Eyes of the Wendigo

17 -

Sarah hadn't slept in what felt like days. The nights had become endless, each one bleeding into the next, a heavy fog of fear and confusion that refused to lift. She barely ate, barely moved, her world shrinking to the four walls that surrounded her, her thoughts circling endlessly around Rob. Around him and everything she had lost.

The cold wind howled outside her window, rattling the glass and pushing snow into thick drifts against the house. The darkness had taken over, not just from the bitter winter, but from something deeper, something that gnawed at the edges of her mind. She could feel it creeping in, twisting her thoughts, turning her grief into something sharper, more dangerous.

The photograph sat on the table in front of her, the edges worn from the constant handling. She stared at it, her eyes tracing the lines of Rob's face—his smile, the familiar glint in his eyes. He looked so young, so full of life. But it wasn't just Rob she saw. No, it was him, the man standing next to Rob in the photograph. Elias. Or someone who looked exactly like him.

Her hand trembled as she picked up the photograph again, her heart racing in her chest. She had tried to convince herself it was a coincidence, that maybe it was just someone who looked like Elias, someone from Rob's past she didn't know. But the more she thought about it, the more she became convinced that this was no coincidence. Elias had been part of Rob's life long before they came to White Pines. He had been manipulating them from the very beginning.

And now, she was sure he had a hand in Rob's death.

He's been pulling the strings this whole time, Sarah thought, her breath coming in shallow, ragged bursts. He killed Rob. He's the reason the village is falling apart.

The thought lodged itself in her mind, festering like a wound. She had spent days poring over Rob's journals, piecing together his final, frantic entries. He had known something. He had seen something in the village, something wrong. And Elias had been there the entire time, watching him, pushing him to the edge.

Sarah stood abruptly, the chair scraping against the floor as she moved to the window, her breath fogging the glass as she peered out into the dark night. The village was quiet, the snow falling in thick, heavy flakes, blanketing everything in a deceptive calm. But there was nothing calm about what was happening. People were disappearing. Fear was taking hold. And Elias was at the center of it all.

Her heart pounded in her chest as her eyes scanned the darkness beyond the window, her breath hitching in her throat. And then, she saw it—a shadow, just at the edge of her vision. A figure standing in the snow, barely visible in the dim light.

Her heart stopped.

Rob.

It was him. It had to be him.

Sarah's breath came in ragged gasps as she pressed her hands against the window, her eyes wide with disbelief. The figure stood motionless, watching her, his face obscured by the shadows, but she knew it was him. She could feel it deep in her bones, the same way she had felt it the night she had seen him in the woods.

"Rob?" she whispered, her voice trembling. "Is that you?"

The figure didn't move. It just stood there, silent, still, like a ghost frozen in time. Sarah's hands shook as she stared out into the night, her mind racing.

Was he alive? Had Elias taken him, hidden him away, transformed him into something unrecognizable?

The thought made her skin crawl, but she couldn't shake it. She couldn't stop thinking about the last few weeks, about the strange things Rob had written in his journal, the paranoid notes about the village and the infection he had believed was spreading through it. He had been convinced something was wrong—someone was watching him. And now Sarah was starting to wonder if he had been right all along.