Ellie didn't sleep.
She sat in the kitchen long after the apparition disappeared, replaying the scene in her head, ash still clinging to her sweater sleeves. Every part of her wanted to rationalize it—stress, exhaustion, maybe a hallucination.
But the shoe in her pocket was real.
The well was real.
And Lila Harper had been there.
By dawn, she had a plan.
The first stop was St. Augustine's Chapel.
She hadn't stepped inside the old church since she was a teenager, but the symbol in Miss Whitaker's diary—the spiral made of roots—had triggered a memory. She'd seen it before, carved into a pew in the back corner.
Father Michael was sweeping the front steps when she arrived. He still wore the same faded black coat, same tired eyes.
"Ellie Carter," he said cautiously. "Didn't expect to see you here."
"I need to ask you about Lila Harper."
He froze. His grip tightened on the broom. "That's not a name we speak lightly."
"She didn't vanish from the school party, did she?"
Father Michael looked over his shoulder before motioning her inside. The chapel was cold, dimly lit by stained-glass windows. Dust hung in the air like it had been waiting.
He led her to the back pew.
"She used to sit right here with her mother. Sweet girl. Quiet. But she… changed, near the end."
Ellie stared down. There it was, faint but carved deep—the spiral.
"What does it mean?"
Father Michael hesitated, then spoke softly.
"It's a binding mark. Ancient, maybe older than this town. The elders used it to… contain things. Spirits. Warnings. I don't know exactly. Just that after Lila vanished, the symbol started appearing. On trees. Stones. Even burned into doorways."
"Someone tried to bind her?" Ellie asked.
"No," he said. "Someone tried to bind what took her."
A chill swept through Ellie.
"What happened in the grove that night?" she asked.
Father Michael looked down at his hands. "There was a fire. That much is true. But it didn't come from any lantern or prank. It started at the well. Something rose out of it. Something that didn't belong in this world."
Ellie's voice trembled. "And Miss Whitaker saw it?"
"She was the only one who didn't look away."