The road twisted through a tunnel of low-hanging trees, their bare branches clawing at the sky like crooked fingers. Amanda leaned her forehead against the glass and exhaled, fogging it slightly. Beyond the mist, the forest seemed alive, like it was watching their car ride by.
"Almost there", her mother said from beside her, her voice tight but cheerful.
"Isn't it beautiful?", she asked, still maintaining the same cheery tone.
Amanda didn't answer, she wasn't sure what to say. Beautiful wasn't the word she'd used for a place that felt like it had been plucked from a gothic fairytale, eerie, still. She was still trying to understand how they'd gotten here so fast. They'd left everything behind in New York in less than a week. It was like a whirlwind summer romance. One impulsive wedding, and now they were moving into a mansion in the middle of nowhere with a man neither of them really knew, Samuel Blackthorne, wealthy, a widower and mysterious.
They passed under a massive wrought iron gate as the car wound up a hill. At the top stood the Blackthorne estate. The estate emerged from the fog like something out of a gothic novel. It was huge; stone walls, arched windows, turrets that reached toward the sky, framed by forest on all sides. Moss clung to the sides like veins, showing how old the building was. As the car pulled up to the entrance, the door swung open, and a man dressed like a butler stepped outside, his hands folded primly in front of him. Amanda stepped out of the car, the air hit her like a splash of cold water. The butler ushered them inside with barely a word. The room they stepped into was filled with polished black marble, oil paintings of grim-looking men and a sweeping staircase that split in two. They stopped at the foot of the stairs and the butler turned towards Celeste and spoke, "He's waiting in the drawing room."
He turned to Amanda,
"May I take your suitcase, Miss Blackthorne?", he asked simply.
"I'm Amanda, not Miss Blackthorne.", she corrected automatically.
"And no, I'm fine", she added, holding on to her suitcase tightly.
The butler merely nodded and gestured towards the staircase. Amanda climbed up the staircase behind her mother, slugging her suitcase up with her, but it was heavier than she had anticipated and it constantly kept getting stuck. She focused on moving it up each step instead, and so she didn't see the shadow approaching her and collided with it head on. Her suitcase clattered loudly to the floor. She stumbled back, her gaze jerked upward and met golden brown eyes that glinted with irritation.
"Watch it", the boy growled.
He was tall, easily over six feet, had tousled dark hair, and had a sharp jaw. Muscles beneath a thin black shirt and a glare so sharp Amanda was sure it could cut steel.
Amanda's heart skipped,
"Sorry, I didn't see-", she tried to apologize, but he picked up her suitcase and shoved it into her arms without another word. His eyes raked over her, judging, calculating.
"You must be the human", he muttered under his breath, his voice laced with something between disdain and curiosity, startling her. Then he walked past her like she didn't exist. She turned to stare after him.
"Who was that?", she found herself asking.
The butler's voice answered behind her. "Skylar Blackthorne, the young master of the house."
And also her step-brother, Amanda thought to herself. She gave him one last look before they continued up the stairs towards the drawing room, but Amanda couldn't get the encounter out of her head. Why was he so cold? And what did he mean by 'human'?
Samuel stood at the center of the drawing room, tall, commanding, silver hair swept back, his black suit tailored to perfection.
"Celeste", he said, smiling warmly.
"... and Amanda, welcome to your new home", he greeted them.
Samuel kissed her mother and reached out a hand toward Amanda. She hesitated for a second, then shook it. His grip was firm.
"We're happy to have you here. Truly.", he told her.
"Thanks", she murmured even as irritated golden brown eyes flashed in her mind.
"Your room has already been prepared, Frederick will show you", Samuel continued, gesturing at the butler, who simply bowed in response.
Samuel smiled widely at her.
"I hope you like it, really."
Amanda offered a small smile back.
She was shown to a room on the third floor. It was nicer than anything she'd ever had: canopied bed, fireplace, antique furniture, but it felt wrong. She unpacked in silence. Her mother was off in another wing with Samuel and Amanda wasn't sure if she was more relieved or bitter about it. She didn't belong here. That night, she tossed and turned in bed, unable to fall asleep, watching shadows form on the walls of her room. Sometime past midnight, she heard it, growling. Low, rumbling and coming from right outside her door. She sat up sharply. Her heart raced as she lightly crossed the room. She pressed her ear to the door, silence... then a snarl, right her ear. Amanda jumped back, a scream forming in her throat, her heart beating wildly.
"This is crazy," she thought to herself. How could she hear a snarl? She gathered her courage and yanked the door open. The hallway was empty, no shadows, no sound, just empty. She let out a shaky breath of relief.
"Get it together", she whispered to herself.
She locked the door, crawled back into bed and pulled the blanket over her head. She was just imagining things, she had to be.
---
The next day, Amanda had woken up to a fresh set of uniforms laid out for her on her bed. She went through her morning routine and put it on. She checked the fit in the mirror. The uniform fit quite well, surprisingly, but it didn't do much to actually make her blend in, she thought to herself. She opened the door and Skylar was waiting by the front door in a leather jacket and black jeans, keys dangling from his fingers.
"I'll drive", he grunted.
She blinked. "You don't have to-"
"My father insisted", he said, already walking off.
The ride to school was tense and silent. Skylar never looked at her, just stared at the road like it had personally offended him.
Moonridge High looked like every other school on the outside, brick buildings, a few scraggly trees surrounding the perimeter, but as they pulled into the lot, every head turned. Students stared, some even whispered. Amanda felt their eyes crawl over her like ants, inside the feeling intensified.
Skylar ditched Amanda at the parking lot, taking off and leaving her to walk into her new school on her own. As she walked down the hallway, some students flinched when she passed, others stared openly, their mouths parted as if she were something they didn't quite understand.
One girl with bright red hair and a nose ring muttered, "She doesn't smell like us."
Amanda did a double take. What the hell did that even mean?
---
Amanda made it through her first classes, and then it was lunch. She found a quiet corner in the cafeteria, but her tray sat untouched as she scanned the room. Skylar was across the cafeteria surrounded by people, but he wasn't smiling, wasn't talking. His eyes flicked up once, found her, and he held her gaze. He didn't look away and neither did she. And as they stared into each other's eyes, Amanda had an unsettling feeling that the growl she heard last night might not have been a dream and Skylar Blackthorne wasn't just moody, he was dangerous and somehow everyone else in Moonridge High already knew it.
---
As soon as her class was done, Amanda found Skylar waiting outside her class. He didn't say anything, just glanced at her and began to walk away. She quietly followed behind him. There was a light drizzle outside. As they crossed the parking lot, the rain began to mist over. Amanda caught a glimpse of something darting through the trees beyond the lot, something large and fast. She did a double take but whatever it was, it was already gone... if it was even there to begin with. Skylar's car was already running and Amanda got in without a word. His knuckles were white on the steering wheel.
She looked at him.
"There's something weird about this town", she murmured finally.
He looked back at her, eyebrows raised.
"Well I guess you should be careful when you walk around alone here", he responded simply.
Amanda whipped her head up at him. It wasn't an answer, it was a warning. She looked back at the trees, something was watching, and somehow she was already a part of it.