Gothicana

That was the only reason she said, “Sure.”

Jax gave her a wi

“Deal,” he assured her. “Meet us in front of your tower. I’ll get some stuff.”

Troy gave Corvina a side hug. “Thanks, Purple.”

Corvina rolled her eyes, her heart warming at his gesture.

The boys jogged off and Jade gave Corvina a curious look. “You go in the woods a lot?”

Corvina shrugged and made her way towards the tower. She had been going into the woods more over the week, early every morning. More specifically, she’d been going to the ruins with some food and her journal. She liked sitting on one of the large stones by the crumbling wall, surrounded by nature taking back what man had once made. She liked that every morning there were more and more crows that came to be fed by her. She liked watching them feast while writing in her journal – observations about people, inferences about herself, and thoughts about one man. She liked putting the words on paper. It made her make sense of everything that went on inside. Journaling wasn’t something she had always done. In fact, she hadn’t even thought of doing it until Dr. Detta had suggested it.

The cold wind brushed her face, whipping strands of her hair that had escaped her fishtail braid. The sun was bright but close to the horizon. They had probably an hour or so of daylight left.

She tugged the strap of her sling bag higher over her shoulder as she spied Troy, Jax, Ethan, and two other boys she didn’t know standing by the tower. Five in total.

“Should we get some girls?” Jade asked quietly from the side. “Not that I don’t trust them. But you don’t know them, and I don’t want you to get uncomfortable.”

Corvina felt her lips tip up in a smile at her friend’s consideration. “I’m fine, don’t worry. Thank you,” she put a hand on her petite shoulder and squeezed.

A few minutes later, the boys having armed themselves with food and water, looked at Corvina.

“So, where to, Purple?” Troy asked indicating the opening in the forest. “You know it best.”

Corvina was no expert in the neck of these woods, but she did know them better than these guys. The ruins to the left and the lake straight forward, both were places she wanted to avoid – the ruins because they were hers, and the lake because of the voice.

She indicated the right. “I haven’t explored that side, so let’s go there.” Hopefully, there would be nothing but woods.

The group, all seven of them, entered the forest and headed right. Under the thicket, the light was considerably less bright, the shadows longer, the wind cooler.

“We shouldn’t be doing this,” Jade piped up from her side, her hands fisting the straps of her backpack.

“We’re just going to go further a bit and return, okay?” Troy put his hand around Jade’s smaller shoulders, tucking her in his frame. “We wouldn’t have had the balls had it not been for Purple here,” he nodded at Corvina. “She’s been going into the woods so coolly over the last few weeks, we had to see for ourselves, you know? I actually have a fear of woods and heights for a long time.”

“Why?” someone asked, and Corvina listened, curious about Troy’s past.

“Just one of those things,” Troy shrugged it off. “But I’ve always wanted to explore these woods. Most kids on campus are scared of it.”

“Oh yeah,” one of the new boys chimed in. “The Slayers are just a freaky legend told to students to scare ‘em off anyways.”

“Slayers?” Corvina asked, remembering the word the boy had told her in the library, her hand drifting over the hard, rough bark of a tree.

“Yeah,” Troy explained. “It’s a stupid name. But that’s what everyone calls the students all those years ago who kidnapped and murdered the villagers.”

Goosebumps erupted over her arms. What the hell? What had the boy in the library meant with his message? Who the hell had he been? Clearly, he had just been messing with her.

“You wa

Corvina nodded, the unsettling twist in her gut wounding up tighter.

“The students who finished the Slayers?” Troy gri

A chill wracked her frame as Jade punched Troy in the side. “Stop scaring us!”

“The woods are a place for scary stories, Jadie-girl,” he ruffled her hair.

The incline steepened as they walked, and Jax gave her his hand to help her as she grabbed her skirt. It was the first time in her life Corvina realized that hands held different sensations. Mr. Deverell holding her hand had been an entirely different experience than Jax holding her hand. Both their grips were firm and large, but where Mr. Deverell’s warm grip had penetrated her skin and sunk in to ignite something deep, deep inside her, Jax’s just was. It didn’t make her have even an iota of the same physiological or psychological response. 

“How do you know so much?” Corvina asked Troy to distract herself from the thought of the mercury-eyed man.

Troy slid her a serious look. “I work for the university part-time, taking packages to town twice a month, sending them out. The people in town, while drowning in rumors, also have some very interesting info about this place. Especially the old woman at the post office.”

Corvina felt her brows furrow, surprised at this fact about Troy. “What about her?”

“Oh, this’ll be good,” one of the boys laughed from the back.

Troy remained quiet as he helped Jade over a fallen log. “Her father’s younger sister was one of the girls who’d been taken. She was born a few years after everything allegedly happened but she learned all about it from her parents.”

“Why are you even investigating all this?” Jade demanded, shaking her head.

“You’re not interested in knowing what happened here?” Troy demanded back. “This is our home and you don’t want to know why they keep all this shit hidden from us?”

“Actually, no, I don’t,” Jade responded. “I’m happy with my life here, and I don’t want to unsettle that. Simple.”

“Not even after what happened with Alissa?”

“Especially after what happened with Alissa.”

Alissa who had been hiding something from Jade.

‘Please help me.’   

The voice came out of nowhere, echoing in her head, bringing with it that ugly coating on her tongue. Corvina bit her lip to keep from reacting, gripping the trunk of a tree at her side, keeping her eyes to the ground, to the rich, dark soil and thick grass around the folds of her skirt.

“The fuck!” Ethan exclaimed and everyone turned to see him standing at the back, towards the left, his eyes on something. Corvina followed his gaze to see what he was looking at and blinked.

A shack. Brick and wood. Not quite dilapidated. Unbroken windows.

And a long silhouette moving inside.

Her heart stopped.

“Fuck, let’s go,” Jade tugged on Troy’s arm, her eyes frantically co

One of the guys stumbled back. “Man, let’s get outta here.”

Pulse racing, Corvina squinted, but the shadow didn’t move again. It stayed still. Could it be someone who needed help?

‘Go back, Vivi,’ Mo’s voice sounded in her head, and that was a good enough answer for her. Whatever it was, a voice or her subconscious, Mo looked out for her.