Chapter 79: Deeper into the Web.
Neither Elara nor Corrine slept after they returned to their room. They lay in their beds, staring at the ceiling, listening to every creak and whisper the old building made. When the first pale light of dawn finally crept through their window, both girls were already sitting up, hollow-eyed and exhausted.
"Did you hear anything else?" Elara whispered, her voice hoarse from the sleepless night.
Corrine shook her head. "Nothing."
They dressed in silence, both moving slowly like their bodies were made of lead. Elara’s hands shook as she buttoned her uniform shirt. Every shadow in the corner of her eye made her jump.
The dining hall buzzed with the usual morning chatter when they arrived for breakfast, but something felt different. The conversations seemed more hushed, more careful. Students kept glancing toward the windows that faced the forest, then quickly looking away.
Elara and Corrine found seats at their usual table near the back. Elara picked at her scrambled eggs without appetite while Corrine stirred her tea without drinking it.
"Did you hear the sounds last night?" a girl at the next table whispered to her friend.
Elara’s fork froze halfway to her mouth. She strained to listen.
"What sounds?" the friend whispered back.
"Like something scratching at the walls. And footsteps in the hallway. But when I looked out my door, nothing was there."
Corrine’s eyes met Elara’s across the table. They weren’t the only ones who had heard things.
"My roommate said she saw wet footprints leading up the stairs," another voice added, barely audible. "But the hostel mistress just told her she was dreaming."
"The marks on my door are gone this morning," someone else said. "I swear there were scratches there yesterday, but now they’re painted over."
Elara’s stomach twisted. She looked around the dining hall and noticed maintenance staff moving between tables, paintbrushes in hand, touching up doorframes and wall corners. They worked quickly and quietly, covering any marks or scratches they found.
A teacher walked past the table where the students had been whispering. Immediately, their conversation switched to homework and weekend plans. The teacher smiled and nodded, moving on without suspicion.
"They know," Corrine muttered under her breath. "The students know something’s happening, but they can’t talk about it openly."
"Because look what happened to Bella," Corrine said quietly. "They probably don’t want to end up like her."
During lunch, more whispered conversations reached their ears.
"My window was open this morning, but I know I locked it."
"There are new scratches on the cafeteria floor."
"Did you see how quickly they painted over the marks in the east wing?"
"Sarah from third year says her friend asked too many questions about the forest last month. Now she acts like she never cared about it at all."
This last comment made Elara’s blood run cold. She grabbed Corrine’s arm. "Did you hear that?"
Corrine nodded, her face pale. "What did they do to her friend?"
They spent the rest of lunch trying to identify which student might be Sarah’s friend, but everyone looked normal. That was what made it so terrifying, the idea that someone’s entire personality could be changed and no one would notice.
When they returned to their dorm room after dinner, Elara immediately knew something was wrong.
"Someone’s been in here," she said, her voice tight with fear.
Corrine closed the door behind them and looked around carefully. "How can you tell?"
"My books." Elara pointed to her desk. "I left my literature textbook on top, but now it’s underneath my bedcover. And my pens are arranged differently."
Corrine checked her own space. "My clothes are folded wrong. I never fold my sweaters this way." She opened her wardrobe and sucked in a sharp breath. "Elara."
"What?"
"My diary. I hid it behind my extra blankets. It’s not there anymore."
They searched the room frantically but quietly, not wanting to alert anyone in the hallway that they’d discovered the intrusion. The diary was nowhere to be found.
"They know we know," Elara whispered, sinking onto her bed. "They know we saw the marks, heard the sounds."
Corrine sat beside her, wrapping her arms around her knees. "What did you write in that diary?"
"Everything. About Bella disappearing, about the strange things we’ve noticed, about last night." Corrine’s face crumpled. "They have proof that we’ve been paying attention."
As if their discovery wasn’t terrifying enough, Elara noticed something else that made her stomach lurch.
On her pillow, where her head would rest that night, lay a single black feather.
"Corrine." Her voice came out as barely a squeak.
Corrine followed her gaze and went rigid. "The owl."
Neither of them touched the feather. It sat there like a warning.
At ten o’clock, just as the dorm was settling into its night time, there was a soft knock on their door.
Both girls froze. After last night’s encounter with the thing at their window, any unexpected sound sent terror shooting through their veins.
"Girls?" It was the hostel mistress’s voice. "I need to speak with you."
