Chapter 5 JEZ – I Don't Believe in Ghosts, But I Believe Her

I'm not psychic. I don't see ghosts. I don't "feel the energy" of a room. But I know Reyna.

And something was wrong.

She hadn't texted back in four hours.

That didn't sound like much until you realized she hadn't gone more than ten minutes without checking her phone since the funeral. Silence from Reyna wasn't silence. It was a scream in a different pitch.

So, naturally, I did what any nosy best friend with no impulse control and a caffeine addiction would do: I broke into her apartment.

Okay, I didn't break anything. I still had a spare key. Calen gave it to me after Reyna locked herself out three winters ago. I kept it because I don't trust locksmiths or landlords. Or anyone, really.

The place was dark. Cold. Her coat was missing. Boots too.

And there, on the kitchen table, was a small black notebook.

Not Reyna's.

I picked it up. The pages were messy, smudged with ink and pencil. Symbols. Notes. A tree with a spiral. One word underlined three times.

Hollow.

The kind of word that makes your gut clench.

I snapped a photo of the page and put the notebook back where I found it. Then I pulled out my phone and checked the tracker app. Yeah, yeah, I know - privacy. But Reyna gave me permission months ago. We both listened to way too many true crime podcasts. It was a "just in case" thing.

Her location pinged at the edge of the forest. Old trailhead. No streetlights. No reason to be out there after dark.

Unless you're trying to get answers no one else will give you.

I grabbed a flashlight, a folding knife from the kitchen drawer, and a Red Bull from her fridge.

And I went after her.

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The woods were colder than they should've been.

It wasn't just temperature. It was the kind of cold that made the skin on the back of your neck crawl. The kind that made you walk faster even when you told yourself there was nothing behind you.

The trail was quiet. Too quiet. No insects. No owls. Just the sound of my boots on dead leaves and the occasional snap of a branch underfoot.

I called her name.

Twice.

No answer.

I didn't like how loud my own breathing sounded.

The light from my flashlight swung over the path in quick, jerky arcs. I hated it. Hated that she'd come out here alone. Hated that Calen was gone and that Reyna was unraveling, and that no one - not even the cops - seemed to care enough to ask why the body had been sealed so fast, why the autopsy was a joke, why the only person asking questions was the girl left behind.

My boot hit something soft.

I looked down.

A shoe.

Reyna's.

Burned around the sole. Scorched like someone set it on fire and then snuffed it out halfway through.

I crouched and picked it up. The material was warm. Not hot. But not right either.

Something cracked deeper in the woods. Not like a twig. Like bone.

I stood slowly.

"Reyna?" I called again.

No answer.

I held the flashlight higher. My hand shook. Just a little.

"Okay," I muttered to myself. "You're not panicking. This is not Blair Witch. This is not Evil Dead. You are just being a responsible, over-involved, queer best friend with boundary issues and a flashlight."

Something moved in the trees to my left. Not close. But not far.

I turned toward it. Nothing.

Then again, to the right - the same shift. The air felt thick, like I was walking through someone else's breath.

My fingers tightened around the knife.

And that's when I saw it.

Symbols, carved into a tree. Spiral pattern, like the one in the notebook. But this wasn't ink. This was scorched into the bark. Still fresh. The edges glowed faintly, like embers.

"What the hell..."

I stepped closer. Reached out. Didn't touch it, just hovered my fingers near it.

The air around the symbol buzzed. Soft, like a radio just out of tune. And beneath that, a whisper. Not words. Just sound. Like breath caught in a throat that wasn't mine.

I pulled back fast.

And then I heard her.

"Jez..."

Her voice. Far off. Faint. But real.

I turned. "Reyna?!"

Nothing.

I turned back to the symbol - and it was gone.

The tree was bare. Normal. No scorching. No spiral. Just bark and shadow.

I stumbled back two steps, heart hammering.

"Okay. Cool. You're hallucinating now. Love that."

My phone buzzed.

I jumped and almost dropped it.

One new text.

From Reyna.

Don't come any closer.

Three seconds later, the message deleted itself.

Gone. Like it was never there.

My hand went ice cold.

That wasn't Reyna's voice in my head.

That wasn't her warning.

That was someone else wearing her voice.

And they didn't want me here.

Too bad.

I gripped the knife tighter, aimed the flashlight down the trail, and kept going.