Chapter 16: The First Missing
Chapter 16: The First Missing
Something was wrong the moment Lena walked through the front doors of Crescent Ridge Academy.
The atmosphere felt different, charged with a tension that made her skin prickle. Students clustered in tight groups, their voices low and urgent. Teachers moved through the hallways with stiff expressions, their eyes scanning the crowds like they were counting heads.
Lena made her way to her locker, catching fragments of conversation as she passed.
“They found her at dawn.”
“Edge of Blackwood Forest.”
“She couldn't even explain what happened.”
Her stomach dropped. She spun her locker combination and grabbed her books, her hands moving on autopilot while her mind raced.
Someone had been found in the forest. The same forest she'd been to, the same one that appeared in her visions.
By first period the news had spread through the entire student body.
A junior named Sarah Mitchell had been discovered at the edge of Blackwood Forest just after sunrise. She'd been wandering, disoriented, her clothes torn and muddy. When the authorities found her she couldn't tell them how she got there or what had happened. She just kept saying she didn't remember, that everything after leaving school yesterday was blank.
She wasn't physically harmed. There were no injuries and no signs of assault. But something was wrong with her. Students who saw her before she was taken away said her eyes looked empty, like she was there but not really present.
By midday she'd been pulled out of school. Her parents came to get her and nobody had seen her since.
Lena sat through her morning classes barely hearing a word the teachers said. Her mind kept going back to the forest, to the shadow she'd seen at the treeline, to the feeling of being watched.
Sarah had been found where the shadow had been standing.
That couldn't be a coincidence.
Third period was when she saw Ethan, and he looked different than usual. The cold composure he always carried was still there but it was pulled tighter, strained, like he was holding something back with effort. His jaw was clenched and his movements were controlled in a way that felt deliberate.
He sat two rows ahead of Lena and didn't turn around once during class, but she could see the tension in his shoulders. She could practically feel the energy radiating off him.
Something was bothering him more than just the news about Sarah.
At lunch Lena headed to the cafeteria and grabbed her usual table in the corner. She was pulling out her sandwich when someone sat down across from her.
Liam.
He didn't ask permission and once again, he didn't have his smile. He just set his tray down and started eating in silence.
Lena watched him for a moment, confused. “Are you okay?”
“Fine.”
“You don't seem fine.”
Liam took a bite of his food and chewed slowly, his blue eyes fixed on his plate. He looked tired, Lena realized, like he hadn't slept much.
They ate in silence for several minutes. Lena kept glancing at him, trying to figure out what was going on, but his expression gave nothing away.
Finally he spoke.
“Stay away from the forest.”
It wasn't a question or a suggestion. It was a direct instruction, delivered in a flat tone that left no room for argument.
Lena set down her sandwich. “Why?”
“Just do it.”
“That's not an answer.”
Liam looked up at her then, and something in his expression made her breath catch. He looked genuinely worried in a way she'd never seen from him before.
“I'm serious, Lena. Don't go near Blackwood Forest. Don't even get close to the treeline.”
“What do you think is going to happen if I do?”
He didn't answer.
He just looked at her for a long moment like he was weighing his words carefully, then went back to eating without saying anything else.
But he didn't leave either. He stayed sitting across from her for the entire lunch period.
Lena wanted to push.
She wanted to demand real answers, but something told her he wouldn't give them. So she just finished her lunch in silence while Liam sat across from her like a silent guard.
Across the dining hall, Ethan and Caleb were sitting at separate tables. Lena noticed them at the same time.
She noticed the moment they made eye contact with each other.
Then they both looked away and neither of them glanced in Lena's direction afterward which told her everything. That look had been about her.
After school Lena waited by Caleb's car like usual. He appeared a few minutes later, his expression carefully blank.
They got in and drove in silence. Lena was staring out the window when she realized they weren't taking their usual route home.
“Where are we going?”
“Home,” Caleb said.
“This isn't the way we normally go.”
“Taking a different route.”
Lena looked at the streets passing by and realized what he was doing. Their normal route home took them along the edge of Blackwood Forest, close enough to see the treeline. This route went the opposite direction, looping around through town to avoid the forest boundary entirely.
