Stygian: The Silence Of The Whisperers.

1. Someone Tied My Shoelaces Again

{Marigold's perspective}

Staring up at the man poised to end my life, I had a sudden realization: fools aren't the ones playing foolish games, but rather they're manipulated by us, becoming unwitting pawns in our schemes.

Death loomed close, yet murder wasn't an inevitability.

Let me tell you something—never, under any circumstances, wander off alone, especially to a deserted place like the girls' bathroom in a historically isolated soccer arena, just for a bit of solitude. Take it from me. Learn the art of lock picking and self-defense tactics, skills they definitely won't teach you in school. I detest causing harm; even the antagonist in a story wasn't born evil. But that night, right before Halloween week, I was drawn into a series of events far from ordinary. Buckle up, because I'm about to take you on a journey through time, a few months back.

...

My palms turned red as I tried to escape the locked door of the locker room. Getting lost in a deserted football arena wasn't the best scenario, especially in a town as ominous as Red Bluff. You might just disappear forever in a place like this.

A distant howl echoed from beyond the door.

Oh, great.

Exactly what I needed, right?

You'd think I would've wished for human company at that moment. Little did I know, anything but human was on the menu. It was, after all, the Halloween season we were talking about.

A book crashed onto my head, followed by an entire shelf tumbling down on me.

A cloud of smoke made me sneeze repeatedly. I struggled to push the rusty shelf off me, wincing audibly.

A sports locker room with a bookshelf? Those athletes must've been secretly bookworms.

The fallen shelf wasn't excessively heavy, but it hurt like crazy. I ended up with a few scratches on my dusty, pinkish palms and legs as I managed to free myself.

I really hope this isn't some horror movie-themed Halloween prank. If that's the case, I'll probably be reported missing by tomorrow morning.

My phone glitched horribly when I tried to call my friend Ashley.

Damn it. Looks like I might become a ghost's dinner tonight.

The earlier howling, now magnified within the locker room, seemed to come from all directions. Almost like the wind, but I could sense its intention—to distract me, make me overlook the fact that it was likely a ghostly entity waiting to turn me into its spectral snack.

What were the odds that a werewolf from some secret tribe was going to invite me to join them to save the world? Slim to none, I assumed. But the howling did correlate with werewolf legends, didn't it?

The smoke dissipated, almost as if it got sidetracked by something.

Gripping my backpack tightly, I stood on my toes, ready to bolt at any sign of danger.

I waited, straining my ears for any sound.

Just to confirm my suspicions.

The sound didn't return, but my phone buzzed with a message and a call from Evangeline, my cousin who had cleverly turned my friends' plan against me, making me the target of her prank.

Crap.

"Hey, Eva... Where are you? I'm stuck in the locker room. Open the door, please," I panted, my gaze darting around frantically, wary of any lurking threats.

"Huh? What? I'm really busy... So, I wanted to let you know that I'm leaving with Mom and Dad. Something urgent came up. Just hang tight, and a lady named Jane will come get you. Bye."