It was always raining in Emberlake.

No matter the season, the skies above the town carried a heaviness—like the clouds knew something we didn’t. Something ancient. Something dangerous.

And maybe I should’ve taken it as a warning when the new girl showed up in the middle of a storm, holding a black umbrella that looked like it belonged in a Tim Burton movie.

Her name was Selene Knight.

She walked into first period English class like she owned the shadows. Long black coat. Combat boots. Pale skin. Hair the color of starlight twisted into a braid that nearly reached her waist. Her eyes—gray like thunderclouds—locked onto mine for half a second before she looked away.

That half-second messed me up more than I’d like to admit.

"That's Selene," whispered Ivy from the desk beside me, chewing on the end of her pen. "She just moved into the old Ashcroft mansion."

I almost choked on my own spit. "You mean the haunted house?"

Ivy grinned. "They say it's cursed. Every family who moves in ends up... well, not staying long."

Selene didn’t speak much that day. She sat in the back, scribbling in a notebook that looked a hundred years old, and didn’t answer when Mrs. Clark asked her about symbolism in Macbeth.

But when the fire alarm suddenly went off—without a single spark or smoke in sight—Selene’s eyes met mine again. This time, she smirked.

Not smiled.

Smirked.

Like she knew something was coming.

And oh, something was.

Because that night, while I stared out my window, watching lightning light up the trees, I saw her walking in the woods behind my house.

Alone.

No umbrella.

And the shadows around her were... moving.

*Chapter 2: The Woods Whisper Her Name*

Most people would call the cops if they saw someone wandering alone in the woods at midnight. I grabbed my hoodie and followed her.

Smart? Probably not.

But something about Selene Knight was magnetic. Like she was gravity and I was just a leaf caught in her pull.

I crept down the back stairs of my house, careful not to wake my mom. She’d grounded me last month for sneaking out to buy Oreos past curfew—what would she say if she knew I was chasing a girl into the trees at night?

The cold hit me first. Sharp, unnatural.

The second thing? Silence. Not just quiet—dead silence. No crickets. No wind. Even the trees looked like they were holding their breath.

Selene stood in a small clearing, her back to me. Her braid shimmered in the moonlight like silver thread. She was holding something in her hands—something glowing faintly blue.

I stepped on a twig.

She turned.

"You shouldn’t be here," she said. Her voice was soft, but there was steel behind it. A warning, maybe. Or a threat.

I swallowed. "You're the one out here in the middle of the night. I saw you from my window."

Her eyes scanned me. "And you followed me?"

I shrugged. "Wasn’t planning to. Curiosity wins sometimes."

She stepped closer. The glow in her hands vanished like someone had snuffed a candle. “Curiosity,” she murmured, “gets people hurt.”

That’s when I noticed the symbols carved into the trees around us. Perfect circles. Triangles inside stars. Ancient-looking runes that pulsed faintly in the dark.

“What is this?” I asked, half-hypnotized.

Her gaze didn’t leave mine. “A ward. A protection circle. Something old… something dangerous is waking up in Emberlake.”

My heart pounded. “And you’re trying to stop it?”

“I’m trying,” she said. “But I’m not sure I can do it alone anymore.”

The wind picked up then, and something howled in the distance—not an animal. Not human either.

Selene didn’t flinch. She just looked at me with those storm-gray eyes and said the four words that changed everything:

“I think it wants you.”

It took me a solid five seconds to process what Selene had just said.

"I think it wants you."

Me. Not her. Not the town. Me.

“What do you mean it wants me?” I asked, trying (and failing) to keep the panic out of my voice.

Selene’s eyes were distant now, like she was somewhere far away. “It’s been... watching. Since the fire.”

I stiffened. “What fire?”

She gave me a sideways glance. “The one that killed your dad.”

I stepped back like she’d slapped me. “How do you know about that?”

“I did my research before moving here.” She paused, her voice gentler. “And because I saw the mark.”

“What mark?”

She reached forward—slowly, like I was a wild animal she didn’t want to spook—and brushed her fingers over the side of my neck. I flinched, then froze.

Her hand was cold, but not in a dead way. More like... moonlight.

“You were marked by something that night,” she whispered. “It’s subtle. But it’s there. Something passed through the veil during that fire. Something ancient.”

I felt a chill crawl up my spine. My dad died in a house fire three years ago. I was the only one who made it out. The cause was “unknown electrical failure,” but even then… something never felt right.

“You think some... thing came through the fire and attached itself to me?” I asked.

She nodded once. “And now it’s waking up.”

I shook my head. “This is insane.”

Selene gave a sad smile. “Yeah. Welcome to my world.”

Before I could say anything else, the air around us shifted. It was like pressure pressing against my skin—thick and heavy, like the sky had fallen a little closer to Earth.

Selene’s eyes snapped to the trees. “It followed us.”

Something moved between the trunks.

Not walked. Glided.

Shadow-like. Tall. Thin. No face. Just glowing eyes—white and endless.

My body refused to move.

Selene threw her arm out in front of me and muttered a word I didn’t understand. The circle of symbols carved into the trees flared blue again—and the thing screeched. It was high-pitched, metallic, and angry.

It slammed into the invisible barrier and shrieked louder. The ground shook. My ears rang.

But the ward held.

Barely.

Selene turned to me. “We don’t have much time. You’re part of this now.”

I looked at the thing outside the circle.

And then back at her.

“I was never not part of it,” I said quietly.

She smiled—and this time, it was real. Not a smirk. Not a warning. Just… her.

And then she whispered something I barely caught as the creature melted back into the trees:

“You’re stronger than you know.”

*Chapter 4: The Witch's Granddaughter *

After that night, nothing felt real anymore.

