It had been four days since the attack in the forest, and though Varion had insisted I stay inside, I hadn’t minded. The mansion felt like a sanctuary right now, walls and doors shielding me from the shadows that still haunted my thoughts. Even the sunlight streaming through the massive windows couldn’t chase away the lingering dread; my mind had built a world of its own, one where the hooded creature lurked behind every tree and branch it could find.
Every time I closed my eyes, the nightmare instantly returned. I was running through the dense, suffocating forest, my lungs burning, heart hammering, and the hooded creature was always there, gliding impossibly close, its hands stretching for me, its grin wide and unnerving. My feet got caught in roots that weren’t there before, and my body
