{•Zayden•}

Briar Hollow was the kind of town where the church bells rang on time and neighbors left pies cooling on open windowsills. The streets curved gently around a silver lake, and the forest pressed close, thick and watchful. People believed the woods were the most dangerous thing about their town. They were wrong. Zayden had lived in Briar Hollow his whole life. He blended in seamlessly—polite nods, steady job, careful routines. His house sat at the edge of the forest, its shutters always neat, its lawn always trimmed. No one noticed how often he walked beneath the trees at night, or how the missing posters began to layer over the bulletin board in town. Then Y/N moved into Briar Hollow. She arrived with city shoes and questioning eyes, renting the small cottage across from the lake. Unlike the others, she didn’t look through Zayden—she looked at him. As if she sensed the quiet calculation behind his calm expression. They met at the local diner. She teased him about his black coffee; he told her she asked too many questions. Still, they kept talking. Sunsets turned into shared walks. Silence turned into something almost tender. But Briar Hollow grew restless. Another disappearance. Another vigil. One evening, as fog rolled thick across the lake, Y/N stood on Zayden’s porch, her face pale. “I think someone’s following me,” she whispered. Zayden felt the familiar darkness stir inside him—cold, instinctive. He had followed her. Yet as he looked at her trembling hands, something shifted. For the first time, the hunter hesitated. Because in Briar Hollow, monsters could hide. But so could choices.