The ground trembled again.
The place was changing but in a different way.
Like it had finally learned my heartbeat.
Like escape wasn't an option anymore.
I felt tied to it.
My pulse was syncing again.
Mira stood beside me, breathing hard, wiping the last of her tears.
But the world wasn't watching her anymore.
It was watching me.
Every tree.
Every shadow.
Every creature.
The pulse in the tree grew louder, matching my chest beat for beat until I couldn't tell which one belonged to me.
"Vehan," Mira whispered, voice trembling.
"Don't let it pull you in.
but something in me whispered back-
I'm not being pulled.
I'm being answered.
A faint creak broke the silence.
Then another
Crrk...
Crrk....
The Grivvin was back!
Not running. Not attacking.
Just standing at the edge of the fog, head tilted, limbs twitching in slow, broken gestures...
Like it was trying to speak.
My breadth caught.
"Mira," I whispered, "Why isn't it moving?"
She stepped in front of me.
"Vehan, don't listen to it."
Listen? It wasn't even talking.
But then... It was.
Not literally but I could hear it.
Something crawled inside my mind. Maybe, a feeling, sharp, warm and heavy.
A memory that wasn't mine.
A voice without sound.
A thought without language.
"You're cracking..."
I staggered back.
My chest tightened, heart racing...
"What-What did it just -?" I gasped.
Mira grabbed my shoulders.
"You're hearing it. Vehan, that's not normal. My brother didn't hear them until it was too late."
But the Grivvin took a trembling step forward, its eyes were glowing red with something I recognized:
Fear.
Desperation.
Recognition.
Like it was looking at itself.
Inside me.
Another thought struck through my mind, clearer this time-
You hide everything.
You help everyone.
You bleed nowhere.
My vision blurred.
I wasn't listening to Grivvin.
I was listening to myself.
The part I abandoned, the part I refused to look at, the part that whispered in empty hallways and lonely lunch breaks.
I can remember all those moments when I was being sarcastic or just pretending to be fine.
I also needed help sometime.
I also needed someone to talk to. To be real...
I clutched my head.
"Mira.. make it stop.."
"I can't!." she cried. "It isn't talking to me but you!"
The Grivvin twitched again, limbs bending in ways that hurt to watch.
More feelings slammed into me:
You drowned when you helped.
You never asked for anything.
You never let yourself break.
My knees buckled.
"It knows me." I whispered
"It knows what I never say."
Mira looked terrified.
"That's why this place reacts to you," she whispered.
"You're not just lost, Vehan. You're -"
She didn't finish.
Because the Grivvin kneeled in front of me, trembling, its hand hovering over the soil like it was offering something or asking for something.
The ground under us throbbed harder.
Mira's scream cracked the silence.
"Vehan! Don't let it touch you."
But the creature didn't reach for me. It reached for the ground beneath my knees.
The heartbeat in the soil brightened.
Once, twice, then perfectly in sync with mine.
A thought slipped inside me.
"Come home...Vehan."
The ground beneath my palms split slightly- a thin red glow rising from underneath the mud.
Like it was calling me.
Mira grabbed my arm, pulling hard.
"Vehan! Listen to me. If you answer it, it won't stop!"
But then the Grivvin lifted its head. And for the first time since I had seen it....
It wasn't twitching. It was still.
Waiting. Seeing me. Understanding me.
And I heard it again... in my mind.
"Stop running. Crrk..."
My breath shattered.
Something inside me cracked open.
Not pain. Not fear. Recognition.
Like meeting a part of myself I had abandoned long ago.
The ground opened wider.
The pulse rising, surrounding my fingers, climbing up my arms like heat and memory and something darker than both.
Mira's voice broke somewhere far behind me.
"Vehan, Don't!"
But I wasn't falling.
I was being received.
The Grivvin lowered its head.
And the world went silent.