“Shit,” I hissed.
I dropped to my knees, thrusting my hands into the freezing water. The laces of my shoe had knotted tight, stubborn as sin. I clawed at them, but they wouldn’t budge. I was well and truly stuck.
That was when I saw her.
A woman downstream. Dirty-blonde hair spilling down her back like tangled sunlight, wild and untamed. A flowing white dress, too pristine for the woods. She moved like something unearthly, graceful as a ghost, lifting her skirts as she approached me upstream.
“Hello!” I called out, waving one arm while the other tried to pry loose my foot. “Hey! Can you help me?”
She didn’t flinch. Didn’t even glance my way.
“Hello?” I shouted louder, waving more aggressively now. “Can you hear me? I’m stuck!”
Still nothing. She was close now—close enough to hear andseethe distress carved into my face.
I narrowed my eyes, heart thrumming. “Are you deaf?”
The woman lifted her gaze.
And smiled.
Not a friendly smile. No. It was cruel. Icy. Menacing.
“No,” she said, her voice cold.
Her vehemence caught me off guard.Iwas the one trapped, not her.
“Then… can you help me?” I gestured to my foot, forcing calm into my tone. “It’s stuck between these boulders.”
She stepped forward—slow, deliberate—and stood over me in the shallows. “Oh, poor thing,” she cooed mockingly. “You need my help. But tell me… why should I give it?”
I blinked. “I don’t know. Basic decency? Help someone in need?”
I tried to smile through my irritation, but she grabbed my jaw swiftly andsqueezed. Hard.
“Aww, look at you,” she said, voice sickly sweet. “So helpless. So pretty. Is that what you think? That I should help you because you’re easy on the eyes?”
I jerked back, but her grip was iron. I clawed at her hand, but her fingers may as well have been carved from marble.
Who the fuck is this woman?
“What’s your problem?” I snapped, yanking my head free. “Why are you acting like a lunatic?”
Her eyes narrowed. Her lips curved in a venomous smirk that might’ve left a scar. “Because Iamyour problem. I’m the storm you didn’t see coming. The nightmare you can’t wake up from.”
A chill slid down my spine as she leaned closer, her breath hot against my cheek. “And it starts with this—me watching you suffer. Just like you made others suffer.”
I flinched.
“Vicious little serpent,” she spat, stepping back. “Your sins have caught up with you.”
I cursed under my breath, thrashing in the water, trying desperately to wrench my foot free. The icy current gnawed at my ankles while she stood perfectly still, backlit by the blood-red sun. A ghost. A judge. Somethingancient.
Her eyes—those cold, gray eyes—never left mine.
Finally, I forced my voice into stillness. “What do you mean you’re my nightmare? You don’t know me.”
I lunged, hand raised to slap her across the face—but she moved like a ghost. In one swift, brutal motion, she caught my arm and twisted.
