CHAPTER 2

Elena entered the Diner, shaking off the lingering unease of her encounter in the forest. The hum of conversation, the smell of the coffee, all the comforts of reality after her strange morning in the woods, hit her like a warm blanket as she spotted Jenna at their regular booth and waved her over with a broad smile.

"Hey, Elena! I was starting to think you'd slept in," Jenna quipped, her tone light and teasing as Elena slid into the seat across from her.

"Sorry, just had a weird morning," Elena admitted, pasting a smile onto her face as she looked around. The warmth of the diner was a relief and warm compared to the cold forest. She began to relax even though the mysterious man still preyed on her thoughts.

Jenna cocked an eyebrow, clearly interested. "Weird how?"

Elena hesitated, not wanting to sound crazy. Something wasn't right, though. "I met this guy in the woods. He was just…standing there. It was kinda creepy."

Jenna's eyes widened a bit. "Creepy? Like, how?"

"Like he was watching me. And he said something about the woods being unpredictable. I don't know, it just felt strange," Elena explained, trying to keep her voice from shaking.

Jenna looked pensive, but just then the waitress arrived with a new coffee urn and their usual breakfast orders. They tried to push out thoughts that were disturbing as they chattered on about school and future plans, but Elena kept flashing back to the forest and the stranger there.

They dug in and ate for some time until Elena's phone buzzed. She had a text message. She glanced down at it briefly: "You saw him. Why?" It was from an unknown number.

Her heart nearly stopped. The text itself is jerky but with an underlying sense of urgency. She turned to Jenna, who was in mid-sentence, and quickly tapped out the reply, "Who is this?"

Jenna must have noticed that she was distracted because she leaned forward, concerned. "Everything okay?"

"Yeah, just… got a weird message," Elena said, showing her phone.

Jenna's eyebrows furrowed. "Weird, what does it say?"

Elena hesitated before reading the message. "You saw him. Why?"

Jenna's eyes grew wide. "Ew, that is so creepy. Do you know who it might be?"

Elena shook her head, and her stomach twisted because she had no idea. Could be a psycho.

Before Jenna could say anything further in comfort, Elena's phone buzzed yet again. There was the same number, this time saying, "He's dangerous. Stay away."

Elena's pulse raced as she felt another set of eyes locked on her. The free space of the diner suddenly seemed strange and claustrophobic. "I think I better go," she said in a bare whisper.

Jenna looked at her worriedly once more but nodded. "Okay, let me just wrap some of these up. I'll come with you, right?"

"No, I'll be fine," Elena said very convincingly if she was being honest with herself. She dropped a few bucks on the table and stood fast, squeezing Jenna before beating a quick retreat out of the diner.

She stepped out of the diner, and a blast of cold air greeted her. The comforting normalcy of the diner faded with it. Elena strode with a purpose, her mind filling now with more questions: who could have written these messages? What did they know about the man in the forest? And why did Elena feel as though she was being pulled into something she didn't understand?

She walked home, taking a different route from the one she had used that morning, cutting out the forest path. She couldn't shake the sensation she was being followed. Every noise, the indefinable movement out of the corner of her eye, seemed to raise the paranoia another notch.

Finally reaching her house, she took a deep breath and fumbled with her keys. The messages shook her more than she wanted to admit, and she just wanted to get inside and lock the door behind her. Stepping into the hall, she saw movement across the floor, and her body froze.

Her heart raced as she looked around to locate the source behind the shadow. She then spotted something on the floor—an envelope placed at the foot of her door. It was just an empty plain envelope—no marks, no clue given within. Her name was scribbled in tidy, foreign writing.

Elena didn't want to tear up the envelope, and she felt its very weight carry a certain sense of foreboding. She hesitated awhile but then tore it open. There was only one piece of paper in it, with only one typewritten sentence:

"**Stop digging or the next message will be your last.**"

Elena's throat caught on her breath. The message was clear and chilling; her stomach churned from fear. She glanced around her empty house, feeling that sense of safety she had always had replaced with dread.

She shut it fast behind her and locked it. She was shaking, and her fingers went for her brain to score out some sense of what she had just read. Who could have sent her this message, what did they want, and why did they so desperately want to keep her from the truth?

Her phone buzzed again; same strange number. "You've been warned."

Elena flopped back on the couch with a deep sigh, her mind reeling from the implications of it all. First, there was the man in the forest, then the strange warnings, and now this ominous note—engaging her in something far bigger, not to mention dangerous.

Her instincts screamed at her that she was homing in on something, but at what price? Messages weighing heavy in the air, anticipating what might come next, planted a sense of dread deep inside Elena.