Vinny stared at his wrist in the dim morning light, tracing the faint silver lines with his thumb. They didn't hurt - if anything, they tingled like static electricity dancing across his skin. He'd almost convinced himself it was just a trick of the light when the lines pulsed once, softly, before fading completely.
A sharp knock at his dorm door startled him. He barely had time to yank his sleeve down before Derrick barged in, grinning like a madman. "Bro, you're famous!" Derrick tossed his phone onto Vinny's bed. The screen displayed a blurry photo of him and Lena in the library, captioned: SHY PLAYBOY'S SECRET RENDEZVOUS WITH PYRO GIRL???
Vinny groaned, shoving the phone away. "Who even took this?"
"Who cares? The whole school's talking. Deborah looked ready to murder someone at breakfast." Derrick's grin widened. "So? What'd Pyro Girl want?"
Vinny hesitated. He could still hear Lena's voice - You felt it, didn't you? - and see that damn book about the afterlife. But telling Derrick would mean admitting he might be losing his mind. "Nothing important," he muttered.
The pain hit without warning - sharp and sudden like a knife between his ribs. Vinny doubled over, clutching his wrist where the marks now burned like ice. Derrick's joking expression vanished. "Dude! You okay?"
Before Vinny could answer, his vision whited out. Images flashed through his mind:
The dead tree, its branches twisting like skeletal fingers.
A shadowy figure standing beneath it, whispering words he couldn't understand.
Deborah's face, her blue eyes wide with fear as she reached for him.
Then it was over. Vinny found himself on the floor, gasping like he'd run a marathon. Derrick hovered over him, pale-faced. "What the hell was that? Should I call the nurse?"
"No," Vinny croaked. His wrist throbbed where the marks had reappeared, glowing faintly. "I just... need some air."
The school day passed in a haze. Everywhere Vinny went, whispers followed. Some about Lena. Some about Deborah. Most about the weird new kid who slept all the time and now apparently had seizures in his dorm.
He nearly jumped out of his skin when a hand grabbed his arm after last period. Deborah stood there, her usual confident demeanor replaced by something raw and uncertain. "We need to talk," she said, voice tight.
She dragged him into an empty classroom before he could protest. Up close, Vinny noticed the dark circles under her eyes, the way her fingers trembled slightly. "What's going on with you?" she demanded. "First you can't look me in the eye, then you're sneaking around with Lena, and now Derrick says you collapsed this morning-"
"It's complicated," Vinny interrupted.
Deborah's laugh was sharp and humorless. "Try me."
The words bubbled up before he could stop them. "I think I'm hallucinating. Or cursed. Or both." He showed her the marks on his wrist, now faded but still visible. "Lena says it's connected to that dead tree. She says... it's choosing me for something."
To his shock, Deborah didn't laugh. Her face went deathly pale. "The tree behind the gym?" she whispered. "Vinny... my cousin saw that tree before he disappeared last year."
A chill crawled down Vinny's spine. "Disappeared?"
Deborah nodded, eyes glistening. "No one believed me when I said something was wrong with that tree. He kept having nightmares about it before he vanished." She grabbed Vinny's hands. "You have to stay away from Lena. She transferred here right after he disappeared."
Vinny's mouth went dry. He wanted to argue, but the memory of his vision - the shadowy figure beneath the tree - stopped him. What if Deborah's cousin was trying to warn him?
As if summoned by their conversation, Lena appeared in the hallway outside, her black eyes fixed on them through the classroom window. Deborah tensed. "She's watching us," she murmured.
Vinny turned just in time to see Lena raise one finger to her lips in a shushing motion before melting back into the crowd.
That night, Vinny stood beneath the skeletal tree, the moonlight casting eerie shadows through its branches. He wasn't sure why he'd come - curiosity? Fear? Some invisible pull he couldn't resist?
"You felt the call." Lena's voice came from behind him, making him jump. She stepped into the moonlight, her usual smirk absent. "It's getting stronger, isn't it?"
Vinny rubbed his aching wrist. "What do you want from me?"
"Not me." Lena pointed to the tree. "Them."
The ground trembled. Vinny staggered as the earth beneath the tree split open, revealing a yawning black pit. From the darkness came a sound that made his blood freeze - something between a whisper and a scream, too many voices layered together.
Lena grabbed his arm, her fingers digging into his marked wrist. "They've been waiting for someone like you. A bridge between worlds."
Vinny tried to pull away, but the marks on his wrist flared white-hot. The pain blinded him, and suddenly he was falling - not into the pit, but through memories that weren't his own:
A boy who looked like an older version of himself, standing beneath this same tree.
The boy carving symbols into the bark with shaking hands.
Shadowy figures emerging from the ground, dragging the screaming boy down with them.
Vinny came back to himself on his knees, gasping. The fissure was gone. The tree stood silent once more.
Lena watched him with something like pity. "Now you see," she said softly. "Your predecessor wasn't strong enough. But you... you might be."
Vinny's voice came out ragged. "What happens if I'm not?"
Lena's smile didn't reach her eyes. "Then you'll end up like Deborah's cousin. Another missing person no one can explain."
The wind picked up, rustling the dead branches above them. Somewhere in the distance, an owl hooted - a normal sound in a world that suddenly felt anything but normal.
Vinny looked down at his wrist. The marks had formed a complete symbol now - a twisted, rune-like shape that pulsed faintly in time with his heartbeat. Whatever was happening to him, one thing was clear:
He was running out of time.