Page 28

The once-glimmering moon now hovered half-obscured by clouds. The warmth from earlier in the day had vanished entirely, replaced by the sort of creeping cold that pressed against the windows and seeped through even the thickest curtains.

All four girls were supposedly asleep.

The heater purred quietly in the corner, a monotonous sound that usually blurred into the background of sleep—but tonight, it seemed almost too loud.

The dorm room was wrapped in shadows softened only by the dim golden wall light near Aisha's bed, still left on—her Biology textbook open on her chest, her glasses askew on the bridge of her nose.

Aisha had fallen asleep mid-revision, her posture tense even in unconsciousness. Julia was curled beneath her duvet, arms wrapped tight around herself, her face slack but pale—still pale from earlier, when she'd nearly screamed herself hoarse at the party.

It was just after ten when Y/N stirred—barely a twitch at first, her body half-asleep beneath the weight of the duvet.

But some primal instinct stirred her before her mind caught up. A hush in the air. A draft that slipped unnaturally past the sealed windows. And when her eyes finally opened, she saw it;

The bed across from hers. The one with the expensive satin pillows, the faint scent of Cressida's perfume still lingering like a ghost.

Empty.

Not just empty—untouched. The sheets were pulled back, the pillow fluffed and smoothed. A trickle of unease slithered down Y/N's spine as she sat up fully, her tea-stained mug still on the nightstand beside her.

The clock on her desk blinked 10:07PM in soft blue digits.

Y/N sat up slowly, the chill in the air biting against her bare arms. Her heart knocked once. Twice.

A hollow feeling unfurled in her chest.

Cressida wouldn't leave.. Not after what happened to Eliza. Right?

She slipped quietly out of bed and crossed the room barefoot, her steps ghost-like on the wooden floor. She opened the door to the common room, and just as she suspected—it was empty. The door to the corridor had been left just slightly ajar, a thin draft slipping through the crack.

Cressida had left.

Y/N swallowed tightly, her eyes scanning the faint moonlight filtering in through the blinds. Every instinct in her screamed stay in bed, but the unease was already blooming into something colder.

She reached across the narrow space between her bed and Aisha's and shook her shoulder gently. "Aish—Wake up..! Aisha."

The girl groaned, face still pressed into her textbook. Aisha had fallen asleep while revising again, notes fanned out over her duvet like petals. "What..." she mumbled groggily.

"Cressida's gone.."

Aisha blinked blearily, rolling the other way. "You're sure she didn't just go to the bathroom or something.."

"She left the dorm. She's gone."

That woke her up.

Aisha's brows furrowed. She rubbed her face, then glanced again instinctively toward Cressida's bed. The colour drained from her face. Then Aisha swung her legs out of bed. "We need to find her."

Y/N hesitated. "Are you sure? It's dangerous—"

"And she's still our friend."

Across the room, Julia stirred at the sudden tension thickening the air. "What..?" she whispered, her voice paper-thin. She'd been quiet all evening, still pale from what they'd seen earlier that night.

"Cressida's gone," Y/N whispered, the words barely audible above the frantic thumping of her own heart. Her voice trembled, betraying a fear that threatened to consume her. "We're going after her.."

"No." Julia's voice was immediate and strained, as she sat up in an instant. "No way. I'm not going back out there.. Not after tonight. Are you insane—!?" Julia whimpered, curling her arms tighter around herself. "If she gets killed, that's on her. I don't want it to be on us."

"Then don't come" Y/N said gently. "But we should go, as her friends." She turned to the door, grabbing her phone, switching on the flashlight.

"If we stay, we're going to sit here imagining what's happening instead of knowing. You don't have to come, Jules—but I'm going." Aisha was hunched over pulling on her sneakers.

Julia opened her mouth to argue—but then shut it. Her eyes darted toward the window. The outside world beyond it looked too black, too quiet. And then—unexpectedly—Julia flung her blanket off. "Fine..!"

