"Are we really going in there?"
"Scared? You can stay here if you like."
"Stop it, Luna. You know how she gets in the dark."
"Psshh, kill my fun why don't you? Anyway, why are you coming with us?"
Kaeviel ignored Luna's teasing and led them deeper into the forest. The air grew heavier, the sunlight fading between the branches.
"Old Lady Sally might have seen me earlier while you were fighting those girls," he said.
"You could've just said you were doing something else," Luna replied.
He rolled his eyes, "Maybe, if not for certain someone pulling me off the scene."
He purposely made it loud enough for a certain purple hair to hear who had the decency to look sheepish.
"Besides, remember when you and Reuben almost drowned?" he continued while asking Luna.
"Those twin jerks pushed us into the river," Luna said, rolling her eyes.
"Right. Well, I was the one who found you two washed up, remember?"
Luna frowned. "When I woke up, Old Lady Sally was already yelling at you."
"Yeah, that sucked," he muttered.
"What was her reason?"
He shrugged. "Didn't bother remembering."
Selena snickered quietly, and Kaeviel pretended not to hear it.
"Ouch!"
"Selena!"
The alarm cut through the trees like a crack of thunder. Kaeviel and Luna sprinted back toward the others.
Selena was on the ground, Reuben kneeling beside her, pale as snow. Blood pooled beneath her leg.
"Her foot got caught in something!" Reuben shouted.
Luna gasped. "That's… a trap?"
A jagged metal device was clamped around Selena's left leg, its teeth biting deep into her flesh.
Kaeviel crouched beside her, eyes narrowing.
"Why would anyone leave something like this here?" Reuben questioned not really expecting anyone to answer.
"No idea," Luna murmured, voice trembling.
"Because someone intended to hurt something," Kaeviel said grimly.
Selena, while still shaking from her ordeal, managed to ask. "You think they're… hunting people?"
"We don't know that," he replied. "But this trap was placed too neatly to be random."
Luna exhaled shakily. "We should take a detour."
Kaeviel nodded and pried the trap open with a stick. Selena hissed in pain as he lifted her gently into his arms.
"There's another one here!" Reuben called.
They turned to see another gleaming trap half-buried under the grass.
"Does that confirm it?" Luna turned to him.
Kaeviel frowned. "It just became more likely."
Then Selena's shaky voice reminded them. "George is still out there."
Kaeviel nodded. "We'll find him. But the adults in the village need to know about this."
Luna stepped forward. "I'll go back and tell them."
"Take Reuben with you," Kaeviel said. "It's safer in pairs."
"Why not Selena?" Luna asked.
"If there really is someone hunting people," Kaeviel said, "bringing her back while openly bleeding would be like an invitation. We'll patch her up at the river. I've got a feeling we'll find George immediately anyway."
Luna hesitated, then nodded. "Be careful out there. Let's go, Ben."
Reuben gulped. "O-okay."
Kaeviel watched them disappear into the dark. A strange heaviness pressed against his chest.
"Are you holding up?" he asked.
Selena nodded weakly. They'd removed the trap, but two deep punctures still bled through the cloth.
"Why are you walking so slowly? It doesn't hurt that much."
She tried to look brave but the pain was just too obvious to Kaeviel's observant eyes.
He broke a branch and used it to prod the ground ahead. When the stick hit a cluster of bushes, three more traps snapped shut in a flurry of metal teeth.
"It's not just for you."
Selena winced. "You could've just explained."
"You'd just keep nagging me if I didn't prove it," he said with a faint smile.
She pouted but stayed quiet for a while. It didn't last long.
"How do you even know where they are?"
"Some traps are obvious once you know to look," he said. "Still, better to keep your distance."
She shuddered. "You think ghosts put them here?"
"No."
But Reuben's words from earlier echoed in his head. He said George was talking to a ghost.
'What would make Reuben think he saw a ghost?'
The rush of water grew louder. Kaeviel raised a hand for silence and crept forward.
Through the tall grass, he spotted a boy with blue hair standing by the riverbank—arms stretched toward the current.
'George?'
Kaeviel crouched, watching. The boy seemed to be talking to someone unseen, voice low and steady.
For some time, nothing seemed to happen.
Then Kaeviel noticed it—the river wasn't moving right. Droplets were rising from the surface, hanging midair before falling again but not accompanied with the usual splatter.
A shimmer. A ripple.
Water gathered into a human shape—head, shoulders, arms—its form shifting like living glass.
"Ahh!! Ghost!!" Selena screamed.
He forgot he wasn't alone.
The water figure collapsed instantly, splashing back into the river. Obviously trying to hide from the scene.
Yet it was already too late.
"Selena?" George turned, startled.
"George," Kaeviel was the one who replied, stepping out of the grass.