He was deliberately staying away from it.
“Is this because of what happened to Sarah?” Lena asked quietly.
Caleb's hands tightened on the steering wheel. “Among other things.”
“Do you know what happened to her?”
“No.”
“But you have an idea.”
He didn't respond.
He just kept driving, his jaw tight, his eyes locked on the road ahead.
Lena wanted to push but she could see the tension in every line of his body. Whatever he knew or suspected, he wasn't going to share it with her right now.
So she let it drop and they drove the rest of the way home in heavy silence.
That night Lena lay in bed staring at the ceiling, unable to sleep.
Something was happening in Blackwood Forest. Something dangerous. And somehow Lena was connected to it even though she didn't understand how.
She rolled onto her side and pulled the blanket up to her chin, trying to get comfortable. The house was quiet, just the normal sounds of settling wood and distant wind.
Then she heard a sound so faint she almost missed it.
Howling.
Lena sat up slowly, her heart starting to pound.
She went to her window and pushed the curtain aside, looking out toward the forest that bordered their property.
The treeline was dark and still but the sound was there, drifting through the night air.
Wolves howling.
It shouldn't have been possible. They were too far from the forest for the sound to carry this clearly but Lena could hear it anyway, impossibly distinct.
And there was more than one.
She pressed her ear closer to the glass, listening hard, trying to separate the sounds.
One voice was deep and resonant.
A second voice joining in. It was higher pitched, more melodic then a third which was different from the other two and rougher s
omehow.
Three wolves howling in the distance, their voices blending and separating in a pattern that felt almost like a call.
Lena's skin prickled.
“Because grief divides more cleanly than jealousy.”
Silence cracked through the room.
Ethan’s chest tightened.
Liam’s jaw clenched.
Caleb’s hands curled into fists.
“You’re cruel,” Lena whispered.
“I’m efficient,” he corrected.
He took another step forward.
The house groaned around them.
“You were never meant to bind wolves.”
Her breath hitched.
“You were meant to end them.”
The words struck like a blade.
Ethan’s voice dropped to something lethal.
“Enough.”
The man’s eyes flicked toward him.
“You feel it, don’t you? The moment where you choose her over your pack.”
The man smiled faintly.
“And you,” he said, looking at Liam, “already have.”
Liam’s grip tightened around the dagger.
“Shut up.”
The man’s gaze shifted to Caleb.
“You hide secrets that will rot this from the inside.”
Caleb didn’t respond.
But something flickered in his eyes.
Lena stepped closer to the figure.
“Stop using him.”
The man’s expression softened briefly.
“Do you want to know how he really died?”
The room froze.
Ethan’s voice was sharp. “Don’t.”
But Lena’s voice was barely audible.
“Yes.”
The man smiled slowly.
“He didn’t die in an accident.”
The world tilted.
Lena’s heart slammed.
“What?”
Ethan stepped forward. “He’s lying.”
The man shook his head.
“He was protecting you.”
Silence detonated.
“From what?” Lena whispered.
The man leaned closer.
“From us.”
Ethan grabbed her.
“Don’t listen!”
But her eyes were locked on the man.
“You’re lying.”
He smiled.
“Am I?”
Liam stepped forward, dagger raised.
“Get out.”
The man’s gaze shifted slowly to the blade.
“Ah. The severing tool.”
Caleb’s voice cut through sharply.
“You don’t control this house.”
The man’s smile faded completely now.
“You’re right.”
The air thickened.
Darkened.
“I control the break.”
The temperature plummeted.
The threads inside Lena ignited violently.
She screamed.
The man’s face flickered
Not her father.
“Choose,” it whispered.
The dagger began to glow.
Not
silver.
Black.
Ethan’s eyes widened.
“That’s not the same blade.”
Liam stared down at it.
It was changing.
Shifting.
Becoming something else.
Caleb stepped back slowly.
“Don’t touch it.”
But Liam couldn’t let go.
The entity’s smile widened as Lena dropped to her knees again.
In the exact center of the room.
Snow began to fall.
Inside the house.
Again.
“Choose,” it repeated.
And this time.