Emily couldn't shake the image of Rachel's terrified face from the diner. It clung to her all day like a stain she couldn't scrub away. The unsent text—Don't follow—ran circles in her mind, each repetition louder than the last.
At school, the four of them barely looked at each other. Whispers followed Emily down the hallway, though she couldn't tell if people were actually talking about her, or if paranoia had finally taken root.
By nightfall, Jade summoned them again.
Her room smelled faintly of cigarette smoke and motor oil. Rachel's phone lay on the bedspread, glowing like something radioactive.
"I kept digging," Jade said without preamble. Her face was pale but her voice steady. "Most of her messages are wiped. But there's one draft left. She typed it the night she disappeared."
Emily's chest tightened. "What does it say?"
Jade's eyes flicked to each of them before she read aloud: Don't follow.
The words hung in the room like a noose.
Mia gave a sharp, nervous laugh. "That's it? That's what you dragged us here for? It doesn't even make sense."
"Of course it makes sense," Jade snapped. "She was warning someone."
"Or begging someone," Sophie whispered.
Before Emily could ask what she meant, all four of their phones buzzed at once.
"She told you not to follow. You never listen. – R"
Emily's stomach flipped. Her hands shook as she read the words again, her heart hammering. R was watching them. Listening. Always one step ahead.
Mia dropped her phone on the floor like it burned. "That's it. I'm out. Whatever game this is, I'm done playing."
But another buzz came instantly.
"Truth or dare?"
Jade swore under her breath. "You've got to be kidding me."
Emily's screen lit first.
Emily: truth. "How many pills are left in the bottle under your bed?"
Her throat closed. She shoved the phone facedown, cheeks burning, but Sophie's sharp intake of breath told her she'd read it too.
Then Sophie's phone lit. She went pale, shaking her head. She didn't read it aloud.
Mia's turn. Her face drained of color as she scrolled down the message. "That's not… they can't know that. Nobody knows that."
Finally, Jade's phone buzzed. She looked at it, her jaw tightening, and held it up.
Dare: "Go back to the clearing. Alone. Midnight. Or everyone learns what you did to Rachel."
Emily's breath caught. "No. You're not going. It's a trap."
Jade's expression hardened into steel. "If we run every time they scare us, we're finished. I'm going."
Midnight came too quickly.
The four of them met at the edge of the woods, their flashlights cutting shaky beams through the mist.
"You shouldn't be here," Jade said, standing stiff near the clearing. "This was my dare."
Emily shook her head. "We're not leaving you."
Their phones buzzed in unison.
"Good girls. But you still don't listen. Turn off your lights."
The beams clicked out one by one until only Rachel's phone lit the clearing, its cracked screen flickering weakly.
Another buzz.
"Dig deeper."
The ground was soft from last night's rain. They clawed at the soil with trembling hands, dirt packing beneath their fingernails. The silence pressed heavier with every scrape of mud.
Then Emily's hand struck something solid.
A plastic bag. Black, slick with mud.
Her pulse thundered. Together they tore at the knot, peeling the plastic open.
Inside was fabric.
Rachel's jacket.
The same one she'd been wearing the night she vanished.
Emily's scream shattered the clearing.
Her phone buzzed one final time.
"Told you. Some secrets don't stay buried. – R"
The clearing was silent. Too silent.
Emily's scream had died away, swallowed by the woods, leaving only the ragged sound of their breathing. The jacket lay between them like a corpse, mud clinging to the faded fabric.
Sophie wrapped her arms around herself, whispering over and over, "No… no, this isn't real… it can't be real."
Mia took a step back, shaking her head violently. "We need to go. Right now. Before—"
Her phone buzzed, the vibration like a gunshot in the stillness.
"Leaving already? But we're just getting started."
Emily's chest tightened. She wanted to throw her phone into the trees, smash it until nothing was left, but another buzz stopped her cold.
"Smile."
"What does that mean?" Sophie whispered, voice barely audible.
The answer came in the form of a faint click.
The sound of a camera shutter.
They spun toward the trees. Somewhere in the darkness, beyond the edge of their weak light, something moved. A shadow, quick and silent.
Emily's blood froze. Someone was out there. Watching them. Photographing them.
