I can’t move, can’t breathe. My chest tightens so hard it hurts, like the air has been ripped out of me.
“Lucien,” I whisper, but my voice barely comes out.
And suddenly, something bursts out of the bushes.
Both of us jump.
A fucking deer.
It darts across the clearing and disappears back into the woods.
Lucien exhales slowly.
“Jesus,” he mutters under his breath.
I press a hand against my chest, trying to steady my breathing.
But even as the silence returns…
The fear doesn’t fully leave. We circle the house again. I call Sophie’s name two more times. The forest gives us nothing back. No movement, no voice, no sign that anyone has been here. After a few minutes I stop walking.
My shoulders sag slightly.
“She’s not here,” I whisper.
The words feel fragile and Lucien doesn’t answer right away. His eyes scan the dark one last time, jaw tight, shoulders still tense like he’s not ready to let his guard down just yet.
Then he slowly exhales. “She’s not here,” he repeats, quieter this time like he’s accepting it, not just hearing it. There’s something in his voice. Relief. But not the kind that brings comfort, the kind that leaves more questions behind.
I swallow hard. “Then where is she?” He doesn’t look at me immediately. And that, more than anything, makes my stomach twist. A cold weight settles in my chest. “Lucien…” My voice wavers. “This isn’t—this isn’t just someone running off, is it?”
He finally turns to me. The look in his eyes is heavy, serious. Like he’s already ten steps ahead, already piecing something together he doesn’t want to say out loud. “No,” he says quietly. My breath hitches. “No, I don’t think it is.”
The thick silence falls between us again. He steps closer, not touching me but close enough that I can feel him there. “If she was here…” he adds, more to himself than to me, “we would’ve found something.” I shake my head slightly. “But we didn’t.”
“No,” he agrees. “We didn’t.” That lands harder than I expect because it means whatever happened, didn’t happen here.
Or worse…
It didn’t leave anything behind.
Lucien glances back toward the trees one last time, then back at me.
“We shouldn’t stay,” he says.
I nod immediately. I don’t argue. I don’t want to be here anymore, not with the eerie quiet, not with the unknown pressing in from every direction. We walk back to the car, my steps feel heavier now like I’m carrying something I can’t name. Lucien opens the passenger door for me, his movements automatic but I can see it in the way his hand lingers on the frame for just a second too long.
He’s thinking hard. I slide into the seat and he closes the door gently. When he gets in, neither of us speak at first. The engine starts, headlights cut through the darkness and we pull away. The drive back begins insilence but it’s not empty. It’s filled with everything we didn’t say. Everything we’re both thinking, everything that’s starting to feel wrong.
If she’s not here…
Maybe Sophie is still alive. Maybe she’s somewhere else. Maybe we’re not too late. The road winds through the trees again until the forest finally gives way to city lights. Lucien keeps driving, past the office building, past the park where I first called him.
I glance at him.
“Why aren’t you stopping?” I ask quietly. “Where are we going?”
Lucien doesn’t answer.
