The woods had taken on an eerie, almost sinister quality. They had always been dark, dense with trees that seemed to crowd too close together, their shadows long and thick. But now, it was as if the forest itself was watching us, alive with something old and unsettling.
The first time I saw the figures in the woods, I thought I was dreaming.
It was a cold, early morning. I had stepped outside, needing some air to shake off the lingering chill of a nightmare that had left me drenched in sweat. In my dream, I was somewhere dark, surrounded by flickers of firelight and shadows that seemed to crawl along the ground. And Luca... He had been there, too, but different. Cold, distant. A version of him that felt as familiar as it did foreign, like a ghost of the man I knew.
When I opened my eyes
