The rain lashed against the windows of the late-night bus as Elena stood near the front, staring intensely at the driver.
“You shouldn’t go to that house,” the driver warned, his eyes narrowing.
“My friend lives there,” Elena insisted, her voice tight with anxiety.
The driver shook his head slowly. “I drove another woman there last Friday. We’re holding everyone up.”
Before Elena could process his cryptic words, a man stepped up behind her, placing a heavy, reassuring hand on her shoulder. “He said you moved in yesterday,” the man smiled smoothly, gesturing toward the seats. “Let’s talk in our seats.”
Elena turned back, her mind racing with suspicion. But then the driver reached up, opened an overhead compartment, and pulled out a soft blue scarf.
“The woman left this,” the driver said, holding it out. “She called, as king whether anyone came looking.”
Elena’s breath hitched. Her eyes went wide with sheer terror as she reached out and clutched the fabric. It was her sister’s scarf.
“This is my sister’s…” Elena gasped, turning around to confront the man standing behind her, only to find him watching her with an icy, unreadable expression.
The realization hit Elena like a physical blow. The man wasn’t a partner or a friend—he was part of the very network that had made her sister disappear. Before he could speak, Elena wrenched herself away from his grasp, bolted down the aisle, and threw herself off the bus into the pouring rain.
She scrambled into the dark, wooded roadside, her boots sinking into the mud as she heard the man shouting her name behind her. Hiding behind a thick cluster of pine trees, she watched the bus pull away into the stormy night. Clutching her sister’s scarf to her chest, Elena knew she couldn’t run forever. But she also knew she was one step closer to finding the truth about what happened to her sister—and she wouldn’t stop until she found her.
