The winlds pushed through the thick tree coverage, carrying the low scent of pine foliage and soil. Selene stopped at the edge of the woods, and heard itâthe sound she knew really well as the whisper ran over her ears once more.
Approach meâŠ
She shivered. It had been going on for weeks; every night when the moon was low in the sky. Almost ethereal, no more than a whisper on the wind⊠yet ineluctible. There was someone â something, calling her.
The woods were always dangerous, that was all her father had ever taught her. "Selene, there are things out there," his voice serious and his brow creased with such severity that her stomach would twist. Words and things that are best left alone.
Yet even with the warnings, despite the chill that gripped her spine whenever she set foot on campus, and Claire could not keep away. As did the whisper, the forest called to her in an intuitive connection that grew somewhere in the bottom of her lungs.
Tonight, her beams full and brightâŠsilver flowing through the leafy lattice⊠The village itself remained dormant, all the occupants having long since retired to bed, tucked away in their closed-in homes. Selene stood at the threshold between two worlds; her world of light, and the world concealed in shadows within the forest.
Approach me...
Now the whisper was more insistent, its voice like an invisible hand around her heart. She moved forward, leaves crunching beneath her boots as she crossed into the forest.|The farther in he walked, the more the sounds of the town evaporated, replaced by a lingering rustle of tree branches moved by wind.
As she went deeper, the trees appeared to grow taller and darker. Her familiar path twisted into unknown trajectories, carrying her deeper into the wilderness. But she did not stop. There was something inside her, primal and ancient, that compelled her onward.
Her heart was in overdrive, each pump louder than the last turning into a deafening silence. Now she could feel itâa power buzzing under her skin, vibrant and alive, as though the forest moved alongside her. She wasn't alone.
A chill shot down her spine. The shadows grew dense, and for the first time, Selene faltered. What am I doing? she thought. The warnings from her father rang louder in her head. She wasn't a child, but she still held to the old tales. Tales of the beasts that haunted the wood on evenings such as this, when the moon was fat and enchantment at its zenith.
A twig snapped behind her.
Selene spun on her heels, freezing when she saw it. Her eyes shifted in the darkness, trying to find where the noise came from, but there was nothingâonly trees moving slowly and leaves dancing with the wind.
"Hello?" she cried, tearfully.
No response. But still the whisper continued to call her further in.
Her chest tightened. Her every instinct cried out to her to turn around and that it was a fake voice she had hallucinated. Despite that, something deep inside her did not want to leave. She stepped up, one foot closer.
And then, before it could sink in⊠the ground under my own feet gave way.
Before Selene could even realize what was happening she had slipped down a hidden incline, her body rolling through the underbrush for seconds before she hit something solid with an audible thud. She groaned as pain shot through her arm, and she tried to sit up. Her clothes were covered with dirt and leaves and her heart was trying to hammer its way out of her chest.
She had to breathe again for a moment as her head spun from the fall. And then she heard it, the whisper again only this time it was louder.
Selene
Her blood ran cold.
Someone was calling her name.
The girl dropped to the floor and picked herself up, cradling her arm as she did so â it sung with pain. Her eyes moved around the room, but there was nothing. Only the crunching of thick, black trees and the stifling quiet.
But before she turned completely Paris caught a shimmering spur of silver in her peripheral vision, dim and flickering like firelight far away.
Curiousity overpowered her fear. She was making her way towards the light; she walked so carefully, yet she flew. The air darkened, and as she got closer the light intensified, exposing a small glade deep within the woods. Built around an ancient, moss-covered stone altar. It was glowing, giving everything around it long shadows; auras of silver.
Selene took a step towards it, breathing raggedly at the ethereal light. The moment her fingers made contact with the cold stone, an electric charge was sent coursing through her body. It blurred her vision and for that one moment, everything went black.
She finally jolted awake to find she was not alone.
A dark figure loomed in front of her. It must have stood at a significant height, its vibrant eyes shared the dull grey hue found in structures against the light background of a moonlit sky. Louder than ever, that whisper which had been lurking inside her head for weeks sounded in her brain.
You've come at last.
The sound echoed in Selene's chest, and she staggered back a step. "Who⊠who are you?"
The figure didn't move. It spoke in silk, its voice soft yet dangerous. A"you know who I am." "âŠIt seems that I have been expecting you, Selene.
Fright and uncertainty battled through her. The ones she wanted to run from and hide behind the walls of that village so far behind her our ancestors hadnt even thought about it. And yet, she sat still.
"What do you want from me?" Her voice was almost a whisper.
A smirk.They could not see the weight of her eyes, but something in that smile was sinister. "You're special, Selene. You always have been. But like, you are who you are â now embrace it.
It was gone before she could say anything, two shadows moving as one unit.
Her knees gave out and she fell to the ground, heart hammering in her ears. Yes, the whispers were gone but still she felt cold.
Something had changed. Only to herself she admitted that, insideâ nothing was going to be the same.