Corrine opened the door. The hostel mistress stood in the hallway holding a clipboard.
"I’m doing room checks tonight," she said. "Just making sure everyone’s settling in properly. May I come in?"
They stepped aside. The mistress entered and looked around the room with what seemed like casual interest. Her gaze swept over their desks, their beds, the black feather on Elara’s pillow.
She showed no reaction to the feather at all.
"How are you girls adjusting to life at the school?" she asked, making notes on her clipboard.
"Fine," Corrine said quickly.
"Good, good. And you’re sleeping well? No troubles with bad dreams or restlessness?"
Elara’s throat felt dry. "We sleep fine."
"Excellent. Now, I do want to mention something." The mistress looked up from her clipboard. "Some students have reported unusual dreams lately. Dreams about the forest, about sounds in the night. I want you to know that if you experience anything like that, it’s perfectly normal."
"Normal?" Elara couldn’t help asking.
"Oh yes. New environments can trigger all sorts of psychological responses. The mind plays tricks, especially in an old building like this one. Students often think they hear things or see things that aren’t really there."
The mistress walked closer to Elara’s bed, her eyes now clearly focused on the black feather.
"Sometimes students even find strange objects in their rooms," she continued conversationally. "Feathers, leaves, odd little trinkets. Usually, these things have perfectly logical explanations. Birds get into the building, students track in debris from outside. Nothing to worry about at all."
She reached out and picked up the feather, examining it briefly before slipping it into her pocket.
"I’ll dispose of this for you. No need to be concerned."
"Now then," the mistress continued, "I also want to remind you about our curfew policy. Students should remain in their rooms after lights-out. The building can be dangerous to navigate in the dark, and we certainly don’t want anyone getting lost or injured."
Her tone was perfectly reasonable, but there was something underneath it that made Elara’s skin crawl.
"And if you do happen to hear unusual sounds at night, which as I mentioned, is perfectly normal, I’d recommend simply covering your heads with your pillows and going back to sleep. Investigating strange noises rarely leads to anything productive."
The mistress made a final note on her clipboard and headed for the door.
"Sweet dreams, girls. I’m sure you’ll sleep much better tonight."
After she left, Elara and Corrine sat in stunned silence.
"She took the feather," Elara whispered.
"She knew exactly what it was and where to find it."
"And she basically told us to ignore anything we hear tonight."
"Since when," Corrine said slowly, "did they refer to this place as ’new environment’?"
"We’ve practically been here since JHS1," Elara nodded. "That’s so strange."
They got ready for bed mechanically. Neither spoke about what they would do if the sounds came again.
Elara climbed into bed at the foot end, as far from where the feather had been as possible. Corrine turned off the lights and got into her own bed.
At some point in the early hours of the morning, Elara heard something that made her blood freeze. Some footsteps in the hallway, moving slowly and deliberately. They paused outside door after door, as if checking on each room’s occupants.
When the footsteps reached their door, they stopped for a long time. Elara held her breath, waiting for a knock or a whisper or the sound of their door opening.
Instead, she heard something being slipped under their door, a soft scraping sound as something thin slid across the floor.
The footsteps moved on.
Elara waited until she was sure they were gone, then crept out of bed and felt around on the floor near the door. Her fingers found a small piece of paper.
She carried it to the window where the moonlight was strongest. Written in block letters were just two words:
STOP LOOKING.
Her hands shook as she showed the note to Corrine, who had also gotten out of bed when she heard the footsteps.
Corrine looked at the note, then at the window where the owl had crashed into the glass, then at Elara’s pillow where the feather had been placed.
"What if we end up like Bella?"
"Don’t say that, Elara."
"That’s what we should be thinking about!"
Corrine folded the note and slipped it under her mattress.
"What do we do now, Corrine?" Elara asked.
"We’ll act like we’ve stopped looking. We act normal, go to classes, don’t talk about anything strange. But we keep watching and we try to figure out what’s really happening here."
"What if they catch us?"
Corrine was quiet for a long moment. Then she said, "Let’s make sure they don’t."
They climbed back into their beds, but neither slept for the rest of the night. They lay there wondering how many other students were lying awake in their rooms too frightened to sleep.
By morning, they had made their decision. They would pretend to comply with the warning. They would act like frightened students who had learned their lesson.
But they would never stop looking for the truth about what had happened to Bella, and what was really lurking in the shadows of their school.