You never should've watched!
CHAPTER 1 — YOU SHOULDN'T HAVE WATCHED!
Lorne Hollow looked peaceful in the morning too peaceful, honestly. The kind of town where storms hid behind blue skies and people pretended nothing strange ever happened.
Amara had lived here long enough to know that pretending was basically a sport.
Last night should’ve been another quiet night. But her mind kept replaying that moment those few seconds where she swore she saw someone standing at the end of her street.
Someone too still. Too cold. Too wrong.
A figure with his head slightly tilted, like he was listening to something she couldn’t hear.
Then he moved.
Just a small shift, enough for her to see him clearly a tall man with broad shoulders, wrapped in a black trench coat. Before she could process anything, he reached behind him and yanked another person forward, slamming them onto the ground.
Amara froze. Not out of curiosity out of complete, paralysing fear. Her body refused to move. She was an unwilling witness trapped in her own skin.
The tall man pulled a pocketknife from his coat. The blade caught the moonlight a moon she hadn’t even noticed until now. It wasn’t white. It was red. Dark, unnatural red, like it had bled into the sky itself.
Her breath hitched as the knife sliced across the victim’s neck. Crimson sprayed across the man’s face shimmering under that eerie red moon.
He stabbed again. And again. At least four brutal strikes, each one making Amara’s stomach twist. By the time he stepped back, the victim was nothing more than a still shape on the ground.
The sight triggered something deep inside her something she had buried for ten years. Her parents’ faces flashed through her mind, not alive and smiling, but broken and bloody.
Her heart pounded wildly. And then the man turned.
His eyes locked onto hers.
Dark red. Glowing. Empty of anything human.
A low, animalistic sound rumbled from his throat. Growling like something inside him wanted out.
Her body reacted before her mind could. She ran.
She didn’t look back just like she hadn’t ten years ago. It felt like she was running from her reality all over again. Running from the girl she used to be. The one who still believed in safety, in normalcy, in tomorrow.
Back then, her tears weren’t weakness. They were strength. They reminded her she was alive.
But now… they didn’t even come.
And when she finally did glance over her shoulder...
She woke up in her bed with a jolt, heart clawing at her chest. She didn’t know if she fainted or blacked out, but the memory clung to her like smoke blurry, unreal, yet sickeningly vivid.
She dressed quickly, forced down her breakfast, and stepped outside. Routine was supposed to ground her.
It didn’t.
Halfway to work, she felt it again. That prickle like she was being watched.
She stopped.
Between two houses was a narrow gap. Empty. Dark. Ordinary.
Except the air there felt colder. Too still. Like someone had been standing there just moments ago.
Watching her.
Amara forced herself to step back. Maybe it was nothing. Maybe her mind was still stuck in that nightmare or memory. She didn’t know which terrified her more.
She turned to walk away.
Her phone buzzed.
Once. Twice. Three times rapid, urgent.
She frowned and pulled it out.
Unknown Number.
The call ended. A second later, a message appeared.
“You shouldn’t have watched.”
Her stomach dropped.
Another text came in—this time with a photo attached.
Hands shaking, she opened it.
It was the same narrow gap between the two houses. The picture had been taken seconds ago.
And in the dark corner, barely visible but unmistakably there…
A silhouette. Tall. Still. Watching her.
Her breath shattered.
Her phone buzzed again.
“Next time, run faster.”
