My legs trembled like they were made of wet paper, but I forced myself upright.
The fog curled around me, almost… watching.
Waiting.
"Good," Adrian's voice murmured—closer this time. Too close.
I whipped my head around, but he wasn't there.
Only trees.
Twisted shapes.
Shadows that didn't match the direction of the light—
because there WAS no light.
"Where—where are you?" I whispered.
"I'm everywhere this place touches," he answered, his tone low and cutting.
"And so is everything that wants you dead. So stay. On. Your. Feet."
The air snapped like something alive.
— the fog in front of me twisted.
Twisted into legs, then arms, then a mouth too wide to belong to anything that deserved to exist.
The creature crawled out of the mist on all fours, joints bending wrong, skin stretched thin over splintered bones.
Its ribs pushed against its chest like claws trying to escape.
"Seren."
Druhva's voice trembled with worry.
Yeah — worry. She never hid her feelings well.
"You've got this. Just breathe—"
But Adrian cut her off, voice like a blade slashing through panic.
"Don't breathe. MOVE."
The monster's head jerked toward me, neck cracking, nose lifting like it could smell my fear.
I swallowed a scream.
Its eyes — there were too many — all blinking out of sync.
Tiny black beads, wet and hungry.
It lunged.
I barely dodged, falling to my elbow as the thing slammed into the ground where I had been.
Dirt exploded.
A tree snapped in half behind me.
"GET UP!" Adrian barked, sharp and furious.
Not angry at me — angry at the nightmare itself.
"I'm TRYING!" I snapped back, rolling just as the creature's claws raked the earth an inch from my spine.
My legs finally listened.
I pushed off the ground and sprinted through the trees, breath ripping in and out of me.The monster chased, fast despite its twisted body. Its limbs scraped, cracked, dragged, every step sounded like bones snapping.
"Seren—your left!" Druhva shouted.
I dodged right instead.
Idiot.
A claw sliced my shoulder — the pain searing, even though I knew this wasn't real.
It didn't matter. Pain was pain.
I spun, grabbing the creature's wrist — if you could call it a wrist — and it shrieked, mouth splitting even wider.
Teeth? No.
Shards.
Jagged, uneven, like broken glass jammed into gums.
"You're stronger than this thing," Adrian said, calm. Too calm.
It pissed me off.
"THEN YOU DO IT!" I screamed, kicking at the monster's knee.
It didn't have a knee.
Fine.
I ducked under its arm and ripped.
I don't know where the strength came from.
Maybe the fear.
Maybe the training.
Maybe because the thing smelled like rot and nightmares and I was DONE.
Its arm tore off with a wet crack.
The creature's scream shook the forest — a sound like metal grinding in a furnace.
Black smoke poured from the wound.
"Holy shit…" Druhva whispered.
Shock. Awe. Fear. All tangled.
The monster swung its remaining arm wildly, desperate.
I stepped in, grabbed its throat — too thin, too brittle —and slammed it into the ground so hard the earth shook.
Then I tore it apart.
Piece by piece.
Until all that was left was smoke, ash, and a sickly sweet smell like dying flowers.
My hands trembled.
"I…" I couldn't finish.
I'd ripped it apart like it was nothing.
Like it was prey.
"That wasn't even one of the strong ones," Adrian said quietly.
I froze.u
"What?"
"You heard him," Druhva said, voice low.
"That was the weakest. The bottom of the barrel. A baby nightmare."
A baby.
A BABY.
My stomach twisted."What the hell are the others like then?" I whispered.
Silence.
Even the fog held its breath.
Then—A feeling slithered up my spine.
Something watching.
NOT the creature I'd killed.
Something else.
Something massive.
Ancient.
As tall as the trees — maybe taller.
I turned.
Fog.
Empty forest.
But the feeling didn't move.
It stayed behind me.
Always behind me.
Like a shadow shaped like a monster that refused to step into light.
"Do you feel that?" I whispered.
"Yeah," Druhva breathed, nervous.
Adrian didn't answer at first.
He waited, letting the silence build into something unbearable.
"…Keep walking," he finally said.
"What if it follows?" I asked.
"It already is."
I stepped deeper into the forest.
Branches cracked, leaves rustled.
Every direction I turned — nothing.
But I felt its eyes.
Heavy. Patient.
Like it was studying me.
Waiting.
And no matter where I searched, I never found it.
Not once.
But it was there.
Following.
Watching.
Waiting.
And somehow…
That was worse than any nightmare so far.