When The Rain Fall

The discovery of Isla's bracelet confirmed one thing—she had been at the abandoned train bridge. But what happened after that remained a mystery.

As Mia, Liam, and Jonah stood in the eerie silence of the bridge, a gust of wind howled through the broken beams, sending a shiver down Mia's spine.

Jonah clenched the bracelet in his fist. "She was here. But why?"

Liam stared into the dark waters below. "And if she was here… where did she go next?"

Mia hesitated. "What if someone took her?"

Silence. The thought hung heavily in the air.

Jonah's voice was tense. "We need more information. If Isla was afraid, she might have left clues before she disappeared."

Liam's gaze darkened. "Then we start with her last known sketches. There might be something we missed."

Back at Jonah's apartment, they spread out Isla's old sketches, searching for any clue they had overlooked.

Mia ran her fingers over a page filled with seemingly random symbols. "What is this?"

Jonah frowned. "I don't know. Isla sometimes experimented with abstract patterns, but this… it looks deliberate."

Liam's brows furrowed. "What if it's a code?"

Mia grabbed her phone and searched for cipher patterns. "It looks like an old substitution cipher."

Jonah's eyes widened. "Isla was always into puzzles."

They worked through the symbols, replacing them with letters. Slowly, a message emerged:

Mia felt her blood run cold.

Liam's voice was barely above a whisper. "The oak tree…"

Jonah's face hardened. "She was trying to tell us something. But who was watching her?"

Determined to find answers, they returned to the oak tree the next morning. The park was quiet, the air thick with an unspoken tension.

Liam ran his hands over the tree's bark, searching for anything unusual. Then he froze.

"Mia. Jonah. Over here."

They rushed to his side as he pointed to a carved symbol on the tree. It was the same as one of the patterns in Isla's sketchbook.

Jonah traced it with his fingers. "She left this here. But why?"

Mia glanced around, suddenly feeling exposed. "What if someone's still watching?"

Jonah exhaled sharply. "Then we better move fast."

They dug around the base of the tree, their fingers scraping through damp earth. After several minutes, Mia's hand brushed against something solid.

Her heart pounded as she lifted it out of the dirt. Liam pried it open. Inside was a small, yellowed notebook.

Jonah carefully flipped through the pages.

His hands trembled.

"It's Isla's journal."

As they read through the journal, Isla's last days came into focus.

She wrote about feeling watched.

She mentioned a man in a dark coat who always seemed to be near.

She spoke of discovering something she wasn't supposed to find.

Her final entry: "If something happens to me, the truth is at Whitmore Asylum."

Mia's breath caught. "Whitmore Asylum? I've heard of it. It was shut down years ago."

Liam's jaw clenched. "But if Isla mentioned it, then it's important."

Jonah's voice was like steel. "Then we go there."

That night, they drove to the abandoned Whitmore Asylum. The building loomed in the darkness, its broken windows and crumbling walls whispering of forgotten horrors.

Jonah held a flashlight as they carefully stepped inside. The air smelled of dust and decay.

They moved cautiously through the corridors, searching for anything that connected to Isla. Then, in a locked office, they found patient records.

Mia flipped through the files until she stopped at a familiar name.

Jonah's hands shook as he grabbed the file. "What the hell? Isla was never a patient here."

Liam pulled out another file, his face pale. "Neither was I… but my name is in here too."

Mia's stomach twisted. "What does it say?"

Liam's voice was hoarse. "It says I was a patient. That I was treated for hallucinations and delusions."

Jonah's eyes widened. "That's not true… right?"

Liam shook his head. "I've never been here before in my life."

Mia grabbed another file. "There's something bigger going on here."

Then she found it.

The report was incomplete, but one section stood out:

Patient exhibited knowledge of events that had not yet occurred. Subject showed signs of precognitive abilities before disappearance.

Mia's breath hitched. "This sounds like Isla."

Jonah's face hardened. "Then someone erased her."

Liam's voice was cold. "And now we need to find out why."

As they left the asylum, Mia's phone rang.

An unknown number.

She hesitated, then answered. "Hello?"

A distorted voice whispered:

"You're getting too close. Walk away… before it's too late."

The line went dead.

Mia turned to Liam and Jonah, her hands shaking. "Someone knows we're looking."

Jonah's eyes darkened. "Good. Because we're not stopping."

Liam clenched his fists. "Whoever took Isla… they made a mistake."

Mia's voice was steady.

"They let us find her."