"Kyra."
Her eyes fluttered open again. She rubbed them sleepily, not fully awake. "Hmm..." she mumbled.
"Kyra."
"Hmmm..." she responded, groggily.
Then, her Beast's voice screamed in her mind, panicked and desperate: 'Don't answer back, Kyra! Don't answer back!'
Kyra's heart skipped a beat as she suddenly froze. Her eyes widened with fear as realization struck her. Her Beast's warning echoed in her mind, and with it came a deep sense of dread.
"What..." she began, but her voice faltered when the atmosphere around her shifted violently. The room's warmth was sucked away, replaced by a bitter cold that chilled her to the bone. The once-dark room transformed, bathed in an eerie, unnatural red glow that seemed to pulse with malevolent energy.
