Wiccan Act One: Occult

12 | Search Party

Christian

XII

Cyrus missed four classes.

An awfully long trip to the nurse's office. That's what Christian thought until he got there and his friend was nowhere to be found..

Mr Hope stopped him just before walking through the door, a concerned expression on his face. He asked Christian to go make sure Cyrus was doing okay, something he already intended to do. Nonetheless, he nodded and left.

When Christian saw Cyrus wasn't there, however, he grew worried. When he didn't show up to his first class, it worsened. Then he missed three more, and that worry turned into an overwhelming panic. Had Cyrus bailed on him? Clearly no, because as Christian shoved a few books in his locker, he could make out his best friend sprinting past freshmen down the hall.

"Christian, we h-have to leave right now," Cyrus said, breathless. He doubled over, holding onto his knees for support, trying to get his lungs to calm down.

"What do you mean? Why?" Christian raised an eyebrow. "Where on earth were you? You missed 4 classes."

"That doesn't matter." Cyrus looked around, disoriented.

"We need to find Hazel."

"Yeah, that's what we planned to do, remember? You said we would investigate after school."

"No, it has to be now."

"You're not making any sense." Christian could barely understand Cyrus. "Take your time."

"That man we saw on the radio wasn't the first person to show up dead. The sheriff's department has been keeping a bunch of murders under wraps. There were two others, all reported missing and then popped up strangled to death with the same spiral carved into their forehead."

His chest started hurting, his ribcage too small to hold his intensely beating heart. With his tongue sticking to the top of his mouth, he tried to formulate a sentence, but nothing came out.

The weight of the situation suddenly dawned on him. What were they going to do? Two barely sixteen-year-old boys looking for their friend in the forest when there was a nightmare creature killing people? Hazel was a goner if her life was in their hands.

Cyrus' face fixed into one of terror, matching how Christian felt.

"Well now, we have to tell the police. They need to know where she got taken. There's not a lot of time to find her." Christian tried and failed to remain calm, aware that his voice cracked at least twice while saying that.

"I spoke to Rowan, he's the one that told me everything." Cyrus assured.

His gaze faltered for a second, looking more worried than scared when he said that. He shouldn't be blaming himself for any of this anymore.

"Hopefully, he comes clean. But we still owe it to her to search."

Fear was a strange thing. People often get braver when they are fighting for what's important to them. Fear becomes a thing of the past when that happens. The more you're fighting for means, the more you have to lose.

Christian threw his entire bag in with the rest of his books and slammed his locker shut.

"One problem," Cyrus said. "How are we going to get there?"

There was one way, but Christian wondered if it would cause him to lose his head. He had a few favors he could cash in, though.

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