The night air is cold and damp. The quiet of the night is almost deafening, the kind of quiet that presses against your ears. We walk slowly toward the cabin. Every step crunches softly against the gravel beneath our feet. I reach the front door first. Lucien stands just behind me. My hands tremble slightly as I grab the handle.
I try to open it.
Locked.
I knock lightly.
“Sophie?” I call.
My voice echoes softly through the trees.
Nothing.
I move to the window beside the door and press my face closer to the glass, trying to see inside. The cabin looks exactly the same as the last time I was here, the lanterns, the couch, the small wooden table. Everything untouched, empty.
“Sophie?” I call again.
No answer.
I try lifting the window but It doesn’t move. Locked. I walk around the side of the house, Lucien following close behind me. The fog thickens near the back of the cabin. I reach the back door and grab the handle. Locked. I pull harder, still nothing. My heart begins beating faster.
“Sophie!” I call out louder this time.
Still nothing.
I start to turn—
And then we hear it.
Movement somewhere behind us.
Leaves crunch, a sudden rustling in the trees.
Lucien’s hand lifts immediately, signaling me to move behind him. I step back without hesitation.
My heart pounds violently in my chest, so loud it feels like it’s echoing through the trees, like something out there can hear it.
The night suddenly feels too still. Like the world is holding its breath. The sound grows louder. Fast footsteps, running. Too heavy, too uneven. Branches snap somewhere ahead of us, sharp and sudden, and my entire body locks.
My breath catches in my throat, shallow, trembling.
I can feel it, something is there.
Watching, waiting.
A cold wave of dread crawls up my spine, settling at the base of my skull, making my skin prickle. I grip the back of Lucien’s jacket without realizing it, fingers tightening, grounding myself to something real as my mind spirals into everything it could be.
Someone, something.
God, what if it’s Dominic?
What if he followed us into the woods—
The footsteps get closer, faster, louder.
Charging.
My pulse spikes, vision narrowing, every instinct screaming at me to run but my legs won’t move.
