back to Crescent Ridge Academy like nothing had happened.

Except everything had happened.

She felt it the second she walked through the front doors. The atmosphere had changed completely. Students who used to ignore her now moved out of her way when she walked down the hallway, stepping aside before she even got close.

Nobody shoved her. Nobody whispered insults. Nobody laughed.

But nobody spoke to her either.

They just watched.

Lena kept her head down and walked to her locker, hyper aware of every pair of eyes tracking her movement. It felt worse than the bullying somehow. At least before she'd been invisible, just another nobody they could push around.

Now she was something else. They saw her as fascinating – something the couldn't handle and she hated it.

First period was history. Lena slid into her usual seat near the back and pulled out her notebook, trying to focus on looking normal. The other students filed in slowly, their conversations dying when they noticed her.

The desk next to hers stayed empty. So did the one in front of her. Nobody wanted to sit too close.

Lena pretended not to notice.

The teacher started the lesson and Lena stared at her notebook, her pen hovering over the page. She couldn't make herself write. Couldn't focus on the words coming from the front of the room.

That's when she felt it a presence.

It wasn't something she could point to or explain. Just a feeling at the edge of her awareness, like someone was watching her from somewhere she couldn't quite see.

She glanced toward the window and for just a second thought she saw something there, a darkness that didn't match the light outside.

But when she looked directly at it, there was nothing.

Lena's skin prickled. She forced her eyes back to her notebook and tried to ignore the uneasy feeling crawling up her spine.

By second period the feeling hadn't gone away.

She walked to her next class and caught movement in her peripheral vision, something at the end of the hallway that disappeared the second she turned her head. Her heart rate picked up but she kept walking, telling herself she was imagining things.

Stress. Lack of sleep. Paranoia from everything that had happened.

That had to be it.

In her third period class she sat near the window and spent half the lesson staring out at the courtyard below. Students milled around during their free period, talking and laughing, everything normal.

Except for the treeline.

Lena's eyes caught on the forest that bordered the school property. The trees were thick and dark, their branches moving slightly in the wind. And standing just inside the shadows, barely visible, was something that looked like a figure. It was tall and still and watching her intensely.

Lena's breath caught. She leaned closer to the window, squinting, trying to see more clearly.

The figure was gone.

She blinked and looked again but there was nothing there. Just trees and shadows and wind.

“Miss Harper.”

Lena jumped and turned to find her teacher staring at her with raised eyebrows.

“Yes?”

“I asked you a question.”

Heat flooded Lena's face. “Sorry, I didn't hear.”

A few students snickered. The teacher repeated the question and Lena fumbled through an answer that was probably wrong. She didn't care. All she could think about was that figure in the trees.

Had it been real? Or was she losing it?

She didn't tell anyone. Not Caleb, not her mother, not the teachers. What would she even say? That she thought something was watching her but every time she looked it disappeared?

They'd think she was crazy.

Maybe she was.

Fourth period was the only class she shared with Ethan.

He was already there when she walked in, sitting in his usual spot near the middle of the room. Lena headed for her seat near the back but stopped when she realized Ethan had moved.

He was sitting one row ahead of where he usually sat. Closer to her section of the room.

Their eyes met for just a second and Lena saw something flicker across his face before his expression went blank again. He turned away without acknowledging her and Lena continued to her seat, confused.

The class started. Lena tried to focus but she could feel Ethan's presence like a weight, could sense him there even though he wasn't looking at her.

After class she went to her locker to switch out books. A male student she vaguely recognized was standing nearby, leaning against the locker next to hers. He didn't move when she approached.

“You're Lena, right?” he asked.

She nodded, uncomfortable.

“I wanted to ask you about what happened the other day. In the hallway.” He stepped closer, his expression curious. “What was that? What did you do?”

Lena's stomach tightened. “I don't know what you're talking about.”

“Come on, everyone saw it. You did something. Made everyone freeze.” He was too close now, invading her space. “Are you like a witch or something?”

“Move.”

The voice came from behind Lena. She turned and found Ethan standing there, his gray eyes locked on the male student with an intensity that made the air feel colder.

The student's confident expression faltered. “I was just asking a question.”

“Move,” Ethan repeated, his voice flat and cold.

The student looked between them, then backed away without another word. He disappeared into the crowd and Lena was left standing there with Ethan, her heart pounding.

“You didn't have to do that,” she said quietly.

Ethan didn't respond. He just looked at her for a long moment, his expression unreadable, then turned and walked away.

Lena stared after him, completely lost.

Between fifth and sixth period, someone slipped a note into her hand as she walked past. She looked up but the person was already gone, swallowed by the crowd.

Lena unfolded the note and recognized Liam's handwriting immediately.

Has it happened before? What you did in the hallway. Have you felt that energy before that day?

Lena's hands tightened on the paper. She wanted to crumple it up, throw it away, pretend she never saw it. But instead she folded it carefully and shoved it into her pocket.

She didn't write back.

What was she supposed to say? That yes, she'd felt something similar but smaller when her emotions spiked? That lockers slammed and lights flickered and she was pretty sure she was causing it somehow?

She couldn't admit that, not to Liam or even anyone.

Lunch was the worst part of the day.

Lena found a corner table in the cafeteria and sat alone, picking at food she had no appetite for. The noise around her felt distant, muffled, like she was underwater.

And then she felt that presence again.

She looked up and scanned the cafeteria but everyone was focused on their own conversations, their own groups. Nobody was staring at her but the feeling didn't go away.

Across the room, near the windows, Caleb was sitting with a group of students she didn't recognize. His back was to her but she could see the tension in his shoulders, the way his hand was clenched around his water bottle.

He turned slightly and their eyes met.

His jaw was tight, his expression carefully blank, but there was something underneath it. He looked like he was fighting an internal battle just sitting that far away from her.

Lena looked away first.

The rest of the day passed in a blur. The presence followed her everywhere, that shadow at the edges of her vision that disappeared every time she tried to look directly at it.

By the time Caleb drove her home, Lena was exhausted from the constant feeling of being watched, of something circling just out of sight.

She went straight to her room and collapsed onto her bed, too tired to even change out of her school clothes.

Sleep came fast and so did the vision.

She was in the forest again, the one from her nightmares. But this time it was different. The three wolves weren't standing still or watching her with those glowing eyes.

They were running.

All three of them, silver and gold and green, racing through the trees with a desperate urgency that made Lena's chest tighten. Their paws pounded against the ground and their breath came in visible clouds and they were heading toward something.

Lena tried to follow, tried to see where they were going, and that's when she saw the shadow.

It stood in a clearing ahead and the wolves were running straight toward it, their eyes wild, their movements frantic.

And the shadow was waiting for them.

Lena woke with a gasp, her whole body drenched in sweat. Her heart was racing and her hands were shaking and

the image of that shadow was burned into her mind.

She sat up in bed, breathing hard, staring at nothing.

The vision had felt more real than any of the others, like it