The vines kept dragging her deeper into the depths of the forest. She clawed at the soil but it instantly turned to ash under her nails, as if the forest did not permit any grip or salvation.
Theodora dug harder, desperate, but the vine dragged her over roots that writhed like veins beneath the earth.
She tried to kick free. The vine only tightened.
Then another curled around her wrist. Another seized her waist too, and panic exploded through her like fire.
She tried to scream again, but something snapped up from the darkness as fast as lightning, winding around her mouth tightly and cancelling out any sound before it could escape, making her scream suffocate into silence.
The deeper she was pulled, the more the world changed.
The trees grew taller, older, their trunks split with pulsing veins of black-green energy. It was as if something had fed on them for centuries, twisting them beyond nature.
