Chapter 23: Something In The Forest

Chapter 23: Something in the Forest Moves

By the first period, the news that yet another student was missing came around.

Lena heard it through the whispers that spread through the classroom, students checking their phones under their desks, their faces going pale.

A junior named Daniel Wright hadn't come home last night and his parents had called the school at dawn when they couldn't find him.

By the second period everyone knew. By third period there was still no sign of him.

The academy felt different today. Teachers moved through the hallways with tight expressions and clipped voices. Senior students clustered in groups having conversations that stopped the moment anyone else got close. The air felt very heavy.

At lunch Lena found her usual corner table and sat down with food she knew she wouldn't eat. Her stomach was twisted in knots and her hands wouldn't stop shaking.

Daniel was the third student now.. Three students gone and found at the forest edge with no memory and marks on their skin.

Except Daniel hadn't been found yet.

She was staring at her untouched sandwich when the vision hit.

There was no warning this time. One second she was in the cafeteria and the next she was in the forest, cold air biting at her skin, darkness pressing in from all sides.

Daniel was there.

He was on the ground, not wandering confused like the others had been. He was pinned down.

His back was against a tree and his eyes were wide with terror, his mouth open in a scream Lena couldn't hear.

The shadow loomed over him.

Its form was almost human but not quite, the edges of it bleeding into darkness that moved like smoke.

And its eyes were silver.

Bright and cold and piercing, staring down at Daniel with an intensity that made Lena's chest tighten even though she wasn't the one being watched.

The shadow raised one hand, long fingers outstretched toward Daniel's arm. Where it touched, silver light exploded across his skin, burning marks into his flesh. Daniel screamed silently, his body convulsing.

Lena tried to move, tried to do something, but she was frozen in place.

Then the shadow stopped.

Its head turned slowly, deliberately, until those silver eyes were looking directly at Lena.

It smiled.

The vision shattered.

Lena gasped and lurched forward, her hands slamming onto the table, her whole body shaking. The cafeteria came back into focus, loud and bright and overwhelming.

She couldn't breathe properly. Her vision was swimming and her heart was pounding so hard she thought it might burst.

Then someone touched her back.

Lena's breathing steadied almost immediately, her vision clearing, her racing heart starting to slow.

She turned her head and found Liam beside her, his hand pressed flat between her shoulder blades, his blue eyes intense with concern.

“Lena,” he said quietly, urgently. “Come back.”

“I'm here.” Her voice came out shaky. “I'm okay.”

“You're not okay.” Liam's hand didn't move. “What did you see?”

Lena looked around the cafeteria. Students were eating and talking, completely oblivious to what had just happened. Nobody had noticed her panic except Liam.

“Not here,” she whispered.

Liam nodded once and stood, his hand moving to her elbow to help her up. Lena grabbed her bag and let him guide her out of the cafeteria, through the hallways, until they found an empty classroom.

He closed the door behind them and turned to face her, waiting.

Lena sat on the edge of a desk and took a shaky breath, then told him everything. The forest, Daniel pinned against the tree, the shadow burning marks into his skin. And worst of all, the way it had turned and looked directly at her like it could see through the vision.

Liam listened without interrupting, his expression getting darker with every word. When she finished he was very still, his jaw tight.

“It looked at you,” he said quietly. “Inside the vision.”

“Yes.”

“That means it knows where you are.” Liam ran a hand through his hair, his movements tense. “It's not just watching you at random, Lena. It's tracking you. Has been tracking you probably since the first vision.”

The words made her blood run cold. “How is that possible?”

“I don't know.” He moved closer, his voice dropping. “But if it can see you inside visions, if it knows you're watching, that changes everything.”

Before Lena could respond, the classroom door opened.

Ethan stood in the doorway, his gray eyes moving from Liam to Lena and back again.

“We need to talk,” he said, his voice flat.

“We're in the middle of something,” Liam replied.

“Now.” It wasn't a request.

Liam's jaw tightened but he followed Ethan out into the hallway. Lena watched through the classroom window as they stood a few feet away, their conversation too quiet to hear but clearly tense.

Ethan said something short and sharp. Liam responded with his arms crossed, his posture defensive. They went back and forth for maybe thirty seconds before Liam shook his head and walked back into the classroom.

Ethan stayed in the hallway for a moment longer, his eyes meeting Lena's through the window. Then he turned and left without another word.

“What was that about?” Lena asked.

“Nothing important.” Liam's expression was carefully neutral but his hands were clenched at his sides. “Just Ethan being Ethan.”

Lena didn't believe him but she didn't push.

By the time school ended, Caleb still hadn't shown up. Lena checked her phone and found a message from him sent two hours earlier.

Stay inside at lunch.

She read it three times, her stomach sinking. The vision had happened during lunch. The exact time Caleb had warned her to stay inside.

How had he known?

She tried calling him but it went straight to voicemail. She texted asking where he was and got no response.

By the time Lena got a ride home from a classmate she barely knew, the sun was already setting. She walked into the house to find her mother on the phone, her face pale.

“Yes, thank you for letting us know,” her mother said. “Yes, we'll keep an eye out.”

She hung up and looked at Lena. “They found Daniel Wright.”

Lena's heart jumped. “Is he okay?”

“He's alive. They found him at the forest edge about an hour ago.” Her mother's voice was shaky. “But he doesn't remember anything about where he's been. And he has marks on his arms.”

Lena's blood went cold. “What kind of marks?”

“I don't know the details. The school just wanted to let parents know he'd been found.”

Lena went to her room and closed the door, her whole body shaking. She pulled out her phone and searched for news, for updates, for anything.

A photo appeared on a student's social media, blurry and taken from a distance. Daniel being helped into an ambulance, his sleeves pushed up.

Lena zoomed in on the image and her breath caught.

Silver marks covered both his arms, burned into his skin in intricate patterns. They were deeper than the ones on Lena, more extensive, covering from his wrists to his elbows.

The shadow had marked him thoroughly, completely, like it was making a statement.

And Lena knew with absolute certainty that she was next.