Jade surged forward, fury replacing fear. "Show yourself!" she shouted into the trees. Her voice cracked, desperate and raw. "Stop hiding! What do you want from us?"
The woods gave nothing back but silence.
Then, one more buzz.
"Midnight memories look best on film. Can't wait to share. – R"
Mia clutched Emily's arm, nails digging into her skin. "They're going to send those pictures. To everyone. We'll look guilty. We'll look—"
"Like murderers," Sophie whispered, eyes glassy.
Emily's stomach dropped. She saw it clearly: four girls, crouched in the woods, digging up a muddy bag, clutching Rachel's jacket like grave-robbers. No one would believe the truth.
Branches cracked in the distance. Leaves rustled. Whoever had been there was gone—or maybe still circling.
Jade zipped the jacket back into the bag with trembling hands. "We're not leaving this here."
"What?" Mia's voice pitched high. "Are you insane? It's evidence!"
"Evidence against us," Jade shot back. She slung the bag over her shoulder, her defiance hard but her eyes wild with fear. "We're leaving. Now."
They stumbled back down the path together, flashlights shaking in their hands. Every step felt like a chase, like the shadow was just behind them, waiting to strike.
When Emily finally broke through the tree line and saw the empty street beyond, her lungs filled for the first time in what felt like hours. But the relief was short-lived.
Because in her pocket, her phone buzzed again.
This time, only hers.
Her heart hammered as she pulled it out.
A single message.
"You followed when she begged you not to. You'll follow again. Until it kills you."
Emily nearly dropped the phone. The words blurred through her tears, but the meaning was sharp as a knife.
And for the first time, she knew without a doubt: whoever R was, they didn't just know their secrets.
They wanted them buried too.
The walk back to town was a blur. Emily couldn't feel her legs, only the sting of cold air in her lungs. Sophie stayed glued to her side, silent tears streaming down her face. Mia kept muttering under her breath like a mantra: "This isn't happening, this isn't happening…"
Jade marched ahead, Rachel's jacket in the black bag slung over her shoulder, like she was dragging the weight of a body.
They didn't speak until they reached the first streetlight at the edge of town.
"We can't tell anyone," Jade said, her voice sharp and final.
Mia stopped dead. "Are you insane? We found her clothes. We need to go to the police!"
"And say what?" Jade spun, eyes blazing. "That we just happened to dig up Rachel's jacket in the middle of the night? That someone anonymous texted us to do it? Do you know what that looks like?"
Emily's stomach knotted. She could already see it: headlines, whispers, accusations. The four of them—Rachel's so-called best friends—sneaking into the woods, hiding evidence.
"We'd look guilty," Sophie whispered, hugging her arms tight around herself. "Like we killed her."
The words hung heavy, none of them daring to breathe.
Then Emily's phone buzzed again.
She flinched so hard she almost dropped it. With trembling fingers, she swiped the screen.
A photo.
Her blood went cold.
It was them—tonight. Kneeling in the dirt, faces pale, hands smeared with mud. The jacket visible in the half-open bag. The angle was clear: someone had been standing just feet away, watching, capturing every second.
"Oh my God," Emily whispered, shoving the phone toward the others. "They have pictures."
Sophie gasped. Mia cursed. Jade's jaw tightened until Emily thought her teeth might crack.
Another buzz.
"Pretty little grave diggers. Who should see first? Your parents… or the cops?"
Mia clutched her head, her voice breaking. "We're screwed. We're completely screwed."
Emily's chest constricted. She felt like the ground was slipping out from under her, the whole town about to swallow them alive.
Then Jade stepped forward, snatching the phone out of Emily's hand. Her voice was low, dangerous. "Listen to me. Whoever R is, they want us afraid. They want us divided. That's how they win." She held the phone up like a weapon. "We don't give them that satisfaction."
But even as she said it, Emily could see the cracks forming in her. The wildness in her eyes. The tremor in her hands.
And then Emily's phone buzzed again—only hers this time.
Her breath caught as she read the words.
"It's already too late for Rachel. Don't let it be too late for you. Look under your bed."
The message burned on the screen, her heart stopping with every word.
She didn't realize she'd spoken aloud until Sophie whispered, "Under your bed? What does that mean?"
Emily couldn't answer. All she could picture was her bedroom waiting in the dark.
Waiting for her.