Chapter One: Lost and Found
Kailee Monroe’s eyes fluttered open, but the world around her was nothing like the cozy bed she’d last remembered. Instead, cold dirt pressed against her cheek, and a tangle of branches clawed at her arms. The forest loomed—a sprawling maze of shadows and secrets, suffocating and silent except for the occasional rustle of leaves.
Her bare feet throbbed with fresh bruises, the cold seeping in like poison. Panic sparked low in her chest. She tried to piece together what had happened, but her mind was a blank. No memories from the last seventy-two hours. Just a black hole.
She sat up slowly, every movement sending sharp jolts of pain through her body. The cold air filled her lungs, but it did little to calm the storm inside her head. Where the fuck am I?
Her fingers brushed something cold in her jacket pocket. Pulling it out, she stared down at the polaroid—an instant snapshot of Akina Sinclair. Akina, with her porcelain skin and icy gray eyes, looking impossibly still in the photo. The back had words scrawled in jagged handwriting: “You’re Next.”
The message burned like a brand.
Everyone in town said Akina was dead. That she’d taken her own life in some tragic, lonely moment. But Kailee knew better. She had seen Akina that night—the night Akina vanished without a trace.
A sudden snap of a twig nearby jolted her from her spiraling thoughts. She spun around, heart hammering against her ribs like a desperate drum. Out of the shadows stepped Jay Ryder—the new transfer boy with the kind of look that made you both want to run and get dangerously close at the same time.
Jay’s dark hair was tousled perfectly, like he’d just rolled out of bed, but those piercing ice-blue eyes? They weren’t lying. He was watching her with a kind of intensity that made her skin crawl.
“You’re lucky to be alive,” Jay said quietly, stepping closer but still keeping a respectful distance.
Kailee narrowed her hazel eyes, struggling to keep her voice steady. “Why are you here?”
Jay hesitated, then shrugged, the leather jacket shifting with the movement. “Because I think you’re the only one who can stop this. But you have to trust me.”
Trust was a luxury Kailee didn’t have—not anymore. Not when everyone around her whispered about her like she was cracked, a freak haunted by grief and paranoia. Not when even the new kid seemed too interested in her story.
She wanted to scream, to push him away, to run until she found solid ground again. But the woods around them felt alive with danger, the shadows shifting like they were watching her every move.
Jay’s voice cut through the cold air again, softer this time. “I know you don’t believe me. Hell, I don’t blame you. But something’s fucked up in this town, Kailee. And it’s not just about Akina.”
Kailee’s heart skipped. “What do you mean?”
Before Jay could answer, a distant howl echoed through the trees. The sound twisted through the night air—hungry, wild, and full of menace.
Kailee swallowed hard, gripping the polaroid tight like a talisman. “We need to get out of here.”
Jay nodded. “Agreed. But wherever we go, you’re not safe yet.”
The forest seemed to close in, darkness swallowing the edges of her vision. Kailee realized one terrifying truth: the nightmare wasn’t over. It was only just beginning.
