The air was thick with tension, every breath Ava took felt like it was cutting her lungs with shards of ice. The storm had retreated, leaving behind a haunting silence, a silence that was more terrifying than the thunderous roars that had once accompanied it. The forest seemed to close in around them, the towering trees casting ominous shadows that danced in the faint light of the rising moon. The storm might have passed, but the real tempest had just begun.
They had no time to bury the past, no time to mourn or reflect. Ava's decision had set a chain of events in motion that couldn't be undone, a choice that now pursued them with relentless ferocity. She could feel it in the pit of her stomach, a gnawing dread that threatened to consume her from within. And with each step she took, it grew stronger, feeding off the fear that clung to her like a second skin.
