"Hazel?" Tunnuk called.

The lights were still on in the kitchen.

"You forgot something last night!"

She paused, expecting the usual web of curses from Hazel's room, but it never came. Her chest went hollow. Yesterday was the twenty-third of February, and a deep fear brewed within of its events repeating once more.

Tunnuk's shaking hand rested on the rail of the stairs. She'd have to check, it'd been too long. Too silent. One step became two, became three and four until she emerged on the landing.

The door was still wide open, the room emptier than Tunnuk's soul in that moment. Her breathing became unsteady faster than she could think. Images of that day still remained in her mind. There was no way.

Fumbling through her bathrobe, she grabbed her phone and dialed Hazel's number as fast as she could.

Every second that the phone rang brought tears to her mother's eyes.

And as it had been at first that morning, no response came.

Tunnuk slammed her fist against the wall, the tears quickly multiplying and morphing into uncontrollable sobs. She acted without thought, her quivering thumbs dialing emergency services.

Hazel was gone.

~~~

It was a regular Monday morning in Blackwater, and as usual, Hazel's three best friends were all piled into Lauren's truck. Hazel normally walked since the tiny school was practically across from her house. They giggled as they talked about all that happened the day before and the stories they still had to tell.

Sirens screamed like demons from behind them. Lauren's heart dropped.

"Do you think-"

"She wouldn't," Venice whispered.

They pulled off to the side, letting the parade of emergency vehicles fly by. On the wheel, Lauren's knuckles turned as white as the snow all around.

"We'll see where they pull into, for now just keep going," Iain said with a slight questioning tone.

Lauren nodded, pressing her foot onto the gas pedal once more. They were almost to the school, they could practically see it just above the hill, but they quickly found themselves slowed to a halt by the stopped cars at the little white farmhouse they knew so well.

"There's no way. She wouldn't," Venice mumbled.

Iain's face flushed red with rage.

"I bet it was Johann! He's been acting all weird lately and then tells her to go outside at some ridiculous time and the next morning there's cops outside her house? Something's not right here!"

Venice reached to the backseat where Iain sat alone, a fake smile across her face.

"It might not even be about her," Venice convinced herself.

Iain scoffed. He knew as well as she did that there was something about all three emergency vehicles by that house that said something was very wrong.

"It'll be fine," Lauren sighed, pulling into the school parking lot, "we know Hazel. She'll show up."

The day went by at a painfully slow pace with the ominous absence of Hazel Von Brandt. Even her teachers were nervous, as she'd never missed a day. Not even after Victoria Von Brandt had died. They would glance at the clock and shuffle through their papers, and some simply prayed.

It was noon when the intercom came to life. Venice and Lauren, who shared a class, sat at their usual spot in the back of the class, held onto one another tightly as the voice of their principal announced the news they'd dreaded all day.

School would let out early. Hazel's body had been found.

"No," Lauren whispered, burying her face in her best friend's chest.

Venice's face was unmoving, though. Something was very wrong, she could sense it, but she couldn't quite put her finger on exactly what.

~~~

The news came back to Tunnuk Von Brandt from a sad-looking police officer, shivering from the snow which he appeared to have fallen in just a few seconds beforehand. His crumpled hat was held by his chest as he delivered the solemn statement.

Tunnuk's legs became weak.

"May I come in?" the officer asked.

"Of- of course, sir."

The man sat down on the couch right where Hazel had just the day before, but she couldn't even bear to ask for him to move.

"Have you noticed any changes in behavior? Loss of interest, reclusivity, a fascination with death?" he asked, a clipboard in his hand.

Tunnuk didn't respond, instead throwing her head into her hands and sobbing harder than she had all her life.