It all started with a knock at the window.
Not the door. The window.
Alexa sat up in bed, her heart skipping a beat. Her room was on the second floor. Nobody should have been able to reach her window. She pulled the covers to her chest and squinted into the dark. Another knock.
Tap. Tap. Tap.
She slid out of bed, grabbed her phone and tiptoed to the window. The glass fogged up slightly from her breath as she leaned in. There was nothing but shadows. Slowly, she unlatched the window and pushed it open.
A folded paper fell in.
Alexa jumped back. Her heart was racing now, thudding in her ears like a drum line. She bent down and picked up the note. It was a square of old paper, folded carefully into a triangle. In messy, slanted writing, it read:
Don’t trust the ones who smile too much. Meet me where the sun forgets to shine.
No name. No explanation.
Alexa’s fingers trembled as she turned it over. On the back was a tiny sketch of the woods behind her school; it was that part everyone avoided. The trees grew so close together it was always dark, even during the day. The teachers said it was off-limits. Kids called it the Shadow Patch.
Alexa stuffed the note in her pajama pocket and closed the window. She barely slept.
The next morning at school, things felt … off. Everyone was acting too normal. Even Bella, who was always smiling widely. Too wide. Her smile didn’t reach her eyes.
Alexa clutched the note in her pocket like it was a secret.
At lunch, she slipped away from the noisy cafeteria and made her way towards the woods. She didn’t know what she was doing. This could have been a prank. Or worse. But something inside her whispered, “Go, now.”
The Shadow Patch looked even darker up close. She stepped between the trees, the air was cool and still. Leaves crumbled softly under her sneakers. Every few steps, she glanced back just in case.
Then she saw someone. A boy leaning against the tree with the flashlight in one hand and worried look on his face.
“You came,” he said.
“Who are you?” Alexa asked.
“I’m Scott. I used to go here, until I disappeared.”
Alexa blinked. “You what?”
Scott sighed. “They erased me. The people who run the school they’re not the people you think they are. They smile, wave, and pretend everything is fine. But they’ve been hiding things. Changing things. Making students forget.”
Alexa took a step back.
Scott pulled something from his jacket—a photo. It showed him, Alexa, and Bella all smiling in a classroom Alexa had never seen before.
“I was your best friend,” he said softly. “But you don’t remember me, do you?”
Alexa stared at the photo. Something stirred deep in her chest. Like a puzzle piece sliding into place.
A loud snap echoed behind them.
Alexa turned. Multiple smiling figures stood between the trees. Their grins were too perfect, too frozen.
Scott grabbed her hand. “Run.”
They sprinted through the dark woods, the paper note fluttering behind them like a broken wing.
