The hum sharpened—low, electric, unnatural.
Lena's head snapped toward the trees, her posture tightening as if the sound struck straight into her bones.
Her gun lifted a fraction. Her wrist device blinked once—an urgent, pulsing red.
Drew didn't move. Couldn't breathe.
Jax groaned beside him.
The hum grew louder.
Deeper.
Closer.
Lena took two slow steps back from the wrecked jeep, eyes scanning the woods like she suddenly couldn't afford to blink.
"What… is that?" Drew whispered.
Lena didn't answer him.
She didn't even look at him.
Which terrified him more than the gun ever had.
She whispered into her earpiece, voice barely audible.
"…confirm? No, it wasn't scheduled. I said it wasn't scheduled."
Static crackled.
Then a response, faint but sharp enough for Drew to catch:
"That's not one of ours."
Lena went stone still.
Her face changed—controlled, composed… but unmistakably afraid.
Drew swallowed. "Lena—"
"Quiet."
The hum pitched higher, vibrating in the air like a swarm of metal was cutting through the forest.
Jax stirred again, coughing. "Drew… run."
Drew turned toward him. "I'm not leaving you."
"Run," Jax repeated, voice shaking. "If that sound is what I think it is—"
The hum broke.
Not stopped.
Split—like dozens of smaller hums branching in different directions.
Lena cursed under her breath. "This is a breach."
She aimed her gun at the treeline.
"Drew," she said without looking at him, "whatever happens—do not leave the road."
"What is in the woods?" Drew whispered.
Lena clenched her jaw. "Not what."
She exhaled.
"Who."
Drew's stomach curled.
The hums flickered left—right—behind—closing in like a net.
Then something moved.
Just a flicker between the trees, too fast to track.
Then another.
And another.
Shapes, shadows, silhouettes almost human but too fluid, too silent, too wrong.
Drew grabbed Jax's arm. "Hey. Look at me. Jax. Wake up."
Jax's eyelids fluttered. He tried to sit up but winced, clutching his ribs.
"Is it—" he swallowed, fear sharpening his breath, "—her?"
Drew froze.
Lena heard him.
Her eyes snapped toward them. "No."
But the way she said it…
It wasn't certainty.
It was dread.
Drew stared at Lena. "What are they?"
She didn't answer.
The hums shifted again.
Then—
A single shape stepped out of the trees.
Tall.
Still.
Head tilted slightly… like observing.
Not Lena.
Not human.
But wearing a silhouette painfully familiar.
A woman's shape.
Long hair, tangled like it had been dragged through fire and rain and darkness.
Bare feet dirty with ash.
Clothes shredded.
Her face was hidden in shadow, but Drew's chest tightened anyway as his heartbeat thundered under his ribs.
It couldn't be.
It couldn't—
"Aria?" he whispered without meaning to.
Lena inhaled sharply. "Drew, DO NOT—"
But the woman lifted her head.
Slowly.
Smoothly.
And the forest went dead silent.
Her eyes glowed faintly—silver, metallic, like melted moonlight trapped under her irises.
Not natural.
Not possible.
Not Aria.
But at the same time… too familiar to be anyone else.
Drew stopped breathing.
Jax's whisper cracked: "No… no, that's not her. That's not—Drew, that's not Aria."
The woman stepped forward.
Drew stumbled back against the broken car.
Lena raised her weapon again. "Target identified. Not Aria. Repeat—not Aria."
Not Aria.
But she looked like her.
Sounded like her.
Moved like her.
Then the woman's lips parted.
Her voice, when it came, was soft.
Soft enough to crush bone.
"Drew…"
His heart stopped.
His skin turned to ice.
Jax hissed, "Don't listen. It's not her. They can mimic—"
The woman tilted her head.
"Drew," she repeated, "come here."
Lena shouted, "THIS ISN'T ARIA. BACK AWAY NOW."
But Drew couldn't move.
The woman took another step forward.
The air thickened—like gravity shifted.
Her presence felt wrong. Heavy. Like she carried something behind her eyes that didn't belong to any living person.
Lena raised her wrist device and tapped rapidly. "I need extraction. Now. The asset has been compromised."
Static.
Silence.
Then:
"No extraction. Containment protocol only."
Lena swore viciously.
"Jax," Drew whispered, panic rising in his throat. "What is she?"
