CHAPTER 38
The next morning, I found myself behind the hostel.
I didn’t plan it. I just… walked. Like my body was moving on some old script, one it remembered even if my brain didn’t. The earth here was soft from the rain. The kind of red mud that sticks to your shoes, thick and heavy. It stained my slippers, then my toes when I slipped out of them and stepped barefoot into the grass.
I stood under the tree.
Yes. The same one from my dreams. I was sure of it now.
It didn’t look strange at first. Just a gnarled old thing with roots that clawed out in every direction like something trying to escape. But the longer I stared, the more wrong it felt. The bark was scarred like it had been burned. The soil around it looked freshly disturbed.
I crouched. My fingers trembled as I reached for
