The fluorescent lights of the emergency room buzzed overhead as a nurse wheeled Zaire through the automatic doors. His left hand was wrapped in fresh gauze, a butterfly bandage holding the cut above his eyebrow together. Mia trailed behind, still tasting blood in the corner of her mouth from where the mayor had backhanded her.
Headlights cut through the parking lot chaos as James's truck skidded to a stop. Rose burst out before the engine died, her floral dress flapping against her legs as she ran. She crushed Mia in a hug that smelled like lavender detergent and gasoline from the auto shop.
"Baby girl," Rose whispered into Mia's hair, her voice cracking. "When your call dropped... I thought..." Her hands trembled against Mia's back.
James clapped a grease-stained hand on Zaire's shoulder. "You kids gave us ten years off our lives."
Sheriff Hallowe approached like a man walking to his hanging. He cleared his throat twice before speaking. "Jenkins." His boot scuffed the asphalt. "I... hell." The admission came out in a rush. "Shouldn't have treated you like a suspect all this time."
Mia blinked. The sheriff's badge usually gleamed; now it hung crooked on his wrinkled shirt.
---
**Three Weeks Later**
The school cafeteria smelled of burnt pizza and industrial cleaner. Zaire flipped the local paper onto the table, his healing fingers leaving faint smudges on the headline: *CULT EXPOSED: 12 LOCAL ELITES ARRESTED IN HUMAN SACRIFICE RING*. Beneath it, a photo showed the mayor's perp walk.
"PTA president," Zaire said through a mouthful of chocolate milk. "The guy who owns the BMW dealership. Mrs. Donahue, who judged the damn science fair." He shook his head. "We sat next to these psychos at pep rallies."
Mia pushed peas around her tray. At table seven, Sebastian hunched over his books alone, his blazer sleeves covering what she knew were fresh scratches on his arms.
"Earth to Mia." Zaire flicked a crumb at her. "You hearing any of this?"
"Sebastian won't look at me," she said quietly. "Not since..."
Zaire shrugged. "Dude's dad was their lawyer. Probably embarrassed."
The ice in Mia's water bottle cracked as she squeezed it. "Chad's body still hasn't turned up."
Zaire's joking demeanour faded. He reached for her hand, the bandages on his knuckles stark white against their linked fingers. Across the room, Sebastian slammed his textbook shut loud enough to make three freshmen jump.
Mia's plastic fork snapped in her hand. "If the mayor was behind this whole thing," she said, keeping her voice low, "then the police should've found Chad's body by now. You think a 52-year-old man overpowered Hannah? Dragged Andrew's body to the river? No way he acted alone."
Zaire's jaw tightened. He folded the newspaper with deliberate slowness, the headline about the cult disappearing into the crease. "Drop it, Mia."
Across the cafeteria, Sebastian was shredding a napkin into tiny white pieces, his eyes fixed on some distant point beyond the windows.
"People like Chad?" Zaire leaned in, his voice dropping to a harsh whisper. "After what he did to you? After what they all did? The world's better off—"
"Don't." Mia's chair screeched as she pushed back. The sudden movement made Sebastian's head jerk up—for one fleeting second, their eyes met before he looked away, his fingers stilling on the shredded paper.
Zaire sighed, rubbing at his bandaged knuckles. "All I'm saying is, maybe some mysteries should stay buried."
The bell rang, drowning out whatever Mia might have said next. As students shuffled toward the exits, she watched Sebastian shoulder his bag and disappear into the crowd without a backwards glance. Zaire was already talking about their chemistry homework, but the words barely registered.
Chad's missing body wasn't just another mystery—it was proof. Someone else was still out there.
The walk home took twenty-three minutes longer than usual because Zaire insisted on taking the "scenic route" past the police station. Again. Mia counted every unnecessary step, the rubber soles of her Converse scuffing against pavement still damp from yesterday's rain.
"You know I can see my house from here, right?" Mia stopped at the foot of her porch steps. The motion sensor light flicked on, illuminating Zaire's freshly re-bandaged knuckles where they gripped his backpack strap too tightly. "This is the third time this week you've walked me home when you live in the opposite direction."
Zaire shrugged, that infuriating half-smile tugging at his lips. "You never complained before."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Mia felt her hands curl into fists at her sides. The cut on her palm from the cannery ropes had barely healed.
"Nothing." Zaire rocked back on his heels, eyes darting to the darkened tree line across the street. "Just figured you'd appreciate not getting kidnapped again. Call me crazy."
Mia opened her mouth—to yell, to demand a real answer—but Zaire was already backing away, hands raised in surrender. "Chill, Jenkins. I've got a chem test to fail." He turned before she could respond, his retreating figure swallowed by the streetlights' orange glow.
The text came at 11:37 PM, just as Mia was plugging her phone in for the night. The screen lit up with Sebastian's name for the first time in weeks.
Unknown Number:
Meet me at the old boathouse. 20 mins.
Unknown Number:
It's about Chad.
Mia's thumbs hovered over her phone screen.
**Mia:** This isn't funny. Sebastian wouldn't text at midnight.
The reply came instantly.
**Sebastian:** If you want to know what happened to Chad, meet me at the boathouse. Alone.
Mia's nail chipped against her phone case. She typed fast.
**Mia:** Bullshit. The cops have all the evidence.
Three pulsing dots appeared. Disappeared. Then:
**Sebastian:** Guess we're at the point where you don't trust me at all anymore. Fine. I'll go alone. If you think I'm lying, block me.
Her finger trembled over the block button. Instead, she called Zaire.
---
"Are you *serious*?" Zaire's voice crackled through the phone, thick with sleep. "The mayor's in jail, Mia. Sebastian's just pissed you figured out his dad helped cover it up."
Mia paced her bedroom floor, the wood creaking under her socks. "But what if—"
"Block him," Zaire interrupted. A yawn. "Or don't. But I'm not chasing your ex through the woods at 1 AM."
She lied when she texted Zaire back: *Blocked him.*
But Sebastian's contact remained untouched in her phone as she turned off the lights.
**The Boathouse**
Sebastian's breath fogged in the cold air. The rotting dock groaned under his sneakers as he checked his phone for the tenth time.
*She's not coming.*
A loud *crack* echoed from the tree line.
Sebastian spun. "Mia?"
Silence. Then—*creak*—a footstep on damp leaves.
He saw a man standing.
He ran.
Branches lashed his face as he crashed through the underbrush. His lungs burned. Something metallic *snapped*—
Pain exploded through his leg. He screamed, collapsing into the dirt. The bear trap's teeth gleamed red under the moonlight, buried deep in his calf.
Footsteps approached slowly.
Sebastian looked up, blood dripping into his eye. "I knew it was you," he gasped.
The figure raised a rusted metal pipe.
Then—*black*.