The deeper they moved, the more the forest felt alive in a way that was wrong. Every step seemed to echo longer than it should. Every breath seemed too loud. The trees stretched tall and twisted, their branches intertwined in a pattern that gave the impression of skeletal fingers forming a ceiling over their heads. Someone shifted their weight, and the sound of dry leaves crunching beneath boots felt almost painful in the heavy stillness. It was not just quiet. It was suffocating. The air held a weight that did not exist moments earlier, a suffocating pressure that settled around their forms like invisible chains.
Daniel felt it first, the strange prickle beneath his skin, a crawling sensation that made the tiny sparks of lightning in his blood twitch and surge in warning. He paused witho
