Chapter 13: Vanished
310 Words
The town woke up to whispers.
By noon, the whispers had turned into full-blown panic.
Something had happened.
Lena felt it before she heard the news. The uneasy way people moved through town, the frantic glances exchanged at the diner, the sheriff’s truck parked outside the station with its lights still flashing.
Something was wrong.
She didn’t want to get involved. She had enough on her plate—between Cade, the call, and the fact that she still couldn’t shake the feeling that someone was watching her.
But then she heard the name.
“—Harris boy never came home last night. Parents say he was out late, but—”
Lena’s stomach dropped.
She turned sharply toward the voices. At a corner table in the diner, two older women were murmuring over their coffee, their faces tight with worry.
“—Just vanished. No trace. Sheriff’s got men out searching the woods.”
The woods.
Lena’s pulse kicked up.
“Did they find anything?” she asked before she could stop herself.
The women turned, blinking at her sudden presence.
“Not yet,” one of them said slowly. “But his mother swears she heard something outside last night.”
Lena swallowed hard. “Something?”
The woman nodded. “Said she woke up to a noise near the tree line. Thought it was an animal at first, but then she heard…” She hesitated, lowering her voice.
“Heard what?” Lena pressed.
The woman exhaled. “Someone laughing.”
A chill swept down Lena’s spine.
Not a howl.
A laugh.
Her mind snapped back to the voice on the phone. “I’ve been waiting a long time to meet you.”
No.
She turned and ran.
She needed to find Cade.
Because whatever took that boy—
It wasn’t just a werewolf.
It was something worse.
- Writer