Aisha glanced up from her laces, "Hey—wait guys my hijab..!"

★

They didn't speak much after that.

The silence of the academy pressed in too tightly, warning them that every footstep might be heard, every breath noticed.

They slipped out the dorm together, shadows in their own right now.

The marble floors beneath their feet were cold and faintly damp with condensation, and the flickering sconces along the hall cast more shadows than light.

When they stepped outside, the air hit them like a slap—biting, crisp, and eerily still. The campus grounds were empty. And above them, the moon was a swollen silver coin, so bright it painted the entire courtyard in pale, unnatural light.

Stars dotted the sky—but one star, in particular, pulsed faintly just beneath the moon's belly.

#ripeliza

Somewhere in the distance, a raven called—long and low and almost mournful. Y/N led the way, eyes scanning the path ahead. Aisha kept close behind her, flashlight tucked into her jacket, while Julia clung nervously to the middle, jumping at every rustle of wind.

Whispering her name every few steps—"Cressida?" "Cress?"—though none of them truly expected an answer. They searched the courtyard, circled around the clocktower, and began edging toward the trees near the South perimeter of the school.

"Nuh uh. Not there Y/N." Julia paused, her grip tightening on the arms of her two friends, hauling them back against their forward momentum as her gaze was fixed on the eerie, black hollowness that marked the entrance to the woods.

The trees seemed to crowd together, blocking out the last vestiges of sunlight, creating a void that swallowed sound and light alike.

"It's not safe, especially not in there.."

Even Aisha, usually the most headstrong and desperate to find their friend, was slightly shaken. She chewed nervously on her lip, her earlier determination faltering. "It feels.. wrong."

The hunt for Cressida, their missing friend, had been consuming them, pushing them to the edge of worry and exhaustion. But even the burning desire to find her paled in comparison to the palpable dread radiating from the forest's edge.

A low, rhythmic CRUNCH resonated through the silent forest.

Three heads slowly turned towards the echo. Each footfall was a heavy pressure, a distinct disruption of the crisp, fallen leaves that carpeted the woodland floor.

Something massive was pushing through the undergrowth, its weight evident in the breaking twigs and snapping branches. Then, a shape materialised—colossal and indistinct, loping with an unsettling gait between the ancient trees.

It was blacker than the deepest shadow, a void that seemed to absorb the ambient light rather than reflect it.

Its movement was fluid, almost graceful, yet undeniably wrong, a perversion of natural motion that sent a shiver of primal fear down the spine.

The creature's form seemed to flicker and waver under the filtering moonlight, as if struggling to maintain its corporeal existence. And then, its eyes caught the ethereal glow—twin points of incandescent yellow, burning with an alien intelligence.

They weren't the blood-red embers of the vampires; these were a different kind of predator, a different kind of horror altogether. It wasn't the same as the one Y/N and Julia had seen that night either.

This one was bigger, broader across the shoulders, and its fur was streaked with dark slashes of grey and black.

Its breath curled visibly in the cold, and it moved with the quiet patience of something that knew it couldn't be outrun.

A slow, stalking predator.

★

Its eyes locked with Y/N's—and it smiled.

Or at least, something close to it. Teeth like ivory blades gleamed under the moonlight, glinting as it grinned at her. There was a familiarity to it but she wasn't ready to label it; not in this moment where they should—

"Run—!!" Julia let out a choked gasp and reached for Y/N's arm, but before she could say anything—before anyone could scream or run or react

He appeared.

He came out of the shadows like a force of nature, sudden and suffocating. His hand gripped Y/N's upper arm, hard, and the growl in his voice was feral, barely human.

"Are you out of your fucking mind?!"

Y/N tried to pull away, but his grip tightened, and she stilled—not from fear of him, but from how different he felt. "Silas—?"

He didn't look like himself.

His eyes were still the same onyx black, but they seemed brighter somehow, gleaming with a dark, primal edge. His expression was wild, unrestrained.

