The first-period bell rang with physical violence.

  The hallway of Stonemouth High instantly filled with bodies, colorful backpacks, and overlapping voices. The air smelled of floor wax, cheap deodorant, and burnt coffee.

  Everything was obscenely normal.

  To his left, two sophomore girls were discussing a chemistry test. Ahead of him, a group from the football team shoved each other, laughing.

  ?Tony walked among them, but the noise reached him muffled. He had tightened the straps of his empty backpack against his chest to hold his cracked ribs steady. The bandage on his forehead throbbed beneath his pulled-up hoodie.

  He tried to slip along the row of gray lockers, but in a small-town school, hierarchy is everything.

  ?"Look who it is. The rabbit came out of his hole."

  ?The voice wasn’t Billy’s. It was Kyle, one of his henchmen.

  The gang was guarding the physics classroom like a solid block. In the center was Billy.

  When he saw Tony, Billy didn’t laugh. He pushed off the cold metal of the lockers. His black eyes dropped to the bandage, then to the ribs the boy was protecting with his arm.

  He gave a slight nod. A silent greeting.

  Tony lowered his head, swallowing the bile, and kept walking.

  ?He reached locker 99.

  Alex was already there, motionless in front of the open door. Dark circles hollowed his pale face. He hadn’t even taken his books out.

  ?"Alex."

  ?The boy jumped. He saw the cut on Tony’s forehead and his eyes widened.

  "Holy shit, Tony..."

  "Don't ask," Tony interrupted him, fumbling with the combination dial. His fingers were trembling. "The bike is gone. But it doesn't matter. The file... did you check it?"

  ?Before Alex could answer, Tony saw Cristy pushing through the crowd.

  She was walking with her head down, but a girl blocked her path with a little hop. It was Charlotte, an explosion of energy in a canary-yellow sweater.

  "Oh my God, Cris! That blowout looks amazing!" Charlotte grabbed a lock of her hair, beaming. Then the smile died on her lips. She leaned in close to her friend’s face, scrutinizing her. "Hey... what’s wrong with your eyes? They’re super red."

  ?Cristy looked away, trying to hide behind her hair. "Nothing, Char. Just... a little insomnia."

  ?Charlotte lowered her voice, adopting a conspiratorial tone. "You haven't been crying over that idiot Zac, have you? If he texted you again, I swear I’ll hunt him down and..."

  ?"No, no," Cristy rushed to say, forcing a smile that looked like glass. "Zac has nothing to do with it. Really. I’m just dead tired."

  ?Charlotte didn’t look convinced, but she squeezed her arm tight. "Listen, I’m your best friend. You know you can count on me for anything, right? Even if you need to bury a body or slash someone’s tires."

  ?Cristy nodded, feeling a lump in her throat. If only she knew how close she’d come. "I know. Thanks, Char."

  "See you at lunch!" Charlotte kissed her cheek and disappeared into the flow of students.

  ?As soon as her friend was gone, Cristy’s mask crumbled. By the time she reached the boys' locker, she was pale, diaphanous.

  "I listened to it," she said, her voice reduced to a thread. "This morning, on my PC."

  A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  ?Tony froze. "And what’s on it?"

  ?Cristy shook her head, eyes glossy. "Not here, Tony."

  ?Alex slammed his locker shut. "Let’s bounce. Now."

  ?They headed for the service stairs. Tony walked blindly through the pain. He turned the corner of Hallway C too tight.

  The impact was inevitable.

  ?"Oh, for heaven’s sake."

  ?Blair Sterling remained standing by a miracle on her heels. She brushed off her tartan skirt as if Tony had just contaminated her.

  "Sorry," he murmured, bending painfully to pick up a dropped paper.

  Blair snatched it from his hand.

  "Watch where you’re going, Tony. Though I doubt you have a precise destination." She wrinkled her nose. "My God. That bandage is unspeakably tacky. And you smell like... what is that? Woods and synthetic fabric?"

  ?"Leave him alone, Blair," Alex interjected.

  ?She laughed. A crystalline sound, devoid of warmth. "Relax. I don't waste time on you people. I’m heading to the office for the Founders' Legacy Award."

  She waved the file she was holding.

  "Scholarship to Oxford. Unlimited access to the Historical Archives. Requires an original essay on the town's roots." She paused, enjoying the moment. "Things that require class and pedigree. You guys go play with ghosts. I’m going to write history and get out of this hole."

