The night had teeth.
It bit at the edges of the cabin, gnawing at the wooden walls, at the frayed corners of my sanity. The silence wasn’t silence at all—it was breathing, stretching, alive with the weight of someone unseen. I lay on the cot beside Adrian, listening to his faint heartbeat under my ear, every fragile thud a tether to reality. If that sound stopped, so would I.
But I couldn’t sleep. Not with Daniel out there.
The forest outside creaked like old bones shifting. A breeze slipped through the cracks in the warped walls, carrying the faintest trace of smoke, though the air was cold and damp. My pulse quickened. Had Daniel lit a fire? Was he out there watching, testing how close he could press before I broke?
I sat up abruptly, my chest tight, eyes darting to the blackened win