His posture was no longer relaxed or bored with it, but tensed like he'd just shifted out of a fight. Something raw shimmered just beneath the surface of his skin, like he was barely holding himself together.

"I asked you a question." he growled, voice deep, shaking. "Do you have a death wish?"

"We were looking for Cressida—" Y/N started, breath hitching.

"In the middle of the night? After a murder?" His gaze snapped to the other two. "You dragged them out here?"

"No!" Julia stammered, "I wanted to stay—I told them this was stupid!"

Silas ignored her, turning back to Y/N. "You saw it, didn't you?" he said quietly. "The thing in the woods."

Y/N nodded slowly.

"Then you should know better than to go towards it."

"You were out here too!" she shot back before she could stop herself.

Silas leaned in, voice dropping so low only she could hear. "Because I can handle it. You can't."

She felt that line like a slap. Yet again someone was telling her that.

But before she could reply, Silas exhaled sharply, dragging a hand through his hair. His jaw clenched, throat flexing. "How times—how many fucking times Y/N?" he muttered, more to himself. "Stay out of shit, that might kill you."

Y/N stared at him. "..Then what was it? Something dangerous?"

"No shit." His eyes met hers—and there was something dark in them. Something protective. Something furious. "I don't know yet." he said softly. "But you're not staying to find out."

"What the hell are you really doing out here?" he growled, stepping in front of them.

The air around him felt heavier than the creature's presence. Like the ground knew better than to stand in his way. Y/N's breath caught in her throat. "Like i said, Cressida left—"

"She's vampire, you're human. A much considered prey." His tone was acid. "And she's not your responsibility."

"But that—" Julia tried to point back toward the trees, but Silas cut her off.

"I saw it too. And if I hadn't, you three would be dead.

" His hand snapped forward, gripping Y/N's wrist with more force than she expected—not painful, but firm, urgent.

"You don't get to be reckless," he hissed.

"Not anymore. There are things out here, things not even the vampire staff can explain. "

Y/N stared at him, chest rising and falling as she repeated. "What was that?"

He didn't answer. His jaw clenched, the muscle ticking as he turned away from the woods.

"We're going back. Now."

Aisha didn't argue. Julia was already trembling. But Y/N—she couldn't help but look back once more. "You know something."

★

The woods were still again. The wolf—gone.

But the fear lingered. Heavy and real, a cold feeling lodged deep in her gut. The adrenaline from whatever danger she'd faced moments ago was fading, leaving behind only the chilling echo of its presence.

She should be relieved, grateful even, but the apprehension in her chest refused to dissipate.

Perhaps it was the unsettling knowledge that she'd needed saving in the first place, or maybe it was something else entirely.. something emanating from the man who currently held her captive.

Silas wasn't letting go of her wrist. His grip was tight, bordering on painful, a silent reminder of his power over her, or perhaps of his desperate need to control it. His fingers remained tight, like a vise clamping down on bone, his body humming with something ancient and untamed.

She could feel it radiating off him, a low, resonant vibration that resonated deep within her own bones. Something primal and dangerous. Something he was barely keeping caged, a force of nature threatening to break free.

The air around him crackled with unspoken energy, making the hairs on her arms stand on end.

"Inside. Now." he said, quieter now—but not softer.

The force behind his words remained, even amplified by the hushed tone. It was a command, not a suggestion, laced with a possessiveness that both terrified and, inexplicably, thrilled her. "Next time you do something this stupid..."

He leaned closer, his shadow falling over her, eclipsing the remaining light. Breath ghosting against her skin, a chillingly intimate caress that sent shivers dancing down her spine.

His voice was low and furious, a guttural growl that vibrated against her ear. "...I won't be there to save you."

The words were a promise and a threat, a chilling warning delivered with an intensity that burned away any lingering illusions she might have harboured.

And in that moment, she understood. He wasn't angry for her sake, but for his own. The thought was as terrifying as it was.. intriguing.