Chapter 1: The New Girl with the Black Umbrella

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.”

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