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Chapter 11: Beneath the Silence
Emma didn’t sleep that night. Neither did Lucas.
The cabin felt smaller than usual, too quiet despite the trees whispering outside the windows. Shadows stretched across the walls, and even the moon—still bright, still watching—seemed reluctant to cast light too deeply into the room.
Emma sat at the edge of the bed, wrapping a blanket tighter around her shoulders. Her thoughts twisted like roots through her mind: the creature’s red eyes, its twisted form, the boy’s screams, and Lucas’s blood staining the leaves.
“I can still feel it,” she murmured.
Lucas looked up from his seat near the window. His jaw was tense, his shoulders bare and bruised from the fight. “The bond?”
Emma shook her head. “The wrongness. That thing… it didn’t just want to kill you
