Chapter One
690 Words
AURORA
The forest is quiet now, the stillness is unsettling and assuring at the same time. I don’t hear footsteps behind me anymore. No growls. No voices. Just the wind slicing between the trees and the relentless pounding of my heart.
My legs are tired, my arms sting like they've been scraped raw by thorns. But I keep walking, something tugs at me, its not physical but deep. Like an invisible thread pulling me forward. East I sense, I don’t know how I know, I just do. And honestly, It’s the only thing that feels real right now so I keep going.
The trees begin to thin, and rooftops emerge in the distance, then I see a village it's small, tucked between hills, smoke curling from chimneys, warm lights flicker behind frosted windows. Relief hits me so fast it makes my knees weak. I need help, a name or just someone to tell me I haven’t lost my mind.
But as I get closer, that relief twists into something else—something sharper, unease I guess
Pausing at the edge of a treeline, my breath ragged, I press behind a leaning birch. A slush puddle reflects a girl I barely recognize she looks pale, her hair wild, eyes wide. She looks like someone who barely made it out alive and maybe that’s exactly who she is.
I pull the hood tighter over my head, I feel the dagger, hidden beneath my cloak, pressed against my waist. I don’t know where it came from, or why it feels familiar but it hasn’t left my hand since I woke up. Even now, my fingers twitch as though they miss the grip. It's stupid to enter a village armed, but somehow, not carrying it feels even worse.
Stepping into the open, the cold bites harder. The first few people don’t give much more than a glance. A man unloading firewood, a woman with a bucket of water, her eyes slide past me like I’m no one, as if I don’t exist and I feel that's worse than a suspicion.
Nobody questions me or greets me. But something feels off about this village, the quiet isn’t normal, it's hiding something. The doors close too quickly, curtains shift just as I pass. Could be paranoia? But the feeling lingers. I feel something here knows me, even if I don’t know myself.
Following the path through the center of the village, the air smells like burning pine, bread, and something faintly metallic. I cross a small square where a frozen fountain stands at its center, half-buried in snow.
Then I feel it. That pull again it's stronger this time, like a string yanked suddenly tight. My feet suddenly stops moving, my hand instinctively moves toward the dagger under my coat, not out of fear it was more like reflex. Something is here or rather someone.
I start glancing around slowly. And that’s when I saw him, standing at the far end of the square, half-shadowed under the sloped roof of a cottage with his arms crossed, shoulders tense, watching me. Our eyes lock and in that second, my body forgets how to breathe. He’s tall, broad, wrapped in dark winter layers. His jaw is sharp, his skin slightly tanned. And his eyes, his eyes are a storm I can’t look away from. Grey-blue and too familiar for someone I don’t remember meeting.
I blink, but he doesn’t disappear.
He takes a step forward then another, each movement deliberate, controlled. like this moment was expected, like he’s been looking for me. I should back away but I don't, I can’t move. I just stand there, my heart hammering, blood rushing in my ears. He stops a few feet away from me. Silence stretching between us like a tightrope. His eyes search mine in a way that I feel exposed, seen. But not in a way that scares me. Its in a way that rattles something deep inside, like I’ve been found.
He says one word..... “Aurora"
And everything inside me goes still. I never told him my name. I didn’t even remember it myself…..not until now.
- Writer
