The paper airplane sat innocuously in Aleni's locker, its edges crumpled and its folds intricate. She had almost missed it, buried as it was among the pile of textbooks and notebooks that cluttered her locker.
Curiosity piqued, she unfolded the airplane and read the message scrawled on the inside.
"Listen closely, child of the sun,
To the whispers of the ancient one.
Heed the call of the midnight wind,
Or suffer the fate that awaits within."
Aleni frowned, unsure of what to make of the cryptic poem. Was it a prank, a joke, or something more sinister?
She glanced around the hallway, but saw no one who seemed out of place or suspicious. She shrugged, thinking that she was probably just being paranoid.
As the day went on, however, the poem lingered in her mind, its ominous tone and ancient references sending shivers down her spine.
That night, she dreamed of a shadowy figure whispering in her ear, its voice low and gravelly.
"Find me," it said. "Or suffer the consequences."
She woke up in a cold sweat, her heart pounding in her chest. She couldn't shake the feeling that something was off, that there was some kind of danger lurking just beyond the edges of her awareness.
The next day, she tried to put the dream and the poem out of her mind, focusing instead on her classes and her new friends. But as the day wore on, she began to notice strange things happening around her.
Her locker door wouldn't open, no matter how many times she punched in the combination. Her phone kept glitching, shutting off and turning back on without warning. And in her last class of the day, she noticed a strange man watching her from outside the window, his eyes fixed on her with an intensity that made her skin crawl.
She tried to dismiss it as paranoia, as her overactive imagination running wild. But as she left the school and walked towards her car, she heard something that made her blood run cold.
Her parents were on a call with the officer from the rehab facility. Some rough looking teenagers had cornered her brother and beaten him. Her brother was badly injured and was bleeding from various wounds.
Her parents decided to go to the facility. Aleni insisted that she shall be allowed to come as well.
They reached the facility in a little less than an hour and went inside. There was her brother, battered and bruised. "What happened, pete? Did you get into a fight?" She found herself asking, dreading the answer.
Her brother looked up at her, his eyes dark with pain and anger. "I don't know," he said, his voice hoarse. "They just jumped me out of nowhere."
She felt a chill run down her spine. She knew, deep down, that it wasn't just a random act of violence. It was a warning, a consequence of her ignoring the message in the paper airplane.
She wondered who had sent it, who was behind the dark and ominous words.
As the days passed, she tried to piece together the clues, to figure out who was targeting her and her family. She went through her list of acquaintances and suspects, trying to match up motives and opportunities.
Naemi was the first person on her list, but she quickly dismissed her as a suspect. Naemi was tough and impulsive, but she wasn't the type to resort to violence or intimidation.
Allan was also a possibility, with his dark poetry and enigmatic personality. But she couldn't quite shake the feeling that he was too passive, too aloof to be capable of such calculated malice.
As the weeks went by, she found herself growing increasingly paranoid and anxious, always looking over her shoulder and wondering when the next shoe would drop.
But no matter how hard she looked, she couldn't find the source of the threat, the shadowy figure behind the paper airplane and the ominous poem.
And as she lay awake at night, staring up at the ceiling and listening to the sounds of insects in the garden. Aleni finally fell asleep in the early hours of morning.
Aleni couldn't shake off the feeling of unease that had settled in her gut. The paper airplane incident had left her on edge and she found it hard to focus on anything else. Even hanging out with her friends wasn't enough to distract her.
As they walked to their classes, Allan introduced her to Danae, the exchange student. Aleni tried to muster up some enthusiasm for meeting him, but it was hard to do when she felt like there was a ticking time bomb hanging over her head.
Danae seemed like a nice enough guy, quiet and reserved, but with a great sense of humor when he was with his friends. Aleni could tell that he was a bit of an introvert, and she wondered what it must be like to move to a new country and start a new school where you didn't know anyone.
Despite her best efforts, Aleni couldn't really focus on anything that day. She half-heartedly listened to her teachers and tried to participate in class discussions, but her mind kept wandering back to the paper airplane and the ominous warning it contained.
During lunch, Aleni found herself sitting with her friends, but not really engaging with them. She tried to smile and laugh at their jokes, but it all felt hollow and forced. She felt like she was going through the motions, but not really living.
As the day wore on, Aleni's fatigue caught up with her. She felt like she could fall asleep right there in class, and her eyes had dark circles underneath them. She knew she looked like a mess, but she couldn't bring herself to care.
When the final bell rang, Aleni gathered her things and headed for the door. She didn't even say goodbye to her friends, just nodded in their direction and made her way out of the classroom. She didn't know what was wrong with her, but she knew that something had to change.
