THE ALPHA WHO CLAIMED THE EMBER QUEEN

The Cave

My eyes burned and my muscles felt stiff and heavy. Walking down the hallway had never been this difficult before.

I kept my head down and counted the floor tiles as I moved forward, one after another, trying to focus on something simple so my mind would stop spinning.

The strange thing was how quiet everything felt. Ravencrest High was never this silent during the day. Usually the halls were filled with laughter, loud conversations, lockers slamming and footsteps echoing everywhere, but today the air felt tense and hollow, like the building itself was holding its breath.

I lifted my eyes slowly to scan the hallway, just to make sure I was not imagining things or standing in the wrong place. That was when I saw the poster taped to the wall beside the trophy case.

Avila.

Missing.

The bold black letters stood out against the white paper. Underneath was her school photo, the same confident smile she always carried around the hallways like she owned the place.

Even in disappearance, Avila still managed to command attention. People used to move out of her way when she walked past, and now her picture stared back at everyone like a silent warning.

Before I could even say anything, I heard the sudden sound of cars pulling into the school parking lot outside. The noise grew louder as more vehicles arrived. When I turned toward the front entrance, I saw parents rushing into the building, their voices raised with worry and anger as they searched for their children.

Bad news always spreads quickly. The parents demanded answers from the staff. Some of them were shouting. Others looked terrified. They wanted to know what was happening inside this school and why students kept disappearing.

A few teachers tried to calm them down, but no one seemed to have any real explanation.

I stood there watching everything unfold, feeling strangely detached from it all.

No one had come looking for me. Mama was probably still at work, moving between her two jobs just to keep us afloat. Survival took all of her energy. She barely had time to sleep, let alone worry about what was happening inside Ravencrest High.

The school board eventually appeared, standing together near the entrance with polite smiles and calm voices, but they offered nothing useful. They nodded, promised that the situation was being handled, and asked everyone to remain patient.

Their words sounded rehearsed and empty.

In the end, no real answers were given. It felt like we had all been left alone to deal with whatever was happening.

......

By midnight I could not sit still anymore. My thoughts kept circling the same questions over and over until I felt like my head might split open. That was how I found myself back in the woods again, pushing through the cold darkness with nothing but a weak flashlight and my growing sense of dread.

This time I was not searching for Milie. Earlier that night I had seen something strange from my bedroom window. A tall figure dressed in a dark hooded coat had been moving quietly toward the forest behind the school.

The sight of him immediately made my stomach twist with suspicion. There was something wrong about it. What kind of person walks into Ravencrest Woods at 2:13 a.m. wearing a hood like they were trying to hide their face?

The deeper I walked into the woods, the harder my body began to shake. My shoes crushed fallen leaves and small twigs beneath my feet, the sound far louder than it should have been in the still night air.

Cold crept into my fingers and toes until they felt numb. I rubbed my hands together, trying to warm them while keeping my eyes fixed on the shadowy figure ahead of me.

My flashlight flickered and then it died completely.

Darkness swallowed the path around me, but I kept walking. The man ahead of me never slowed down. He moved with purpose, like he had walked this path many times before. I followed him deeper into the forest until we reached a part of the woods I had never seen before.

A hillside rose in front of us. Thick brambles twisted across the ground like living barbed wire, and broken stones were scattered across the slope as if something old had collapsed there long ago.

Hidden between those rocks and vines was the dark opening of a cave.

A foul smell drifted out of it, thick and rotten.

The hooded man walked straight inside. I stopped at the entrance, my heart pounding hard against my ribs.

My skin had gone cold and pale. For a moment I seriously considered turning around and running back home, pretending I had never seen any of this.

Instead, I raised my trembling hand and made the sign of the cross over my chest. Then I took a deep breath and stepped inside.

The smell hit me immediately. Burnt flesh, strange herbs, and something sharp and metallic that reminded me too much of blood.

I moved carefully along the cave wall, my fingers brushing against damp stone as I crept deeper into the darkness. The air inside felt thick and heavy, like smoke was slowly filling the space. After a few more steps I saw a faint orange glow flickering ahead.

Firelight. I crouched low and moved closer until I could finally see what was happening inside the cave.