(Into) The Woods

Chapter 4

Michelle squinted at the window that she had just been slammed shut. A cloud of white, glittering dust dissipated into the air and Michelle had no idea what it was, but she did have some guesses. Neither of those guesses made any sense, though, because her new neighbor had literally just moved in and there was pretty much no way that she could've gotten any of the local gags.

Michelle sighed and turned back to her door, opening the door, and walking into her house. It was way, way too late for this. Michelle looked over her mother, who stood in the kitchen. "Hey, Michelle! How're you?"

Michelle shrugged. "I'm alright."

"I'm making shrimp alfredo for dinner~" Her mother sang.

"Cool." Michelle muttered, putting her earbuds in and turning on some music. She went upstairs and looked for something to wear; somebody had invited her to a party earlier on, and Michelle was planning on going. Maybe it'd take her mind off of things.

Her new neighbor had been on her mind all day and Michelle just wanted a distraction. She'd thought that moving would be a good idea, that Mike and all of his drama wouldn't have to be there.

++++

Michelle lingered near the door of the room and watched as the other people danced and laughed and enjoyed themselves. Despite the fun mood, Micheal couldn't help but feel a sense of dread fill her.

"Has anybody seen Molly?" Tyler, one of Micheal's classmates, walked up to her. Molly had been the one to invite everyone to the part, and Micheal had expected her to be dancing in the middle of the room like nobody's watching. Strangely, though, she was nowhere to be seen.

Molly was an attention seeker. Nobody really liked her, but she threw fun parties and nobody wanted to miss out on those.

Luckily, Michelle's new neighbor was not at the party, meaning that Michelle could finally focus on living her own life instead of her brother and what had happened at her old school.

"No, I haven't seen her since I left school." Michelle did one more sweep over the room to confirm, and, no, she wasn't there.

"Hm." Tyler frowned. "I'll just talk to her tomorrow. She was acting really strange, yknow?"

"Strange how?" Michelle turned her attention to him, blinking.

"She kept, uh...saying things." Tyler looked over at the window. "About the forest."

"Really?" Michelle barely knew Molly, but everybody knew how much she hated the forest. And nature, in general. "Isn't she always talking about the forest?"

"Not like this." Tyler frowned. "Earlier today, she walked up to me and said 'I think I might go explore the forest'. Then she walked away as if nothing happened and when I tried to talk to ehr about it, she spoke as if it never happened."

"That's...weird." Michelle shrugged and looked away. "Maybe we can talk to her about it tomorrow."

"Maybe." Tyler nodded and walked away.