The weight of Lucas’ words lingered in the air. His piercing blue eyes flicked between them, assessing, calculating. Ethan didn’t like the way Lucas smiled—like he already knew more than he was letting on.
“What do you mean by secrets?” Ethan asked, his voice low.
Lucas leaned against the wall, folding his arms. “What do you think I mean? You don’t just end up in a place like this by accident. Everyone here’s got skeletons in their closets.” He chuckled, the sound sharp and humorless. “Figuratively speaking, of course.”
Ethan clenched his fists. “If you’re not going to help, you can—”
“Relax, Captain,” Lucas interrupted, pushing off the wall. “I am helping. Rule number one: Don’t assume you can trust anyone. Not me, not your buddies, not even yourself.”
“Helpful,” Damien muttered, crossing his arms.
Lucas turned his gaze to Damien, raising an eyebrow. “You don’t look so squeaky clean yourself, tech boy.”
Damien stiffened. “How do you—”
“I’m observant,” Lucas said smoothly, flashing a grin. “It’s a gift.”
Mia stepped forward, her voice soft but firm. “If you’ve been here long enough to know all this, you must know something useful. Like how to get out.”
Lucas’ grin faded, replaced by a grim look. He scratched the back of his neck, glancing toward the forest’s edge. “Yeah, I know a thing or two about that. But let’s just say the odds aren’t in your favor.”
“What do you mean?” Mia pressed.
Lucas met her gaze, his voice dropping. “I’ve seen others try to leave. The forest doesn’t let go easily. You think you’re getting somewhere, and then—” He snapped his fingers. “You’re right back where you started. If you’re lucky, that is.”
“And if you’re not?” Ethan asked.
Lucas’ smile returned, but it didn’t reach his eyes. “You don’t want to know.”
A heavy silence fell over the group.
“Look,” Lucas said, sighing. “I don’t usually do this, but I’ll cut you a deal. Follow me, and I’ll take you somewhere safe. Stick together, play by the rules, and maybe—just maybe—you’ll last long enough to figure out what the hell is going on here.”
Ethan hesitated. He didn’t trust Lucas, not even a little, but they had no other leads. He glanced at Damien, who shrugged, and Mia, who looked at him with wide, pleading eyes.
Stolen novel; please report.
“Fine,” Ethan said finally. “Lead the way.”
Lucas led them to the outskirts of the town, where an old school building loomed in the fading light. The structure was weathered but intact, with boarded-up windows and a rusted chain hanging loosely on the front doors.
“Home sweet home,” Lucas said, pushing the doors open with a loud creak.
Inside, the air was stale and cold, carrying the faint smell of mildew. Dust covered the floor, undisturbed except for a single set of footprints leading deeper into the building.
“Those yours?” Ethan asked, nodding at the footprints.
“Maybe,” Lucas replied, smirking. “Or maybe we’re not as alone as you think.”
“Not funny,” Mia whispered, clutching her arms.
The hallway stretched out in front of them, lined with lockers that were rusted shut. Faded posters with motivational slogans—“Dream Big!” and “Achieve Your Potential!”—hung crookedly on the walls.
“Check the rooms,” Ethan said. “See if there’s anything useful.”
They split up, cautiously opening doors and peering into empty classrooms. Most were bare, with broken desks and cracked chalkboards. But one room stood out.
“Hey, over here!” Damien called.
The others rushed to join him in what appeared to be a science lab. Beakers and test tubes sat abandoned on the counters, and a layer of dust covered everything. On one of the tables lay a tattered notebook, its cover marked with a strange symbol—a circle with jagged lines radiating outward, like a sun with broken rays.
“What’s that?” Mia asked, leaning closer.
Damien picked it up and flipped through the pages. The writing inside was scrawled and erratic, as if the author had been in a frenzy.
“The forest is alive. It remembers. It hungers.”
“We’re not who we think we are.”
“The only way out is to...”
The sentence trailed off, ending in a jagged slash of ink.
“Well, that’s not ominous at all,” Damien said, handing the notebook to Ethan.
Ethan scanned the pages, his stomach tightening with each cryptic phrase. “It doesn’t make any sense. Who wrote this?”
Lucas leaned against the doorframe, watching them with a bored expression. “Some poor soul who didn’t make it, obviously. The question is: Are you smart enough not to end up like them?”
“Do you ever say anything useful?” Damien snapped.
Lucas grinned. “Depends on your definition of useful.”
Ethan ignored their bickering, focusing on the symbol on the notebook’s cover. Something about it felt...familiar, though he couldn’t explain why. He tucked the notebook under his arm.
As they continued exploring the school, strange things began to happen. The temperature dropped suddenly, their breath misting in the air. Faint whispers echoed through the hallways, too quiet to make out but impossible to ignore.
Mia clung to Ethan’s arm, her eyes darting to every shadow. “Do you hear that?”
“Yeah,” Ethan said, his voice tight.
Damien and Lucas joined them, both looking equally unsettled.
“This place is a dead end,” Damien said. “We should go back to the town square.”
“Agreed,” Lucas said, though his tone was unusually serious. “We’ve overstayed our welcome.”
As they made their way back to the front doors, a loud BANG echoed through the building.
“What the hell was that?” Mia whispered.
Ethan turned to Lucas, who shook his head. “Not me.”
The group huddled together, their nerves fraying as the whispers grew louder. Shadows seemed to shift and stretch along the walls, moving in ways that defied logic.
Ethan’s heart pounded as he pushed the doors open, leading the group out into the safety of the fading daylight.
“We’re not coming back here,” Damien said firmly.
“Agreed,” Ethan said. But he couldn’t shake the feeling that the notebook held the answers they were looking for—and that whatever was haunting the school wasn’t done with them yet.
