The cold wind cut through the tall branches of the forest, making them sway like ancient towers whispering secrets.
But now, the forest no longer just rustled.
It breathed.
Like a giant animal that had awakened beneath them.
No one dared to speak.
Dragoș led the way, guided by the sign of the Moon that pulsed in the rhythm of his steps.
The blue lines flowed slowly down his arm, as if they wanted to repair themselves, but didn't know how.
Sofia watched him from behind, feeling her medallion warm slightly every time its light intensified. It was like an involuntary reaction between two forces that still didn't recognize each other, but called to each other.
Nicolae held on tightly to Sofia's sleeve. His large eyes followed every shadow.
— "Sofia..." he whispered, trembling. "It's like someone is following us..."
She gently stroked his head.
— "You have nothing to fear. I'm here."
Behind them, Vlad and Alexandra moved like two confident and, paradoxically, reassuring figures.
They didn't panic.
They hadn't changed.
They hadn't become anything else.
They were exactly as they had been from the beginning:
two silent presences, enveloped in a kind of strange calm, as if they understood shadows better than people.
Vlad ran his fingers through the air, leaving behind a faint trail of darkness.
— "The space is isolated."
Alexandra completed:
— "It doesn't flow… normally. The forest is held."
— "Held by who?" Sofia asked.
Alexandra just shrugged.
Dragoş stopped suddenly.
The ground was scratched – but not by claws.
Not by roots.
By light.
A thin, curved line pulsed slowly, like a wound that was barely healing.
— "Miral…" whispered Dragoş. "He passed by here."
— "How do you know?" Nicolae asked, his voice trembling.
— "Because this is not a shadow. And it is not light. It is… between the two."
Sofia felt a knot in her stomach.
Alexandra moved closer, studying the path.
— "Don't touch it. It is hot. It means it has been here recently."
Vlad closed his eyes for a second.
— "And it ran."
— "Why?" Sofia asked.
— "Because something it cannot see is following it," Vlad said quietly.
"But feel this."
The forest trembled slightly, like an underground murmur.
Then the air in front of them tore apart—as if someone had torn a curtain.
An image appeared, trembling.
Miraculously.
But not all of it.
His face was pale, the right half covered by a dense shadow that seemed to creep under his skin.
He was breathing heavily.
His eyes were wide open.
— "Don't… come…" he whispered.
The image was unsettling.
— "He… sees me… through me…"
The signal was breaking up.
Like a photograph burned at the edges.
— "You…"
— "You…"
— "He's watching you…"
And the image exploded into tiny particles of dark light.
Nicolae put his hands to his mouth.
— "She's alive! Sofia, she's alive, isn't she? Tell me!", he burst out, ready to cry.
Sofia hugged him tightly to his chest.
— "Yes. Yes, she's alive. She's still alive."
Dragoș felt the Moon sign burn him so hard that he lost his breath for a moment.
— "We have to leave," he said almost voicelessly.
— "Do you know where?" Vlad asked.
— "Yes… but not logically. The sign is pulling me. Like a thread that clings to me."
No one contradicted him.
The forest ahead was becoming more and more distorted.
Trunks copied, but wrongly.
Roots that curl late, as if in a loop.
Branches that move without wind.
A living, broken organic labyrinth.
Sofia whispered:
"This is not normal. It's like walking through a bad... broken photograph..."
Alexandra touched a leaf.
The leaf crumbled before it hit the ground.
— "Time is fragile here," she said.
Vlad continued:
— "And the shadows don't come in. That's the strangest thing."
Sofia shivered.
If the shadows refused the place... then something even worse controlled it.
The last step opened up a small, round clearing.
And there, in the middle —
— was a cocoon of black roots
— tight, pulsating like a heart caught in a net
— breathing heavily
The faint light reflected on its surface as if it were on the skin of a sleeping being.
And through the roots you could see its face.
Miraculous.
His eyes were open.
One normal.
The other — empty, dark, like a hole.
Nicolae tensed his whole body.
— "Mi-Miral…?" he muttered, tears in his eyes.
Sofia put her hand to her mouth.
— "God… Miral…"
Vlad took two calm steps.
— "He's not dead."
Alexandra said just as calmly:
"But not exactly alive either."
Dragoș approached slowly, and the sign of the Moon vibrated like a broken bell.
— "He's caught… between worlds…"
Miral's eyes lifted to him.
Every moment was a struggle.
He whispered barely audibly:
— "Run…"
The ground beneath them shook.
The branches cracked violently.
The shadows at the edge of the clearing were collapsing like spilled water.
And then they realized:
It wasn't just a place.
It was a knot.
A cage.
A magnet.
A mechanism made by Raul.
Not to keep them away.
But to bring them right here.
To Miral.
To him.
To what came next.
The cocoon moves.
Shadows stretch from all directions.
And the night breathes.