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The air around Tranquil Hollow didn’t move.
It was deathly still. Unnaturally quiet. Even the wind seemed afraid to disturb the silence that hung over the abandoned asylum like a curse. Moonlight filtered through a patchwork canopy of rotted trees, casting long shadows across the leaf-littered ground. The forest that encased the asylum breathed with ghosts—unseen, but very much felt. I could almost hear them whispering from the hollowed-out windows, clawing at the edges of my sanity as we crouched at the tree line.
Theo adjusted the earpiece in his left ear, his fingers trembling just slightly. The glow of his tablet bathed his face in a ghostly blue hue, while lines of code danced across the screen. Jace stood beside me, a wall of calm in the chaos. His stance was sharp, ready. His
