The last strip of sunlight bled out behind the trees, swallowed whole, and the forest changed with it. The air grew colder. Thicker. A sheet of darkness covered the entire sky, it was time, it will begin it's hunt

  Lukas was still on his knees, "Y-You said you'd give my belt back'', his voice cracking on the final words

  Everyone just stood there, watching, shocked, hurt. Her whole body limp, face expressionless, eyes still open. Her lifeless body rocking side to side like a swing strung up to the tree using Lukas' belt. Her whole body hung slack beneath the branch, arms loose at her sides, fingers slightly curled as if they had tried to grasp at something that wasn't there. Her head tilted at an unnatural angle, chin resting too heavily against her chest. Strands of hair veiled part of her face, swaying gently each time the wind shifted

  Soren couldn't breathe. His chest rose, but no air came. He had seen Elena torn apart. He had seen blood. He had heard bones break. But this

  This was quiet. This was chosen and that made it worse. A bitter thought surfaced before he could stop it. She didn't want to wait for it. She would rather take her own life than wait for what she considered the inevitable

  His stomach twisted

  He stepped closer without realizing he was moving, boots crunching against dry leaves. The fading light caught the curve of her cheek, pale now, almost grey beneath the dimming sky

  "She was right behind us," Adrian whispered

  His voice sounded small. Like a child's

  Adrian's hands trembled violently at his sides before one of them shot up to cover his mouth. His shoulders began to shake, uneven and uncontrolled, breaths breaking apart into sharp, fragile fragments

  "No… no, she wouldn't-" he tried to say, but the words collapsed before they formed

  Vera didn't cry

  She stood rigid, jaw clenched so tight a muscle fluttered along her cheek. Her eyes never left Sofia's face. Not even when the wind pushed her slightly sideways. Not even when the belt creaked again

  Vera gritted her teeth, ''How could you abandon us like this Sofia, How could you!''

  Lukas made a broken sound behind them, something between a sob and a laugh as he dragged himself forward on unsteady legs. He stared at the leather, at the buckle pressed against bark, as if it had betrayed him personally. He clutches his head, looking down at the ground with a maddening gaze, ''Why did I give you the belt! This is my fault! My fault!''

  Soren stared at the body, heart pounding, stomach twisting. Part of him wanted to scream, to collapse to the ground and let the grief wash over him. Another part, darker, colder, hissed inside his head. 'This isn't bad because she's dead… it whispered, jagged and insistent. It's bad because she was supposed to be next. She was supposed to die first. And now… now that changes everything'

  Soren grits his teeth, ''Shut up''

  The voice louder now, 'Oh you know it's true though. She was going to be the next one, you saw the state of her broken, hopeless, weak. You could have done more to help her, but no you didn't even when you clearly noticed something was wrong. I wonder why hehehe'

  ''Shut up, shut up!''

  'Deep down you knew if she would have been next you would have lived to see another day, but now who's going to be next hahaha, how are you going to survive now Soren how will you'

  Adrian puts his hand on Soren's shoulder, ''Soren are what's going on, why are you screaming that just now''

  I look at him but before I can say anything a muffled laugh comes from the darkness behinds us

  My head snaps toward the sound, heart hammering against my ribs. The shadows between the trees seem to shift, stretching longer and darker than they should. That muffled laugh again low, wet, and hungry, carrying an almost human cadence but twisted, wrong

  Adrian stiffens beside me, his hand dropping from my shoulder. Vera's breath hitches, eyes wide, scanning the blackness like she expects the thing to step out at any second. Lukas mutters something under his breath, a garbled prayer or curse, I can't tell which

  The voice in my head surges again, relentless, whispering, laughing along with the thing in the darkness. 'You feel it, don't you? The way it watches. The way it waits. Now it knows what it can do to you. And it's coming for you next'

  A shiver races down my spine. I can feel the ground beneath my feet, cold and uneven, but it's like the forest itself is shifting, drawing me toward some trap I can't see. "We-we need to move," I rasp, my voice barely louder than a whisper, but the urgency carries

  "Move?" Vera's voice cuts sharp. "And go where? Do you even know where it is?!"

  I don't answer. My eyes flick to where Sofia's body still hangs, the lifeless form swaying in the cold wind. But then… it moves. Slowly, grotesquely. Her limbs twist in unnatural angles, elbows bending backward, knees folding the wrong way. Her fingers curl into claws, elongating, the leather belt creaking as if straining against some impossible pressure

  A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  Her face contorts, eyes widening and blackening at the edges, teeth stretching into something sharp and jagged, a grin too wide, too human, but utterly wrong. The air seems to shiver as the form hisses and laughs, a sound that is both hers and not hers

  "You don't know where I am," it croons, voice dripping like liquid malice, echoing in every direction at once. "Hahaha… Don't worry… I'm right here"

  It tilts its head unnaturally, the grin splitting further as if it's savouring every moment of terror. Shadows twist along her body, following the impossible angles of her deformed limbs, and I realize, with a cold dread, that it's not just her corpse anymore. It's a weapon, a mockery, a trap designed to terrify us before it strikes

  The laughter curls around my mind, sticky and suffocating, and I stumble backward, chest heaving, trying to shake the vision out of my head. But it doesn't stop

  "I'm right here…" the voice hisses again, the smile widening in the darkness, looming over us like a nightmare made flesh

  The forest seems to shrink around us, shadows stretching like hands ready to grab. My pulse pounds in my ears, deafening, as the laughter curls through the trees again, closer this time, wrapping around us like a living thing

  "Run!" I scream, grabbing Lukas by the arm, yanking him forward before he can even think. Vera and Adrian follow instinctively, the sound of their feet crunching leaves and snapping twigs loud against the silence of the corrupted forest

  Behind us, the creature moves with impossible speed. It doesn't run; it glides, leaning over the shadows, limbs unnaturally long, following every one of our steps. Each breath we take feels like it's being measured, calculated, weighed against some cruel scale we'll never understand

  Adrian's voice cracks, "It's right there! I can feel it!"

