What Was Left Behind

Chapter 8: Voices in the Dark

Timeline: Present Day

Maia stared at her phone, the cold, hollow ring of silence echoing in her mind. The voice—it was Camilla's. It couldn't be, but it was. The sound of her best friend's voice, so familiar and yet so utterly impossible, clung to her like a vice, squeezing every rational thought out of her mind.

Her hands shook as she stared at the phone, waiting, hoping the voice would return. But there was nothing. Only the faint hum of the line before the call cut off, leaving her standing in the center of her apartment, her world spinning out of control.

Camilla was dead. She had to be. There was no way she could still be alive. Not after this long. Not after the police had turned up nothing. Maia had buried that hope weeks ago, when the leads ran cold and the search parties stopped looking. But now...

Now everything felt wrong.

Her pulse raced as her mind spiraled, reaching for explanations—a prank, a trick, a mistake. It had to be. But the voice... the voice had been real. It had been Camilla.

She stumbled back toward the kitchen table, her legs suddenly weak beneath her. Her phone buzzed again in her hand, another message. She glanced down, her heart slamming in her chest. Unknown Number.

This time, it wasn't a call. It was a text.

"Meet me. Midnight. Black Creek."

Maia's breath caught in her throat. Her eyes locked on the words, dread crawling up her spine. Black Creek. The place she had tried so hard to avoid. The place where everything seemed to lead, where Camilla had felt the most fear.

Could this really be her? Maia's mind spun with doubt and disbelief. But something inside her, something she couldn't explain, told her it was. Camilla was alive. Somehow, she had survived.

But if that were true, what had happened to her? Where had she been all this time? And why was she asking to meet at Black Creek—the place that haunted their last conversations, the place Camilla had feared more than anything?

Maia stared at the message, her pulse pounding in her ears, torn between the need for answers and the fear that something far more dangerous was waiting for her. Black Creek was a trap. She knew that. But the pull was too strong. She had to go. She had to find out the truth.

Timeline: One Year Before Camilla's Disappearance

It had been the first time Camilla had mentioned Black Creek—the night everything had shifted between them.

They had been sitting on the rooftop, the wine long forgotten, Camilla's hands clenched tightly around the edges of her blanket. Her voice had lowered to a whisper, her eyes scanning the shadows that stretched out beyond the town.

"I think... someone's following me," Camilla had said, her voice trembling. "I've been to Black Creek a few times, just to clear my head. But it feels wrong. Like... like I'm not alone."

Maia had felt her stomach drop. Black Creek wasn't a place people visited. It wasn't even a place people talked about anymore. Too many stories about accidents, about people disappearing near the old, forgotten reservoir. But Maia hadn't believed in ghosts or legends. Not then.

"It's just a place, Cami," Maia had said, trying to comfort her. "You're freaking yourself out."

"No," Camilla had whispered, shaking her head. "There's something there. I know it. And it's not just me. It's like... it's watching."