Chapter One: The Arrival
The rain was the first thing that hit them.
Even before they rolled into the town limits, it had begun to fall in steady, cold sheets. Grey skies stretched endlessly above them, and the trees that lined the road were thick and ancient, tangled like twisted arms holding back the rest of the world. It wasn’t just wet—it was heavy. The kind of rain that soaked into your bones, quieting everything but the sound of your own breath.
“I can’t believe we moved here,” Kenzie muttered from the back seat, her forehead pressed against the cool glass. Her ginger bangs clung slightly to her forehead, and her hoodie sleeves were pulled halfway over her hands. “This place feels like a haunted screensaver.”
“You’re dramatic,” Ben said beside her, smirking faintly as he fiddled with the zipper on his jacket. “It’s not haunted. Just... depressing.”
“Same thing,” Elora added dryly, sketchbook on her lap, a pencil in her hand, already trying to capture the warped silhouettes of the trees outside. “I like it though. It’s got that Tim Burton vibe. Very ‘we might die tragically but it’ll be aesthetic.’”
Karlie gave a soft laugh, clasping the cross necklace around her neck. “Let’s not die. At least not tragically.”
Chloe, squished between Landon and a duffel bag in the third row, sighed. “It’s giving... teen drama with a body count.”
Madilyn, up front next to Jessie in the truck ahead of them, just closed her eyes and leaned her head back. She hadn’t said much since they left their old town. Neither had Jessie. But his hand had found hers between the seats, and she hadn’t let go.
As the trees parted and the town emerged—a cluster of quiet buildings wrapped in mist—the group fell into a strange silence. It wasn’t just nerves. It was instinct. Forks felt... off. Like the whole town was watching them arrive before they even parked.
“You guys feel that?” Ben asked as they stepped out onto the soaked pavement of the driveway to their new house—an old two-story cabin-style home nestled at the edge of the forest.
Everyone paused.
The air was still. Too still. Like the woods were holding their breath.
Landon squinted into the trees. “Is someone out there?”
A shape moved. Just for a second. A flicker of something—too fast to be a deer, too tall to be a bear.
Ben froze. “Tell me I didn’t just see—”
“Don’t,” Karlie interrupted softly. “Let’s just go inside.”
The door creaked open like it hadn’t been used in years. The inside smelled like cedar and rain. It was dusty but homey. A firepit in the center. Windows that looked out over the trees.
Kenzie paused on the threshold, suddenly cold. Her fingers tingled. Not with fear. With something else. A sensation she couldn’t name, like… someone was calling her. Not loudly. Not even with a voice. Just pulling.
She turned back toward the woods.
And somewhere, deep in the shadows…
Someone turned away.