Jax's voice broke. "The reason they took Aria."
The woman—this imitation—slowly lifted her hand.
Not reaching for them.
Reaching past them.
Toward the jeep.
Drew's pulse staggered.
Toward Jax.
Lena stepped forward, gun raised, voice iron. "Take one more step and I end you."
The figure didn't even blink.
"Drew," the voice repeated, "he's dying."
Drew froze.
His gaze snapped to Jax—his friend slumped, blood soaking his hairline, breathing shallow.
Jax wheezed, "Don't… move…"
The woman's hand drifted closer.
Closer.
Then she whispered:
"You'll lose them both if you stay."
Them.
Both.
What did that mean?
Drew's heart hammered painfully. "What do you want?"
The woman smiled.
A slow, chilling curve that did not belong on Aria's face.
"To take you back."
Drew's voice cracked. "Back where?"
She didn't answer.
Because something else answered for her.
A scream ripped through the night.
Not from the woman.
Not from Drew.
From the woods.
A human scream—raw, terrified, cut off too fast.
Lena spun around, scanning the dark. "They're not alone."
The woman looked over her shoulder as well.
Her smile widened.
Almost delighted.
Drew grabbed Jax's arm. "We need to move."
Jax struggled to stand. "My leg— I can't—"
"Use me," Drew said, pulling him up. "Come on."
The woman turned back toward them.
"Drew," she murmured, "come with me now, or I'll drag you."
Lena stepped between them. "You're not touching him."
The woman's expression didn't change.
But the air did.
It tightened.
Condensed.
Before any of them moved, something else shifted in the trees—a louder hum, deeper, vibrating through the road.
Lena's face drained of color.
"They sent another one."
Drew's stomach lurched. "Another what?"
Lena didn't answer.
Because the second hum was approaching fast—thunder-fast.
The first woman backed away, fading into the shadows like dissolving smoke.
But her voice lingered in the air:
"You can't hide him. They already marked him."
Lena froze.
Jax froze.
Drew blinked. "Marked me? Marked me how—"
Before he finished the sentence—
The second hum hit.
A shockwave blasted through the trees, sending leaves spiraling. The ground trembled. Something enormous moved through the forest—too fast, too heavy, too precise.
Lena grabbed Drew's arm with shocking force. "Get Jax up. MOVE."
Drew hauled Jax upright. "Where?!"
"Anywhere not HERE!"
The hum grew louder.
Closer.
Racing toward them.
Jax stumbled, nearly falling. Drew tightened his grip. "Stay with me."
Lena shouted, "GO—"
The forest exploded.
A massive figure burst from the treeline—shadowed, hulking, inhumanly tall, eyes glowing the same metallic silver.
Drew's blood froze.
Jax gasped, "Oh my god—"
Lena opened fire, bullets snapping through the air—one, two, three, four—
The figure didn't flinch.
Not once.
It turned its head toward Drew.
Toward only Drew.
And in a voice deeper and colder than the first:
"Asset acquired."
Drew stumbled back, chest tight, breath shattered.
Jax whispered, "Drew… run…"
Lena fired again—emptying the entire magazine.
The figure raised its hand.
And the gun melted in hers.
Metal liquified—dripping through her fingers.
Lena screamed and stumbled back.
Drew didn't think.
Didn't breathe.
He grabbed Jax and dragged him away from the road as the towering figure stepped onto the asphalt, its silver eyes locked onto him like a mark branded into his skin.
The figure said one final thing—
A whisper.
A sentence that froze Drew's spine:
"Aria wants him returned."
Drew's world stopped.
He almost fell.
Jax muttered, voice nearly broken, "Drew… what did you do…?"
Drew didn't answer.
Couldn't.
Because the figure stepped forward, the ground shaking under each step.
And then—
It vanished.
Gone.
No sound.
No trace.
Just vanished, like the air swallowed it whole.
Drew stopped running.
The forest went silent.
Jax clung to him weakly. "Where did it go…?"
Lena stared into the darkness, eyes wild for the first time.
"It didn't disappear," she whispered.
Drew swallowed hard. "Then where is it?"
Lena met his eyes.
And for the first time, she looked genuinely afraid.
"It's behind you."
Drew froze.
Didn't turn.
Didn't even breathe.
A cold breath touched the back of his neck.
Then a voice—soft, almost tender—
"Come home, Drew."