Unsettling Encounters
566 Words
The next morning, the sky was the color of bruises.
Grey clouds rolled low over Ridgewood as Lena walked to school alone. Aunt Claire had offered to drive her, but Lena said no. She needed the walk. She needed to breathe.
But the streets didn’t offer peace, only silence.
Too quiet.
She passed the empty playground on the corner of Willow and Elm. The swings moved slightly in the breeze, creaking on their chains, though the air felt completely still.
Something about it made her skin crawl.
At school, Tyler waved her over in the hallway.
“Morning, Ghost Girl,” he said with a crooked smile.
“Seriously?” she replied, raising an eyebrow.
“Too soon?”
“Way too soon.”
He fell into step beside her, not pushing conversation, just walking with her like it was normal. Lena appreciated that. Until she saw the flyer.
Pinned to the bulletin board near the cafeteria: an old missing poster.
EMILY REEVES — LAST SEEN AUGUST 18TH, 2015
The paper was yellowed and water-stained, like it had been torn out of a file and plastered there just for her to see.
It hadn’t been there yesterday.
Her breath hitched.
“Did someone ?” she began, but when she turned to ask Tyler, he was already gone, swallowed by the crowd of students pouring into classrooms.
After school, Lena didn’t head straight home.
Instead, she followed the edge of the football field, where the fence met the trees. There was a trail that curved behind the school and led into the woods, the same woods she and Emily used to explore when they were kids.
The air was cooler here. Damp. Still.
She moved slowly, eyes scanning the trees for anything familiar.
Then she saw it.
Carved into the bark of a tall pine tree was a symbol, a simple circle with an X slashed through the middle. Not fresh, but not old either. Clean. Deliberate.
It sent a chill down her spine.
Lena reached out and touched it. The grooves were shallow, but deep enough to leave a mark. She took a picture of it with her phone.
A snapping branch echoed behind her.
She spun around, nothing. Just trees.
But she swore she saw movement.
A shadow.
Someone walking away.
“Hello?” she called.
No answer.
Her pulse quickened. She scanned the path again, heart thudding.
She wasn’t imagining this.
Someone had been there.
Watching.
Just like Emily had said ten years ago.
That night, Lena couldn’t focus. She barely touched her dinner. Aunt Claire noticed, but didn’t ask.
She lay awake long after the house went still, scrolling through the photo of the tree symbol again and again. It felt familiar, but she couldn’t place it. Like something from a dream, or a memory she wasn’t allowed to access yet.
Then, just after midnight, she heard the sound.
A soft tap.
Then another.
Coming from her bedroom window.
She sat up slowly, pulse thumping.
There...a figure, shadowed by the orange streetlight. Not close enough to see clearly, but definitely watching.
She rushed to the window and yanked the curtain aside...
No one.
Just the empty street.
She stared out for several long minutes before backing away.
And that’s when she saw it.
Not outside, inside.
On the inside of her window, written in thick, red marker:
YOU SHOULDN’T HAVE COME BACK.
- Writer
