By the time we left the village, the morning sun had barely risen, its light veiled by a thick layer of clouds. The air was heavy with mist, curling around the stone cottages like tendrils of smoke. Even with the faint glow of dawn, the world felt dim, as if the light itself was being smothered. There was no warmth in it, no relief from the cold that clung to our bones.
We packed our few belongings in silence, each of us haunted by our own fears. The events of the previous night still weighed heavily on my mind—the whispers, the shadow in the woods, those sickly glowing eyes. As much as I tried to push the memory away, it lingered at the edge of my thoughts, gnawing at my resolve.
Leon was the first to step outside, his expression blank and distant. Karis followed, her sword strapped tightly to her side, her eyes scanning the village with wary precision. I hesitated, my hand resting on the doorframe, casting one last glance at the common room of the inn. It was as if I expected something to happen—the whispers to return, or the shadow to appear again in the corner of my vision—but nothing came. The inn was quiet, the fire long since burned out, leaving nothing but cold ashes.
I shook off the unease and joined the others outside. The village was still. No one had stirred yet, and the few homes we passed had their shutters closed, the occupants likely taking refuge from the early morning chill. Even the air seemed hesitant to move, the mist hanging thick and motionless around us.
"We'll head east, through the forest," Karis said, breaking the silence as we reached the edge of the village. She pulled out a small, weathered map and pointed to a dense expanse of trees that sprawled across the parchment like a black stain. "It's the quickest route to the border. If we can make it through by nightfall, we should be able to reach the Riverlands."
Leon said nothing, his face still locked in that faraway stare, but he nodded. I could see the exhaustion in his eyes, the weariness that had taken root deep within him. It was the same weariness I felt—the sense that we were being hunted, driven from one place to the next by an enemy we didn't fully understand.
The Black Forest loomed ahead of us, a wall of ancient trees that stretched up toward the gray sky. Their gnarled branches were draped in thick moss, and the mist seemed to swirl and thicken as it crept between the trunks. The forest had a reputation—a place of danger, a place where people went missing. But it was also the quickest way to escape the growing threat behind us, and we didn't have the luxury of time.
As we entered the woods, the world seemed to shift around us. The air grew colder, the light dimmer, until the village behind us felt like a distant memory. The trees were so thick and tall that they blocked out most of the sky, casting long, twisted shadows over the ground. Every sound was muffled, the only noise our footsteps on the damp earth and the occasional rustling of leaves in the wind. Even the birds were silent, as if the forest itself had swallowed them whole.
I couldn't shake the feeling that we were being watched. It wasn't just paranoia—it was something deeper, something primal. The sensation of eyes on my back, of unseen figures lurking in the shadows just beyond the reach of my vision. I glanced at Karis, wondering if she felt it too, but her face was as stoic as ever, her gaze fixed ahead.
After hours of walking in tense silence, the trees began to thin slightly, revealing patches of open ground where the light filtered through in muted beams. But the relief was short-lived. The deeper we ventured into the Black Forest, the more twisted and unnatural the landscape became. The trees grew closer together, their trunks blackened and scarred, their branches gnarled into grotesque shapes. The mist thickened, clinging to our clothes, making it difficult to see more than a few feet ahead.
The shadows moved here. I saw them out of the corner of my eye—flickers of motion, brief glimpses of figures darting between the trees. I tried to tell myself it was nothing, that it was just the mist playing tricks on my eyes, but the unease in my gut refused to be ignored.
"We should stop for a moment," Karis said, her voice low and steady. "We've been walking for hours. Let's take a break, get our bearings."
We found a small clearing, barely wide enough for the three of us to sit without being swallowed by the underbrush. Leon sat down heavily, his shoulders slumped, and Karis pulled out the map again, frowning at it as if hoping the lines and marks would give her some sense of direction in this forsaken place.
I crouched beside her, peering at the map. "How much further until we reach the edge?"
Karis traced a line with her finger, her brow furrowing. "It's hard to say. The Black Forest is notorious for... shifting. Landmarks change, trails vanish. It's why so few people dare to travel through it."
I swallowed hard. "You think we'll make it out by nightfall?"
She didn't answer, but the look on her face was enough. I could see the doubt creeping in, the uncertainty that had been growing in both of us since we'd left the village.
Leon, who had been staring blankly at the ground, suddenly stood up. His eyes were wide, his breathing shallow. "We need to go," he said, his voice tight with fear.
"What is it?" I asked, my heart pounding.
Leon's gaze darted around the clearing, his eyes wild. "They're here. The shadows. They're close. We need to move. Now."
Karis and I exchanged a glance, but there was no time to question him. Leon had always been sensitive to the dark forces that pursued us—if he said something was coming, I believed him.
Without another word, we grabbed our things and set off again, moving quickly through the thick underbrush. The forest closed in around us, the mist swirling and shifting like a living thing. My heart raced in my chest, each step filled with the growing certainty that something was following us, drawing closer with every passing moment.
The whispering started again.
At first, it was faint, barely more than a soft hum in the distance. But as we pressed deeper into the forest, it grew louder, more insistent. It was the same distorted chorus I had heard the night before—voices overlapping, speaking in a language I couldn't understand. They were all around us, coming from the trees, the mist, the shadows. They seemed to be coming from everywhere at once, and no matter how fast we moved, we couldn't outrun them.
Karis drew her sword, the sound of the blade cutting through the air sharp and clear in the oppressive silence. "Stay close," she said, her voice tight with tension. "Don't let them separate us."
I nodded, gripping my own sword tightly, my knuckles white. Leon was ahead of us, his pace frantic, his eyes darting wildly from side to side. He seemed to be in a state of panic, his breathing shallow and erratic. I had never seen him like this—he was always the calm one, the steady one. But now, he was unraveling, and that terrified me more than anything else.
The whispering grew louder, the voices now distinct, though still incomprehensible. They surrounded us, echoing through the trees, weaving through the mist like tendrils of smoke. The air grew thick with tension, and I could feel something closing in around us, something dark and malevolent.
Then, just as suddenly as it had started, the whispering stopped.
We froze, the silence so thick it pressed against my ears. The mist hung heavy in the air, unmoving, and the shadows seemed to stretch longer, darker. The forest was deathly quiet, as if it were holding its breath.
Then I saw it.
A figure emerged from the mist, standing just beyond the reach of the trees. It was tall and thin, its body draped in tattered black robes that seemed to flutter in a wind that didn't exist. Its face was hidden beneath a hood, but I could feel its gaze—those same glowing, sickly yellow eyes I had seen in the village. They bore into me, filling me with a cold, hollow dread.
"Karis," I whispered, my voice trembling. "Do you see it?"
She didn't respond, her gaze fixed on the figure, her body tense and ready to strike. I could see the fear in her eyes, the same fear that was gnawing at my insides.
Then, without warning, the figure raised its hand. The mist swirled around it, thickening, coiling like serpents around its outstretched fingers. And then, it pointed directly at me.
A wave of cold washed over me, and for a moment, I couldn't breathe. My vision blurred, my limbs went numb, and the world seemed to tilt around me. I felt a pull, a dark force dragging me toward the figure, toward the shadows that clung to it like a second skin.
Karis shouted something, but her voice was distant, muffled by the roar in my ears. I tried to move, to run, but my body wouldn't respond. The pull was too strong, too overwhelming.
Then, just as I felt myself slipping into the darkness, a flash of light cut through the mist.
It was blinding, searing my eyes, and the force that had been