Chapter Four: It wasn't Real....Was It
822 Words
Lena almost didn’t go to school.
She stood in front of her mirror longer than usual, staring at herself like she expected cracks to show.
Nothing had changed.
Same face.
Same eyes.
Same girl.
Which meant last night had been stress.
Just stress.
She grabbed her bag and forced herself out the door.
If she could survive Christmas Eve humiliation, she could survive school.
Probably.
The whispers started before she even reached her locker.
“Hey, Lena.”
“Where’s your boyfriend?”
“Oh wait…”
Laughter.
She kept walking.
Keep your head down.
Don’t react.
Don’t cry.
Three girls leaned against the lockers ahead — the same ones who had filmed her boyfriend kissing someone else at the lodge party.
Maya. Kelsey. Bri.
Maya smirked. “You okay? You kinda ran off last night. Dramatic much?”
Lena swallowed. “Move.”
“Ooo,” Kelsey said. “She’s feisty today.”
“Maybe she went crazy in the woods,” Bri added, fake whispering. “Would explain a lot.”
Her stomach dropped.
The woods.
They didn’t know about that.
It was coincidence.
Just coincidence.
“Leave me alone,” Lena said, trying to move past them.
Maya stepped closer. “Or what?”
Her heart started pounding.
Too fast.
Too loud.
For a split second—
The hallway noise dulled.
The scent of cheap perfume hit her nose sharply.
Too sharply.
And over Maya’s shoulder—
Through the glass doors at the end of the corridor—
Lena saw him.
Across the street.
Standing in the alley between two buildings.
Kael.
Still. Watching.
Her breath caught.
He wasn’t smiling.
He wasn’t waving.
He was just… there.
Like he had been waiting.
Her vision blurred slightly.
“You’re staring,” Kelsey said.
Lena blinked.
The hallway snapped back into focus.
She looked again.
The alley was empty.
No one there.
Her chest tightened painfully.
This is not real.
You’re projecting.
You’re stressed.
“Wow,” Maya laughed. “She actually zoned out. That’s embarrassing.”
Lena shoved past them.
Harder than she meant to.
“Psycho,” someone muttered behind her.
The word stuck.
All morning, she felt off.
Like her skin didn’t quite fit.
Like her senses were turned up too high.
Voices were louder.
Footsteps sharper.
Every time she passed a window, she fought the urge to look outside.
And every time she did look—
She half expected to see silver eyes staring back.
But she didn’t.
Because none of this was real.
By lunchtime, she had convinced herself she was just sleep-deprived.
That was it.
Lack of sleep plus emotional trauma equals weird mental images.
She picked at her food in silence.
Across the cafeteria, she noticed the three girls again.
Laughing.
Scrolling on their phones.
Completely normal.
Completely alive.
You’re fine, she told herself.
The day crawled by.
Math.
History.
Chemistry.
Normal.
Painfully normal.
By the time the final bell rang, she felt ridiculous for even thinking something supernatural had happened.
See? she told herself as she walked home. No mysterious stranger. No wolves. No—
Her phone buzzed violently in her hand.
A group message from someone in her class.
Then another.
Then another.
Her stomach twisted.
She opened the first one.
Did you hear??
Second message:
Police everywhere near the old train yard.
Third:
Maya and the others…
Her fingers felt cold.
She opened the next message.
They found them this afternoon.
Her heart pounded in her ears.
Found them.
Not hurt.
Not missing.
Found them.
Another message popped up:
They’re saying it was an animal attack.
Her vision tunneled.
Animal.
Her mind flashed—
Silver eyes.
Dark forest.
Stillness.
Watching.
Her breathing became shallow.
No.
No no no.
This is coincidence.
This is just coincidence.
But something cold slid down her spine.
Because she remembered the alley.
She remembered the way Kael had been watching the girls.
Not angry.
Not wild.
Just… assessing.
And she remembered something else.
The way he had stopped following her in the forest.
The way he had let her walk away.
Like he had control.
Her wrist tingled sharply.
She gasped and dropped her phone.
The sensation burned for a split second—
Then disappeared.
She stared at her skin.
Nothing there.
Nothing visible.
Her mind raced.
If I imagined him…
Then how did I see him today?
If I imagined the wolf…
Then why does “animal attack” feel like confirmation?
Her stomach twisted violently.
The police sirens wailed faintly in the distance.
Real.
That was real.
Three girls who had been laughing hours ago were now gone.
And for the first time—
Lena wasn’t thinking she was hallucinating.
She was thinking something much worse.
What if I wasn’t imagining him?
And what if…
He wasn’t watching me.
What if he was protecting me?
The thought terrified her more than anything else.
Because protection implied danger.
And danger meant—
This wasn’t over.
- Writer
