WHERE ELARA SLEEPS

The next morning, there was a new rule posted on the mess hall bulletin board.

"All campers and staff are to remain in their cabins after lights out. No exceptions."

Maya stared at the paper. The ink was still wet, like someone had printed it in a hurry. There was no mentioned of the broken mirrors in the cabin, No mentions of the screams. Or the shadow in the doorway Elara. At breakfast, the kids were quiet, their eyes down. Chewing slower. A few of them snuck glances at Maya, and she could tell the rumors were spreading. Not just about her being "weird." But something else. Something deeper. Like they sensed she was marked. Touched by whatever haunted these woods. Brooke avoided her completely. And Erin—sweet, bubbly Erin—wasn't there. When Maya asked another counselor where she was, they whispered, "They took her home. Her parents came in the night." Maya's stomach sank another one gone? Just like that. She needed answers. And not from Brooke. Not from Hayes. But from the only person who seemed to want her to know the truth. Elara. She excused herself from the rest of the staffs and went to her cabin. She needs answers and she will definitely get them. 

That evening, Maya returned to the nature hut with the kids The group photo she had found was now gone. But how? She remembered she had hidden it inside her bag, and she was the only one that has access to it. Who came inside her cabin and took those photos? How did the person even get to know about those photos? She ran back to the nature Hurt where she took the pictures from, but the few pictures she left behind while taking the important ones has been torn from the wall. Only rusted nails remained. She scanned the wood, the ground, even checked behind the trees. Nothing. Like it had never been there. Maya knew they wanted to stop her from searching for the truth. But she remembered every detail. Elara's face. Ash's smile. And those words that were written on the back of the pictures she had taken to her cabin.

"She was the sacrificial lamb."

The words wouldn't stop repeating in her head. Why a lamb? Why Elara? What were they sacrificing her for? She wandered deeper into the woods, past the old chapel that had been boarded up since the early 2000s used by the campers.Nobody went near it. The doors were chained, the windows blacked out with paint. But something tugged at Maya, Like she was being pulled forward. Her legs were moving on there own. The chapel called to her. She broke off a branch and wedged it under the back door. With a sharp creak, the wood splintered just enough to slip inside. Dust swirled in the beam of her flashlight. The air was stale and sweet, like rot and lavender. Old hymn books littered the pews. Candles melted into bone-colored stumps lined the altar. And then, there it was. At the front of the chapel, nailed to the wall behind the pulpit, was a mural. No, a painting. Elara. Or someone who looked exactly like her, arms outstretched like a saint, white dress flowing behind her, eyes closed. But the paint was wrong, red stained her dress, blooming from her chest like a wound. And at her feet, kneeling, heads bowed in shadow, were five figures. One of them wore a staff uniform. The signature at the corner read:

"Ritual of the Moon, 2007"

Maya's heart thundered. She took a shaky step back. Her foot struck something hard. She looked down. A lantern.

Not just any lantern a camp lantern. With the initials A.W. scratched into the side. Ash Wren. He had been here. Maya bent to pick it up when the temperature dropped. Fast. Her breath came out in a visible puff. Then the whisper came again, but this time, it wasn't in her ears it was inside her head.

"They made me do it."

Maya spun around. The painting bled fresh crimson from Elara's chest. The figures kneeling at her feet seemed to shift in the flickering light. One raised its head. Its eyes were hollow sockets. Maya stumbled back toward the door, her lantern clutched tight, her pulse a wild drumbeat in her throat. She didn't stop running until the chapel disappeared behind the trees. She ran like her whole life depends on how fast she was running. 

She didn't sleep that night. Instead, she sat at the edge of her bed, holding the lantern like a lifeline. Her hands wouldn't stop shaking. Somewhere outside, an owl hooted. Somewhere closer, a girl was crying in her sleep.

Maya opened the lantern's base. Inside was a folded scrap of paper. She hesitated, then unfolded it.

"They were supposed to pick me. But they chose her."

A.W.

Maya's skin went cold.

Was Ash supposed to be the sacrifice? And who are those people that is picking them for sacrifice? Why did they leave Ash and pick Elara? These questions kept her awake all through the night. The owl didn't stop hooting like someone was controlling it to hoot. Maya checked her watch 3.AM. She took her rosary and started praying but she heard the whispers again.

"Do you think it will stop me"

Maya threw the rosary to the floor, she wanted to shout but her voice was coming out. And then she fell down.

When Maya opened her eyes again, it was morning, and she was lying on her bed. She look around her cabin the last thing she remember last night was the voice whispering to her, she did not remember sleeping on her bed. And her rosary what's laying on the floor. Maya made up her mind. She needed to find the old records. Camp logs. Staff lists. Anything that could tell her what happened in 2007.

She waited until lunch when the other counselors were busy with canoe drills, then slipped into the staff lodge. Director Hayes's office was locked. But the door to the basement where the old files were kept wasn't. The stairs creaked under her weight. The basement smelled like mildew and wet carpet. Filing cabinets lined the walls like iron coffins. She found the drawer labeled "2007" and yanked it open. Inside were a dozen folders. She flipped through them.

Staff: Hayes. Brooke. Nurse Jenna.

Campers: Elara Dawn Wren. Ash Wren. Molly Pike. Jonah Beech. Caleb Blackwell.

Special notes: Cabin 13 decommissioned after incident. Maya froze. There was no Cabin 13. Not anymore. She returned the folders back where she had taken them. the As she crept back up the stairs, a shadow moved past the sliver of light beneath the office door. Maya held her breath and waited footsteps faded. She slipped out and made her way to the map of the grounds posted near the mess hall. Her eyes scanned the forest grid. Cabin 13 wasn't marked.

But the woods near the west trail had a cleared area. Just trees and grass now. No building. No path. She will go tonight after lights out. No matter what the new rule said she had to see it for herself.

Once it was nighttime and everywhere was quiet, she snuck out with a flashlight and the lantern. The moon was barely a sliver in the sky, and the wind pushed the branches like they were trying to keep her away. Maya reached the clearing a little past 2 a.m. There were no signs of a cabin. Just soft grass and rotted wood buried beneath it. But the earth felt... wrong. Like it had been disturbed. Like something had been dug up and then quickly covered. She dropped to her knees, brushed back leaves and dirt. Her fingers touched stone. A flat rock. No, a plaque. Faintly etched words shone in her flashlight.

"For the good of Hollow Pines, a promise made. A price paid."

Maya reeled back, breath caught in her throat. Suddenly, the ground beneath her trembled. And then she heard it. Not a whisper this time. But a scream. Coming from under the ground.