Chapter 2

I told my manager I had a family emergency, which wasn’t entirely a lie because Priya is family in every way that counts.

He said to take whatever time I needed, and I felt guilty for about four seconds. Then I went home, packed a bag, and didn't look at the bedroom for longer than necessary.

We left on a Thursday morning.

Priya drove because she said I was in no state to, and she was right. I kept zoning out in the passenger seat, watching the city thin out into highway and then into the kind of open flat land that makes you realize how compressed city living actually is.

I had forgotten that space existed like this.

That you could look out and see the actual horizon.

“How long has it been since you went back?” I asked her.

“Three years.” She kept her eyes on the road. “Maybe four.”

“That’s a long time.”

“Wrenfield doesn’t really change,” she said. “That’s the thing about it. It's magical.”

I smiled at her then slept for the most part of the drive.

Real sleep.

The heavy kind, which surprised me because I hadn’t slept properly since I found them.

I woke up when the car slowed and the road changed texture, and I looked out the window and felt something shift in my chest.

The town was not what I expected.

When Priya said "small town," I pictured something tired and run-down with a gas station and maybe a diner.

Wrenfield was not that it really did look magical but with tall trees and forest surrounding it.

It was clean in a way that felt deliberate. The buildings were old but maintained, the streets wide, and the trees looked like they had been there forever, with roots probably breaking up the concrete underneath.

There were people walking around. Not many, but some.

And they looked...

I don’t know how to say this exactly.

They looked arranged.

Like everyone knew where to be.

“It’s pretty,” I said.

“Yeah.”

Priya said it without much feeling, which I noted.

We drove slowly through what I assumed was the main part of town, and I rolled my window down because the air genuinely smelled different.

Green and cold.

And something else underneath that I couldn’t name.

A woman walking on the pavement glanced at the car and then looked again, longer this time, her eyes finding me specifically as if I was a ghost. weird.

We stopped at a light.

A man on a bicycle slowed beside us, looked straight at me through the open window, and made a face that I can only describe as confusion mixed with something alert.

Like a dog that hears a sound.

“That guy just stared at me. Is there something on my face?” I said, touching my face. Maybe I had drooled while I was asleep.

“Ignore it you are pretty he could just be admiring you.”

“Priya, it didn't look like he was flirting with me. what’s wrong with his... Are you sure there is nothing on my face?, but an old lady was also staring she couldn't be flirting with me too.”

“Zara, ignore it. see this is why I didn't want to leave you alone, you are getting paranoid and seeing what is not there.”

We drove on in silence.

An older woman outside a shop said something to the person next to her, and they both looked at our car.

I caught the word "strange," and "it's her," but nothing else.

“Okay,” I said. “Why do people keep looking at me like that? and that is definitely not my paranoid self speaking don't you see they are all looking at me strangely."

“Small town,” Priya said. “New face. You know how it is. Everybody knows everyone here.”

“That woman literally said I smelled strange, but I had my bath before coming. If there is something wrong with me, you will tell me, right?. Also how can she even smell me from here.”

I was already worried at that point.

I smelled myself.

It was fine.

Priya’s hands shifted on the wheel.

Just slightly.

“You smell amazing, sweetheart. Old people here are weird about outsiders. It’s a whole thing. Don’t take it personally. They are only curious because you are new here.”

I looked at her.

She was watching the road with too much focus for a road this empty.

“Priya.”

“We’re almost at the house,” she said. “You’re going to love my mom’s cooking.”

I let it go.

I was tired, and my chest still had that bruised feeling from the whole Marcus situation.

I didn’t have the energy to push it.

I turned back to the window.

Another person on the pavement noticed me and then turned away too quickly.

The whole town had looked at me.

And I was very sure something was wrong.

I had not imagined it.