George's POV
The bush swallowed my footsteps as I pushed deeper into the darkness, crawling, stumbling, forcing myself forward even when every breath scraped my lungs raw. I didn’t care. I couldn’t care.
Cierra was here.
The blood on the ground, the broken branches, the faint drag marks....they all whispered the same thing.
She had been here.
And something had happened.
Blinky’s voice echoed faintly behind me, calling my name again and again, but I couldn't turn back. Not when every instinct in me screamed that she needed me. I kept going until my palms were scraped and my heart was shaking inside my ribs.
Then...
A sound.
Soft. Sharp. Too human to ignore.
I froze. “Hello?” My voice cracked. “Is… someone there?”
Silence.
Just the thrum of insects.
My fingers trembled as I pul
