Ava disappeared after school.
No warning. No note. Just gone.
I waited outside the classroom. Then the cafeteria. Then the library. She wasn't anywhere.
Lena found me pacing near the gates.
"She's not answering," I said, checking my phone again.
Lena frowned. "Did she get a message?"
I nodded. "Same number. Same thing."
She didn't look surprised.
"We should go," she said.
"To where? We don't even know where she went."
Lena hesitated. Then said, "She'll come back."
"How do you know?"
"Because they always do."
I didn't like the sound of that.
We ended up waiting until sunset. And then—finally—she walked around the corner like nothing happened.
Except everything had changed.
She looked different. Calmer. Too calm.
"Ava," I said, stepping toward her. "Where were you?"
She met my eyes. "Just needed some air."
"You were gone for hours."
She shrugged. "Didn't feel that long."
I glanced at Lena. She looked tense.
"What did they say to you?" I asked.
Ava didn't answer right away. Then said, "They didn't say much."
I swallowed. "Then why were you gone so long?"
She looked at me like she was choosing her words carefully.
"Because I wanted to see more."
My stomach dropped.
"They showed me something," she said softly. "Something I can't unsee."
"And what's that?"
She smiled slightly. Not cruelly. Not happily.
Just… knowingly.
"That we're not the only ones."
Then she walked past us.
Leaving me wondering who she really was now.
And if she was still on our side.