The first message.
Ravenwood High School felt too normal in the morning.
That was the kind of normal that didn’t feel safe—it felt like something was hiding inside it.
Lockers slammed. Students laughed too loudly. Footsteps rushed through the hallway. Teachers called out instructions no one really listened to.
Evelyn Hart walked through it quietly, adjusting her bag strap. Just another school morning. Nothing special.
But her phone vibrated.
Once.
Then again.
She frowned and pulled it out.
Unknown Number.
Her thumb hesitated.
Probably a prank.
Still, something about it made her pause longer than she should have.
She opened it.
Unknown: Check your locker.
Evelyn blinked.
That’s it?
No name. No explanation. No joke. Nothing.
She exhaled softly and locked her phone.
“People are bored,” she muttered, continuing down the hallway.
But the message stayed in her mind longer than she expected.
Who even knows my locker number?
When she reached her corridor, she slowed down anyway.
That annoyed her.
Because she convinced herself that nothing was wrong .
Her locker stood exactly where it always did—same scratches, same dent, same boring routine.
She sighed.
“Okay… prank over.”
She opened it.
Books. Papers. Normal morning mess.
Nothing unusual.
She relaxed slightly.
“Yeah,” she whispered. “I knew it.”
She reached to close it—
Something dropped.
A soft thud hit the floor.
Evelyn froze.
She looked down.
A red balloon rolled out of her locker and stopped near her shoe.
No string.
No note.
Just a red balloon.
Her breath tightened.
The hallway noise continued like nothing had happened.
But for Evelyn, everything felt distant.
She slowly picked it up.
It was light. Too light.
She didn’t move for a second.
Then she looked at her phone.
Unknown: Do you like it?
The red balloon rested in her hand.
The hallway noise continued like nothing had changed.
End of chapter 1 .