  ?She turned in a swirl of expensive perfume.

  "What a snake," Alex hissed.

  Tony didn't answer. He rubbed his aching side. "Let's go downstairs."

  ?They forced the door of the old equipment storage room under the gym. A concrete cubbyhole that smelled of old rubber. Alex locked it from the inside.

  ?"I’m not listening to it again," Cristy said immediately, sitting on a bench in the darkest corner. "Once was enough."

  ?Alex handed the headphones to Tony. "Your turn."

  ?Tony put them on. Alex pressed Play.

  It wasn't just noise.

  A high-pitched, digital hiss. Then, from the static, the voice emerged. Not a whisper. An electric growl.

  ?...Ra... ven... wo... od...

  ?Tony ripped the headphones off. His heart hammered against his ribs.

  "What the hell is that?"

  "I cleaned it up six times," Alex said. "It’s not interference. It’s a word."

  "Ravenwood," Cristy whispered from her corner.

  Tony felt a vibration in his leg.

  He reached into his pocket. His fingers met the cold, rough metal from the night before.

  He pulled it out and placed it on a wooden crate, under the flickering neon light.

  The piece of rusted license plate.

  The raised letters stared back at him.

  ...ENWO

  ?Alex looked at the metal. Then he looked at the phone with the audio file.

  He shifted his gaze to Tony.

  No one spoke.

  The letters matched.

  R-A-V before. O-D after.

  ?"Are you telling me," Tony said hoarsely, "that I fell exactly on top of that thing's name?"

  "Or maybe," Cristy murmured, hugging herself, "that was where you were supposed to fall."

  ?Clang.

  A metallic noise from above.

  The stairwell door opened.

  Heavy footsteps descended the stairs.

  ?"Someone’s coming," Alex hissed.

  He killed the light.

  ?Darkness swallowed the room. Only the frosted glass of the door let in the distorted shapes from the hallway.

  Alex leaned into the dark.

  Two figures stopped beyond the glass.

  ?"I gave you a simple task, Billy."

  A male voice.

  "I know," Billy replied. His cocky tone was gone. He sounded small. "But there were people... I couldn't risk it."

  "I don't care about excuses. I care about results." The man didn’t raise his voice. "I pay you to solve problems, not create them. If you can't handle a simple retrieval, you’re useless to me."

  ?Alex tried to get closer to the crack in the door.

  His elbow bumped an old broom leaning against the wall.

  The broom slid.

  The handle hit the concrete.

  THOCK.

  ?Freeze.

  The man’s figure stiffened.

  "We are not alone."

  He didn't ask who it was. The shadow slipped away toward the emergency exit, fast, silent.

  ?Billy remained motionless. Then his silhouette loomed large on the glass.

  "Who’s in there?"

  He tried the handle. Locked.

  ?Inside, the three friends stopped breathing.

  Billy threw himself against the door.

  BAM!

  The wood groaned. Dust fell from the ceiling.

  "Open up! You better come out right now!"

  BAM!

  The lock creaked. Another hit and it would give. Tony searched for a weapon in the dark. He found only air.

  ?"HEY! ARE YOU CRAZY?"

  The janitor’s voice exploded from the stairs.

  "Miller! What the hell are you doing?"

  ?Billy froze. He slowly backed away from the door.

  "Nothing," he said, short of breath. "It was jammed. I was looking for equipment."

  "Equipment my ass! Get out of here, before I call the principal!"

  ?Billy cast one last look at the closed door. He didn't know who was behind it, but he knew someone had heard.

  "I’m going."

  His heavy footsteps faded away.

  ?When silence returned, Tony slid to the floor.

  "He's gone," Alex whispered. "That man... he ran as soon as he heard the noise. A ghost."

  "Billy takes orders from him," Cristy said. "Did you hear? He sounded like a little soldier."

  ?Tony gripped the piece of metal in his hand. The edges dug into his skin.

  "Blair," he said.

  "What does Blair have to do with this?"

  "The contest. The Historical Archives." Tony stood up. He opened the storage room door. The hallway light hit him in the face, illuminating the dirty bandage.

  "If we want to figure out who that man is and what the hell Ravenwood is, we can't Google it. We need to get into that library."

  "We don't write essays, Tony," Alex objected weakly.

  "Starting today, we do," Tony replied, stepping out into the deserted hallway. "We have to find out what it is. Before it comes for us."

  Author’s Note ??