Mason Clarke adjusted his backpack nervously. “Okay, so… we’re just going to Jamie’s house, right? Why are we in the woods again?”
Madison pointed deeper into the trees. “Because Jamie’s mum said she heard something out here last night. Something big.”
“And because,” Theo added, “Jamie’s window faces this direction. If something took him, it came this way.”
Lilly shivered. “Can we not say ‘took him’?”
Lillie didn’t answer. She was staring at the ground.
There were footprints.
But not Jamie’s.
Not human.
Long, thin impressions in the dirt. Four toes. Deep, like whatever made them was heavy.
Madison crouched beside them. “These weren’t here yesterday.”
Theo frowned. “How do you know?”
“Because I walk this path every day,” Madison said. “And I would’ve noticed that.”
Bear sniffed the prints — then backed away, whining.
Lillie’s stomach twisted. “We shouldn’t be here.”
Madison stood. “We’re already here.”
Theo pointed ahead. “Look.”
The trees were changing.
Branches twisted into spirals. Leaves curled inward like fists. The trunks bent at impossible angles, as if the forest had been melted and reshaped by something that didn’t understand how trees worked.
ns216.73.217.85da2
and then Add to home screen.