Chapter 2: The Things We Don’t Say
1082 Words
Raine didn’t sleep that night.
She lay in bed, staring blankly at the ceiling as she calmly dropped against the windowpanes. Somewhere down the hall, Lia's breath became soft and even, giving her little comfort in the stillness. But deep down something didn't sit right, an ache that wasn't physical, like a bruise but buried lower, tangled and wrong, like something inside her had been bent out of a place and never quite settled back.
Her mind kept circling one thought:
If Lia saw something out there… then it wasn’t just her.
There have always been rumors about Ridgeway Hollow. About the woods and the things that moved through them when the moon was high. People disappear sometimes. Animals were found torn open. Everyone pretended it was nothing. Bears. Wild dogs. The usual lies people told themselves so they could sleep at night.
But Raine didn’t get to pretend.
She rolled over and pushed her face onto the pillow.
Her phone buzzed quietly beside her.
She didn’t check it right away. She knew who it was. Elijah had always been that way; he could never leave a wound alone. He had to poke it until it bled just to understand why it hurt.
She finally looked.
> *You okay?*
> *Did I mess up coming back?*
She stared at the screen for a long time before typing anything. Then deleted what she wrote. Then typed again.
> *I’m fine. Just tired.*
> *And no. You didn’t mess up. You’re just… not who I expected to see today.*
She hit send before she could overthink it. Her chest was tight again.
After a while, he replied.
> *I didn’t expect you either. But I’m glad I did.*
She put the phone face-down on her nightstand.
The next morning, Ridgeway was still gray and cold. A kind of day when the sun didn’t even try to rise.
Raine pulled on a hoodie and twisted her hair into a messy bun. She didn’t even bother to apply makeup to her face. No one at school ever gave a damn about what she looked like, and even if they did, they didn’t talk to her enough to matter and their glances never lasted long enough to mean anything.
She walked Lia to the bus stop like she always did. Lia kept glancing at her with that same worried look.
“Are you sure you’re okay?” she asked in a low voice.
Raine nodded. “Yeah. Just weird dreams.”
Lia didn’t push.
At school, Elijah wasn’t in the first period. Raine told herself she was glad. She didn’t feel like pretending everything was fine.
But the second period rolled around, and there he was sitting in the back row like he’d never left. When she walked in, his eyes found hers immediately.
She turned her face and walked to her usual seat by the window.
Mr. Halden stood at the front, scribbling something on the board. He didn’t say a word until the bell rang.
“Open your books,” he said, and read Chapter Seven. Pages eighty to ninety-three. No talking.”
The room went silent except for the sound of pages flipping. Raine didn’t move. Her book was already open, but her eyes weren’t on it.
Halden turned to write again and that’s when she saw it.
The back of his hand.
Scarred. Not from an accident. From a bite. The skin looked old and tight, like it had healed wrong. But she recognized the shape.
Her stomach twisted.
She’d seen that kind of wound before. On herself. And once, years ago, on the man who took her home the night her parents died.
A knock came at the door, snapping her out of it.
The secretary stepped in. “Mr. Halden? There’s a call for you. It’s urgent.”
He frowned, set down the marker, and left the room.
The second he was gone, Elijah slid into the seat next to her.
“Are you okay?” he asked again, his voice low.
She didn’t look at him. “Stop asking me that.”
“Sorry,” he said, not sounding sorry at all. “You just seem… not okay.”
“I’m tired. That’s all.”
He leaned in a little. “I saw you that night. In the woods.”
Her chest tightened.
“I wasn’t spying or anything. I couldn’t sleep, and I went out by the creek. I thought I saw someone running.”
Her mouth went dry.
“You were barefoot,” he added. "I don't think you even knew where you were going."
“You shouldn’t have followed me,” She said,
“I didn’t.”
She finally looked at him. His eyes weren’t accusing. Just… confused. Hurt, maybe.
“What’s going on, Raine?” he asked softly.
She shook her head. “You don’t want to know.”
“Yes, I do.”
Her voice broke when she said it. “No, you really don’t.”
He was quiet for a second. Then: “Whatever it is… I’m not going anywhere.”
She almost laughed. A sharp, bitter sound. “You already did.”
That shut him up.
Mr. Halden came back a minute later, looking pale and angry. He never mentioned anything about the call. Just told Elijah to go back to his seat and picked up his marker and acted like nothing had happened.
But Raine wasn’t thinking about Halden anymore.
She was thinking about the look in Elijah’s eyes.
The way he said he wasn’t going anywhere.
People always say that.
Right before they disappeared.
And something in the back of her mind whispered this time, it wouldn’t be by choice.
- Writer
