Page 13 of Shadowed Whispers

“Secrets,” Chloe says, her voice low, “always find a way to come to light. Tell me, what secrets are you hiding, Frankie?”

I grind my teeth and refuse to answer.

“You know,” Amanda adds, “there’s a saying about junior year at Shadow Locke.”

“That’s right.” Tori whips around to smirk at her friend. “A lot of students always drop out during their junior year.”

“Because” —Chloe folds up her magazine and leans forward— “students can’t handle when their secrets are exposed.” She snaps her fingers. “Or when they realize why they don’t belong.”

“Monsters,” Tori whispers, her voice nearly lost in the echo of the room.

“And like I said…” Tori turns back to me. “You don’t belong here, Frankie.”

They can’t know, can they?

I bury my secrets down deep, so deep that no one can ever reach them. No, they are just screwing with me, trying to get me to drop out. Joke’s on them—I’m never dropping out.

On a short exhale, I give them a smile that I don’t feel. “Secrets are only as strong as the one who wields them,” I whisper. I tilt my head to the side, taking in the three of them. “And I’m a strong, stubborn bitch. Can’t say the same about you three.” As the words leave my lips, a sense of defiant strength builds within me, a fortress against their taunts and insinuations.

I turn back around, trying to return to unpacking despite feeling unsettled. Worst comes to worst, I’ll sleep in the hidden cave I found last year. No one ever bothered me there. It was a place of solitude, where the echo of the ocean waves and the cool, damp walls provided a refuge from the world above.

“Whose party are we attending for the eclipse?” Amanda’s voice switches to a preppy, light tone, as if they hadn’t just ostracized me moments before.

As they chatter about the upcoming eclipse party, I can’t help but listen in despite the bitterness it stirs within me. Their casual dismissal of me stings less than it should, overshadowed by a curiosity they unwittingly piqued. “The eclipse isn’t just any party, you know,” Chloe muses, her voice carrying a weight that grabs my attention. “It’s said that Shadow Locke’s true nature is most visible under the eclipse’s shadow. Ancient, hidden things come to light, or so the legends say.”

Their laughter masks the undercurrent of seriousness in her words, but it plants a seed of wonder in me. Is the eclipse merely an excuse for a celebration, or does it have a deeper significance for the university? My thoughts drift to the oddities of Shadow Locke, the whispered secrets, and the sense that I’m on the cusp of something profound, something tied intrinsically to the timing of this celestial event.

“I think we should head to the boathouse,” Chloe says, and even from here, I can hear the flip of her magazine.

Amanda sighs. “I hear there are two new players on the rugby team.”

My heart does a little pitter-patter. I already met one of them.

“Well, I for one want to go wherever Bishop Mercer is,” Tori says, and I damn well know that was a dig at me.

I angrily grab my sheets from the closet after setting the password on the safe and locking all my cash in there. When I turn around, I see all eyes on me.

“Oh, you didn’t know?” Tori isn’t at all sad about her words.

I grind my teeth. Bishop and I had a fling the summer I got here. That was it. Nothing more. Just two adults getting each other off. What I didn’t know was that he was a student and a senior here at the time.

He saw me on campus and never spoke to me again, giving me the cold shoulder.

Fuck Bishop Mercer.

“Yeah,” Amanda coos. “He’s working toward his master’s.”

“Shadow Locke?—”

“What?” Tori stands, cutting me off. “Accepts master’s students? They do this year. Didn’t you get the email?”

“Oh, she didn’t,” Chloe says. “She doesn’t have a phone.”

I don’t. The only time I check my email is in the library. They all know I don’t have a phone or a laptop.

“That means she doesn’t know about you and Bishop.” Amanda’s smile is all teeth. I want to pry them from her mouth with pliers.

My heart hammers in my chest as I look at Tori and her smug face.

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