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Cliffs Peak Academy is a prestigious boarding school, one famous for giving second chances to troubled youth. Those that can prosper under the strict, but caring tutelage of the school prosper into stars of society. However, not everyone is willing to accept help; some run away into the forest behind the school, seemingly disappearing from the world. A few ungrateful delinquents playing hooky, was not enough to tarnish this beacon of hope, the best boarding school in the country. At least, that was what the public was led to believe, about Cliffs Peaks Academy.
Lizzie found the school to be more akin to a prison. Her naive parents bought into the establishment's propaganda, and truly believed it would shape up their kids, to one day inherit the family business. To be fair the staff kept up their manners until her parents were done with the drop off process. As soon as their car had pulled away, the school started informing them of many rules. Not only did the teen find all her electronics immediately confiscated, no it was worse. Lizzie was told she had just a day to get her vibrant pink hair to a more natural color, or it would be cut all off. Even then after making sure she fits their code, stripping away her individuality, Lizzie was forced to braid her hair, or cut it short.
The academy's suffocating rules were irritating, but Lizzie could live with them. It was only four years, not her whole life. What the teen could not forgive was simple, her twin brother Jimmy was missing. Not only that, but the school's head master suggested he was a failed delinquent.
It had all started, barely even, a week ago. Jimmy had mentioned struggling with a few of his classes, during a lunch break. There was a nervous edge to him, one that Lizzie foolishly chalked up to being homesick. She innocently suggested he studied harder, he was always able to get by in middle school. Maybe it was just this school being stricter on grades, but Jimmy seemed terrifying of even getting a C.
Each passing day his stress seemed to worsen, the fixation on grades strengthening. Lizzie being a bit of an air head, trying to ignore things she shouldn’t, it took her almost four days to fully catch on. She had approached him trying to have a twin talk, trying to figure out what was wrong. Though unlike usual where Jimmy can’t keep his feelings to himself, let alone a secret, that day he forced a smile, and denied anything was wrong. His flickering anxiety filled eyes, betrayed this statement. Everything about it was just strange, and made Lizzie not want to leave her brother’s side. She should have risked breaking the curfew rules, and stayed there.
The very next day, Jimmy was absent from all of his classes. He had just disappeared, without a single trace left behind. The intercom announced he was a run away, that he couldn’t keep up with his grades. That didn’t sit right with Lizzie, not one bit. She didn’t have any trust with this academy. Jimmy would never do something like this, and if he was gonna run then why was he trying to get that grade up. There were two things she knew for a fact: there was something more going on, and she had to save her sweet younger brother.
It had been two days since his disappearance, and Lizzie hadn’t been able to sleep a wink. How could she ever even consider resting, when Jimmy was clearly in danger!? Could she even call herself his older sister, if something happened to him!? She had to find and rescue him, she just had to.
At the stroke of midnight, Lizzie snuck out of her dorm room. It would have been foolish for her to embark on a search and rescue mission alone. She had recruited a pair of friends she had made that had their own reason for wanting to undermine the school.
Katherine and Shubble were roommates, but they were girlfriends as well. While most schools would only shut down certain kinds of relationships, Cliffs Peak just loved being special. Any kind or romantic relations, or ones that went deeper, were strictly forbidden. The staff was keen on making sure all students solely focused on becoming star prodigies. This caused the pair to have to keep their relationship a secret.
“Remember the forest has to be key!” Lizzie piped up, taking the reins as leader, “There have been signs that people do come out here! Even if the teachers fake it to warp the story, and Jimmy isn’t out here, there has to be some proof!” She felt her blood boil. All those teachers, the head master, they all failed in her book. Their students were missing, at a steady pace, and they didn’t seem to care.
“Come on, we will find him!” Katherine cheered, struggling, but still attempting to be positive about the situation. The first step to failure is to give up and lose hope. She understood it would be rude to ask Lizzie to smile, so she will do her best for her.
“Yeah he has to be out here somewhere. Even without water or food, it hasn't been seventy two hours yet. Worse case scenario, and he is held captive in a cave, he should be okay!” Shubble nodded quickly, doing her best to hype up her girlfriend. She wasn’t sure if her words were truly helping, but she had the spirit!
Lizzie took a slow deep breath, and gave them a small nod. She appreciated them just being here, the fact they were actively putting in effort meant the world to her. With loose balance, Lizzie took the first step forward entering the forest. The other two followed suit, making sure to stay close to her.
The trio ventured forward making their way through the forest. Despite the rumors and superstitions about kids going missing in the woods, the place was off limits to students. There was a strange air of mystery to the dark pocket of nature. The hypocrisy between the two facts only strengthened Lizzie's disillusionment with the Academy.
Katherine and Shubble both kept pointing out plants that somehow neither of them have even seen before. It got even more frequent the deeper the small group went. What caused this to be so strange, was the fact both were in the botany club. It usually was the two of them volunteering to take care of the green house, and it wasn’t just because it was a safe place to make out at. The fact that these two nature experts had never even heard of these plants before; something was clearly off about this forest.
Strange beast-like prompts could be seen indenting into the grassy covered dirt. Lizzie could feel fear slowly seep into her mind, but then she remembered Jimmy was out here. He was probably alone and terrified, she couldn’t give up. Then a second thing caught her eye. What seemed to be dried up splattered with blood, seemed to follow the creature’s tracks.
Lizzie dropped her flash light, she smuggled from the janitor’s cart , onto the ground. Without even communicating, or even thinking she started running forward. Not caring if it would bring her to her death, she couldn’t stop moving. Lizzie had to keep moving forward, she just had to. It didn’t matter if her friends were left behind her, there was no way she was allowing herself to be too late. Lizzie had always been good at ignoring her problems, and the obvious warning signs. The patches of blood were growing, yet she desperately clung to false hopes.
Despite how smart and brilliant she was, Lizzie denied the truth until it rested right before her eyes. Dropped down to her knees, the teen could only stare at the corpse that laid in front of her. There Jimmy laid lifeless, eyes completely glossed over. There was a giant hole in her younger brother’s torso, he must have bled out to death. Bits of bone and intestines even hung out slightly, with most of his digestive system missing.
Lizzie crawled up to his still body, clinging to him as the tears fell from her eyes. There was no way he could be dead, that she failed him. ‘If only I didn’t leave his dorm that night, then he wouldn’t have died alone’ echoed loudly through her mind. The poor girl felt suffocated every time she took a breath. Lizzie wanted desperately to close her eyes, but was unable to look away from Jimmy. She didn’t hear the footsteps of her friends echo through the cold bitter air.
“...We need to go…whatever killed him…is still out here…” Katherine spit out. She was no longer smiling, not even a fake one. Katherine was devastated they failed, terrified of dying. Though the scariest thing was that, their deaths could have been sealed the second they stepped inside the forest.