  Vera's face is pale, teeth clenched, eyes darting left and right as if the forest itself might swallow us whole. "Keep moving! Don't stop! Don't look back!"

  I glance over my shoulder for a fraction of a second, and my stomach twists violently. The form of Sofia, or what it has become, is no longer hanging in one spot. It stretches and skitters between the trees, its grin catching every glint of the fading light, following us without effort. Its laughter now blends with whispers, the sound impossible to place in space, coming from everywhere and nowhere at once

  We're running as fast as our legs can carry us, branches whipping past our faces, the forest blurring around us. Adrian and Vera are just ahead, their breaths ragged, eyes wide with panic, feet pounding the earth like they're trying to outrun their own mortality. Behind them, I notice Lukas slowly creeping past me, somehow pulling ahead, his strides just a little faster, pushing himself to keep up with the panic driving us all forward

  'Shit, shit, shit everyone is faster than me. Lukas is starting to pull in front of me as well!'

  I can feel it, a suffocating pressure, like heat rolling over my shoulders, the smell of decay and iron filling my nostrils. Every instinct in my body screams that it's too close. My skin crawls, hairs standing on end, and I can almost hear it. A wet, ragged exhale brushing against the back of my neck, matching my own heartbeat

  It's there. Always there. Breathing me in, tasting my fear, even if I don't let myself feel it. Each step I take, each desperate stride forward, I know it's counting on me slipping, faltering, making one mistake. I can feel the weight of its gaze pressing down, heavy and intimate, like it's inside my mind as well as behind me

  'It's right behind me! I'm gonna fucking die! How can I survive, survive, survive, SURVIVE!'

  That same from before voice whispers,' do it'

  'I WILL SURVIVE'

  I lunge without thinking. My hands shove against Lukas' back, sending him stumbling forward. Time stretches. His foot catches on a root, arms flailing, eyes wide with shock. He doesn't even have a chance to scream

  The monster is already on him. A jagged shadow, claws snapping, teeth gnashing. The sound wet, tearing, impossible to forget fills my ears as Lukas is swallowed in an instant. His body jerks violently, then stills. The scream that should have been his dies in my throat

  Vera hearing the commotion looks back she freezes mid-stride, seeing Lukas fall towards his death, her hands reaching for him instinctively, but she's too far, too slow. Her eyes are wide, frozen in horror, watching the impossible happen. Adrian doesn't see it, his head is down, racing forward, oblivious. I keep running, but my heart is hammering, my stomach twisting

  'I escaped'

  'hahAHAHA I SURVIVED'

  The forest falls into an uneasy quiet. The monster lingers at the edge of the clearing, its breathing slow, almost casual, the grotesque remnants of Lukas still clutched in its claws. Then, without warning, it releases him, or what's left, letting it drop with a sickening thud, and steps back into the shadows. Its laugh lingers in the air, echoing through the trees, but for now, it's gone

  I stumble to a stop, chest heaving, limbs shaking from the adrenaline. My stomach twists violently, the weight of what I just did pressing down on me. I can't look at Lukas' body again. I can't. I keep moving, forcing my legs to carry me forward even as the nausea threatens to overwhelm me

  Vera's voice cuts through the silence, sharp and trembling. "Soren!" She's only a few steps behind me, her eyes wide, a mixture of rage and horror etched across her face, "What the hell did you do?!"

  ''What did I do'', there's a brief pause as if Soren is recalling everything that happened, He responds his voice getting more agitated, ''I survived''

  Her hands shake as she grabs my arm, yanking me to a halt. "Don't you dare say that! You tripped him! Lukas, he's gone because of you!" Her voice is almost a scream, eyes blazing in the dim light of the forest

  I look back at her my voice uncontrollably raising itself, ''You think I wanted to do it!? Do you!? I did it because I was going to die. I did it to live and what right do you have to question me when my life was in danger! I did what I had to to survive!''

  Vera takes a step back, her hands falling to her sides but trembling, her face a mix of disbelief and fury. "Survive? You call that surviving? That wasn't survival, Soren. That was… that was murder!"

  "I didn't-" I start, my voice cracking, but she cuts me off

  "Don't even start! Don't you dare try to justify this to me! Lukas trusted you! We all trusted each other!" Her chest heaves as she shouts, the wind carrying her words into the shadows of the forest

  'She's right'

  'But why do her words sound so disgusting to me? She's saying that I should have died so Lukas could live. Should have sacrificed myself like some noble hero in a story. Should have let them decide who lives and who dies. My chest tightens, bile rising, because the truth is, I don't care about fair or noble. I care about breathing, about keeping my heart beating, about surviving'

  'Survival isn't pretty. Survival isn't moral. Survival doesn't wait for someone to pat you on the back for doing the "right thing." Survival is ugly, and right now, I am ugly, grotesque, disgusting'

  I grit my teeth, pushing down the shame clawing at me, because the second I falter, the monster will be on me. And I refuse. I refuse to be next