Not the clatter of lockers the next morning. Not the smell of burned coffee in the cafeteria. Not even Ivy’s voice rambling about cheer practice and the Spring Formal.

I couldn’t stop thinking about the thing in the woods.

Or the way Selene looked at me when she said you’re part of this now.

She didn’t come to school the next day. Or the day after.

By the third day, I cracked.

I biked through the storm up the hill to Ashcroft Manor.

Everyone in town said the place was cursed. That no one lasted more than a year inside its rotting halls. But when I reached the iron gates, they creaked open before I even touched them.

Like something wanted me there.

The house loomed, gothic and beautiful in its decay. Ivy-covered walls. Towering windows. Shadows flickering behind glass that shouldn’t have had light.

I knocked.

No answer.

Then I heard her voice—soft, urgent—somewhere inside. “Downstairs!”

I followed the sound into a narrow hallway, then down a spiral staircase that groaned with every step. The air grew colder. Heavier.

I found her in a stone basement filled with candles and books older than time.

Selene stood at the center of a chalk-drawn circle, surrounded by pages covered in runes and blood-red ink. She looked up as I entered, and her shoulders dropped. “You shouldn’t have come.”

I crossed my arms. “You really need to stop saying that.”

She gave me a ghost of a smile. “Stubborn.”

“You’re one to talk. What is all this?”

She gestured to the runes. “A tracing spell. I’m trying to locate the Rift. The place where the veil between this world and the next is thinnest.”

“Let me guess,” I said. “It’s here. Emberlake.”

She looked at me. “No. It’s you.”

I blinked. “What?”

“You’re the Rift,” she said softly. “Or at least… part of one.”

Then, finally, she told me everything.

How her grandmother—Cecilia Knight—was once the High Witch of Emberlake, protector of the veil.

How a warlock betrayed their coven fifteen years ago, trying to break the boundary between life and death to bring someone back.

How the ritual went wrong… and something ancient slipped through.

How it marked a newborn boy in the hospital that night.

Me.

“I tried to stay away,” she whispered. “But the moment I saw you in class, I knew.”

“Knew what?”

“That you were the one the veil wants. The one it’s trying to claim.”

My pulse pounded. “So what now?”

She hesitated, then reached into her coat and pulled out a silver chain with a black crystal at its center. “Now,” she said, “you wear this. It’ll slow the pull. Keep the thing inside you dormant.”

I stared at the pendant.

“Until when?” I asked.

“Until we find a way to seal the Rift for good.”

I took it. The crystal was ice-cold.

Our fingers touched for a moment—and I felt it.

Not just a spark. Something deeper. Familiar. Like we’d done this before, in another life.

“You’re not alone,” she said, voice barely a breath.

Outside, thunder cracked. The candles flickered. And somewhere deep below Emberlake… something stirred.

The necklace felt heavier than it should.

It hung against my chest like a stone—cold, pulsing faintly, like it had a heartbeat of its own.

Selene watched me with a quiet kind of intensity. Like she was memorizing every movement I made.

She hadn’t said anything since she gave it to me.

Outside, rain tapped against the basement windows. The kind of slow, steady drizzle that made the world feel like it was holding its breath.

“So,” I said finally, “I’m part Rift. Whatever that means.”

She tilted her head. “Not part. Just… connected. Like a thread running through you. It’s not fully open yet. But it’s fraying.”

“And if it opens?”

Selene didn’t answer. Her silence said enough.

I swallowed hard, pushing down the rising tide of panic. “What happens if I take this thing off?” I asked, touching the pendant.

She moved so fast I barely saw her.

One second she was across the room, the next—her hand was wrapped around my wrist.

“Don’t,” she said, voice razor-sharp. “Not here. Not ever when you’re alone.”

Her grip was stronger than it should’ve been for someone her size. I stared at her fingers, pale and cool against my skin. Then up at her face.

“Are you even human?” I asked before I could stop myself.

Her expression faltered for a split second. Just long enough for me to see the crack in the mask.

“I’m close enough,” she said.

The candles flickered again.

“Selene,” I said slowly, “what aren’t you telling me?”

She stepped back, letting go. “It doesn’t matter yet. What matters is keeping you alive.”

“That’s not an answer.”

She opened her mouth to speak—then froze.

Her eyes darted to the staircase. She held up a finger, lips pressed into a thin line.

I heard it too.

Footsteps.

Slow. Deliberate. Upstairs.

Selene grabbed a vial from the table beside her and whispered something in a language I didn’t understand. The circle on the floor glowed faintly, then disappeared completely.

The footsteps grew louder.

Closer.

My breath hitched as a figure appeared at the top of the stairs.

It was Ivy.

Wearing my hoodie.

She looked… off.

Her smile was too wide. Her eyes too bright.

“Oh, finally,” she said, skipping down the steps like this was just a sleepover. “I was wondering how long it would take you to tell him.”

Selene’s expression was stone. “You weren’t supposed to come here.”

“I go where I want, witch girl,” Ivy purred. “Besides… secrets this big are hard to ignore.”

My mouth went dry. “What’s going on?”

Ivy turned to me. “Did she tell you yet? That you were supposed to die in that fire? That someone changed your fate?”

Selene’s fists clenched. “Enough.”

But Ivy kept talking. “There’s more to your little Rift than you know. And he—” she pointed at me “—isn’t the only one marked.”

Then she winked. “I just hide mine better.”

The basement temperature dropped like a stone.

Selene stepped forward, placing herself between me and Ivy. “You need to leave. Now.”

“I will,” Ivy said sweetly. “But tell him soon, Selene. Or I will.”

And then she turned and walked back up the stairs, humming a tune I hadn’t heard in years.

A lullaby.

The same one my mom used to sing to me before the fire.