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🌙 Chapter One: The Stranger at the Chapel
The rain was merciless that evening, pounding on the rooftops like a thousand fingertips. Aurora pulled her soaked jacket tighter around her shoulders as she hurried down the lonely road. She hated walking home late, but staying in the school library to finish her assignment was the only way to avoid falling behind.
Willowridge was quiet at night—too quiet. Streetlights flickered, the wind hissed through broken fences, and the old abandoned chapel sat at the end of the road like a dark reminder of old stories parents told their children to scare them.
Aurora always crossed to the other side of the street whenever she neared it.
But today, she froze.
Someone was there.
A boy—tall, lean, with raven-black hair plastered to his forehead from the rain—stood under the twisted tree beside the chapel. His clothes were dark, almost blending with the night. His arms were folded, his expression unreadable.
Something about him made the air feel colder.
Aurora swallowed hard.
"Um… are you okay?" she asked, her voice shaky.
He didn't look at her. Didn't blink. Didn't move.
Just silence.
Aurora frowned. "Alright… rude much."
She stepped away quickly, but she couldn't shake the feeling of his eyes following her—or maybe she imagined it. Either way, her heart raced the rest of the walk home.
When Aurora Got Home
The moment Aurora pushed open the door, warmth rushed over her. The smell of pepper soup drifted from the kitchen, and the sound of a comedy skit blasted from the TV.
Her mother looked up from the living room. "Aurora! You're drenched. Why didn't you take an umbrella?"
"It broke," Aurora sighed, kicking off her wet shoes.
Her younger brother, Sammy, peeked from behind the sofa. "You look like a witch that fell into a river."
"Thanks, Sammy," she said dryly.
She dropped her backpack and headed to her room. But even as she dried her hair with a towel, her mind kept drifting back to the boy.
His stillness.
His cold stare.
The way he seemed… wrong. Not normal.
She tried to shake it off.
Probably just some emo guy trying to look mysterious, she thought.
But her heart didn't believe it.
Later That Night
Aurora sat on her bed, pretending to do homework, but really staring out the window. The rain had stopped, leaving the streets wet and shiny. She thought she saw a figure standing under the streetlight across the road—tall, unmoving.
Her breath caught.
She blinked.
The figure was gone.
A chill crawled down her spine.
"Get a grip," she whispered to herself. "It's just your imagination."
But she closed her curtains tightly before going to sleep, unable to shake the strange feeling that someone—
or something—
had followed her home.
✨ hope you enjoyed chapter 1
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