Chapter 2 Shadows in the Blood

It was morning, Kaia was still asleep, in the middle of a terrible nightmare concerning the events of last night , not until the morning light filtered through the cracked blinds of her bedroom, casting thin stripes across the cold wooden floor. She knew it was time to get up but the weight of last night pressed down like a stone on her chest, she lay still, unfocused and lost in all that happened . The memories clawed at her, whispers from the forest, the shadow of the stranger, the way her skin had burned beneath the moonlight.

Her phone buzzed softly on the nightstand.

Stephan.

She stared at the screen,Let it ring. She wasn't ready.

Sitting up slowly, Kaia felt the room tilt for a second, like the world hadn't settled yet. Like she hadn't. She wasn't the same girl who had stumbled into that lake. That version of her had drowned.

What crawled out... was something else. Something broken. Something awakening.

Downstairs, the Monroe house moved on like nothing had changed. Stephan's footsteps were firm and familiar, pacing in the hallway. Raine's laughter drifted faintly from the kitchen, like a ghost of a normal life waiting for her to return to it.

But Kaia couldn't.

She dressed quickly, slipping into dark clothes that felt more like armor than fashion. Outside, the world was too bright. Too loud. Every sound scraped across her nerves like glass. Every scent hit her too hard - smoke, salt, blood.

The hunger had started.

Something primal curled deep inside her, gnawing, waiting. She didn't know what it wanted.

Not yet.

At school, she met Raine behind the gym, their secret corner, safe from the world's questions. Raine's gaze softened the moment she saw her.

"You look like you haven't slept in days," Raine whispered, brushing a strand of hair from Kaia's face.

Kaia's voice cracked. "I don't even know where to start."

"You don't have to." Raine's fingers lingered at Kaia's cheek. "Just... don't shut me out."

The words wrapped around Kaia like a lifeline.

But before she could answer, the bell rang - sharp and sudden, slicing the moment in half. Kaia turned away, her heart a tangle of secrets and shadows.

She stepped into the hallway's blur of voices and footsteps, wondering if anyone - even Raine - could ever understand what she was becoming.

Stuck between the hunger and not being able to tell her friend what's really going on with her made her feel weak, because she hadn't even figured out what the changes she's experiencing was.

She ran out of school, she had no control over what she was feeling, a strange part of her wanting to break out , to be free but we are all scared of what we do not understand. Kaia knew that and it made her more scared of coming out to tell her brother or her best friend, Raine.

Kaia went back home, everyone and everything were still same as if no Ike noticed the changes she's experiencing, she crawled up to her room and started crying trying to understand what happened that day at the lake