The forest was finally quiet.
Smoke from the nightmare she'd torn apart drifted up like dying breath.
My chest heaved, my hands still shaking, but in that moment… damn, I felt powerful.
"I actually did that," I whispered, staring at my hands like they didn't belong to me.
"You sound proud," Druhva said softly. "Which—okay, fair. That thing was disgusting."
Adrian's voice cut in like ice snapping.
"Don't let it get to your head."
I frowned. "I ripped a monster in half. I deserve to feel a little confident."
"That was a newborn nightmare," he said coldly.
"The weakest. If you'd fought anything even slightly older, you'd be dead right now."
My stomach dropped.
Instantly.
"Wow," Druhva hissed. "Maybe try not to crush her soul in one sentence?!"
"I'm being realistic," Adrian snapped. "She needs to know this forest isn't done with her."
I swallowed hard and looked around.
Fog curled around the trees again—quiet, watching.
The air felt heavy, like something big was thinking.
"…So what are the stronger ones like?" I asked quietly.
"Don't—" Druhva started.
But Adrian didn't sugarcoat.
He never did.
"Imagine that baby multiplied by a hundred," he said. "And smarter. And older. And—"A crack.
A branch snapped behind me.
Loud. Too loud.
"What was that?" I whispered.
Adrian went silent.
Druhva inhaled sharply.
"Seren…" Druhva whispered. "Behind you."
I turned only halfway before something exploded out of the shadows—
CRACK.
My right leg bent sideways.
Sideways.
White-hot pain screamed through me, so sharp I didn't even have time to breathe before I collapsed.
"SEREN!" Druhva shrieked.
"What the hell—?!" I gasped, vision blurring.
A HUGE shape, taller than a horse and wider than a tree trunk, lunged out of the fog.
Its shadow swallowed everything.
I couldn't see its face.
Only the teeth—long, curved, gleaming like wet bone.
It grabbed my ankle.
Those claws dug in.
"LET GO—LET GO OF ME!" I screamed, kicking uselessly with my unbroken leg.
It jerked me off my stomach like I weighed nothing, dragging me across the forest floor.
"No—NO—ADRIAN—HELP ME!" I sobbed.
"SEREN, FIGHT BACK—" Druhva yelled.
"I CAN'T—MY LEG—"
Adrian's voice was sharp, furious, raw—
"DON'T PASS OUT. DO YOU HEAR ME? STAY AWAKE."
The creature dragged me faster, dirt scraping my skin, roots slamming into my sides.
Druhva cried. "Seren, it's taking you somewhere else—STOP IT—HIT IT—KICK IT—DO SOMETHING!"
"I CAN'T—IT'S TOO STRONG—ADRIAN—!"
His voice tore through my head like a command carved in steel.
"SEREN. LISTEN TO ME.If you stop fighting now—you.die."
The creature roared.
The forest shook.
And the darkness ahead of us opened like a mouth.
The air split open.
Not a crack.
Not a shimmer.
A massive door ripped itself out of nothing—wood older than time, arching taller than the trees around it.
It groaned like the world was protesting its existence.
And inside?
A forest.
Another forest.
A whole other goddamn nightmare ecosystem waiting for me like,
"Hey girlie, round two?"
My voice broke.
"ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! ANOTHER FOREST?!
NOPE. I'M DONE. GOODBYE. BURY ME HERE."
The creature dragging me didn't give a single damn about my meltdown.
It yanked me straight through the dirt, my fingers clawing the ground for anything—
Anything.
A root. A rock. A stupid leaf. A stick.
"USELESS GROUND!" I screamed, grabbing at dirt that slipped through my hands like it was laughing at me.
The claws dug deeper.
My broken leg screamed so loud I thought I might pass out.
"No—NO—PLEASE—STOP—!"
The monster hauled me over the threshold just as the door SLAMMED shut behind us—and then dissolved.
It didn't close like a normal door.
It vanished, leaving me in a new forest with no exit, no help, no logic, and no goddamn insurance.
The creature dragging me let out a low, rattling growl—
—right before something even BIGGER crashed through the trees.
A blur of claws.
A roar that vibrated my teeth.
A shadow taller than the first.
The bigger nightmare slammed into the one holding me, ripping it away like it weighed nothing.
They rolled into the trees, snapping trunks like twigs, shrieking and tearing into each other in a frenzy of claws and smoke.
I curled into myself, clutching my twisted leg, sucking in air that tasted like wet leaves and fear.
"Holy…shit…" I whispered.
Then survival instinct—barely there, but still alive—kicked in.
I dug my elbows into the dirt and dragged myself toward the nearest tree.
My vision flickered.
Every inch felt like someone shoved knives into my bones.
But I moved.
I moved because the alternative was dying where I lay.
When I reached the tree, I slumped against it, gasping.
"…Adrian?"
My voice barely made a sound.
"…Druhva…?"
Nothing.
No answer.
No echo.
No presence brushing my mind.
Not even the cold whisper Adrian always had when he spoke from the dream's shadows.
Just silence.
The kind of silence that feels like a grave.
A tight ache slammed into my chest—sharp and deep, like the moment a terrible truth sinks its claws in.
"I'm alone…" I breathed, shaking.
"This is it… isn't it."
My heart dropped so hard it felt like it shattered on impact.
The forest around me watched.
Waited.
And for the first time since this nightmare started…
I truly thought this might be the end