KATE

chapter 4

Part 4: The Dangerous Turn

Kate's POV

Her blood was warm. Too warm.

I pressed my hands to her chest, trembling so hard I could barely keep my fingers still. The water around us was freezing, rushing fast, but all I could feel was Emily's warmth seeping out between my hands. Her face-God, her face- was pale and slack, like she was already halfway gone.

"Emily!" I shouted, my voice breaking. "No, no, no! Stay with me,okay? You're gonna be fine. I just-" My hands slipped in the blood, and I scrambled to press them harder, trying to stop the bleeding. "I just need to stop the bleeding, and then -and then we'll get out of here! You hear me? Emily!"

She didn't answer. Not at first. Her eyes blinked sluggishly, like even that small movement took everything she had left. "Kate..."

"I'm right here," I said, the words spilling out in a rush. "I'm not leaving. I'll fix this, I swear. You justhave to hold on, okay? Just hold on a little longer."

Her lips twitched into a faint smile. "It's okay..."

"It's not!" I screamed, shaking my head hard enough to make my neck ache. "It's not okay! We were supposed to do this together! We were supposed to make it out!"

Her hand moved weakly, brushing against mine. Her fingers were cold. Too cold. "Promise me," she whispered.

"What?"

"Promise me..." Her voice was barely a breath, soft and fragile. "You'll survive. No matter what. You have to... promise..."

I couldn't speak. My throat was too tight, the words choking me.

"Promise..." she said again, her eyes starting to flutter shut.

"I promise," I whispered, even though it felt like I was breaking in half to say it.

Her lips curved into a small, faint smile. Then her body went still, and her hand slipped from mine.

"Emily? No-Emily!" I shook her, my voice cracking. "Don't do this! Don't leave me! Emily!"

But she didn't move.

The forest around me was too loud and too quiet all at once. The river rushed, the dogs barked, the guards shouted, but it all felt far away-like it was happening in another world, to someone else.

Something inside me snapped.

I couldn't think. Couldn't breathe. The weight in my chest was crushing me, and I couldn't hold it in anymore. A scream ripped out of me, raw and animalistic, shaking the trees around us.

And then everything went dark.

It wasn't like sleep.

Sleep is soft and quiet, a slow fade into nothingness. This was sharp, sudden-like falling off a cliff and landing in pitch-black water.

I was gone. I didn't exist anymore. There was no ground beneath me, no sky above me, just this endless, suffocating void.

But I could feel something moving.

Not me-not my hands or my legs or anything that belonged to me. But something else, deep inside, something huge and ancient and furious.

I tried to fight it, tried to scream, but the darkness swallowed me whole

When I opened my eyes, the first thing I noticed was the quiet

The dogs had stopped barking. The river was still rushing, but it sounded far away now, like I was hearing it through a thick wall. Even the wind seemed to have gone silent

I sat up slowly, my head pounding. The cold air bit at my skin, and I realized I was shaking. My hands were coated in something dark and sticky, and for a moment, I thought it was river mud. But the smell- sharp and metallic-told me otherwise.

Blood.

It was everywhere.

My breath hitched, my chest tightening as I looked around. The riverbank was slick with it, smearedacross the rocks and pooling in the dirt. And the bodies...

Oh God, the bodies.

They were sprawled across the ground, their limbs twisted at unnatural angles, their faces frozen in expressions of terror. Some of them looked like they'd been torn apart, their clothes shredded, their flesh mangled.

I clapped a hand over my mouth, bile rising in my throat.

The guards were dead. All of them. The dogs too, their bodies scattered like broken toys.

I didn't understand.

This couldn't be real. It had to be some kind of nightmare, some horrible trick my brain was playing on me.

But the blood on my hands was warm. Sticky. Real.

I stumbled to my feet, my legs wobbling beneath me. My headspun, and the memory of Emily's face-pale and still, her blood staining the water-hit me like a punch to the chest.

"Emily," I whispered, my voice trembling.

I turned, my eyes scanning the c*****e, and saw her.

She was lying exactly where I'd left her, her body half-submerged in the river. Her face was peaceful now, her eyes closed, her lips curved into the faintest smile.

I dropped to my knees beside her, my chest heaving.

"Emily," I said again, louder this time, as if saying her name could bring her back. But she didn't move.

The truth slammed into me, cold and brutal. She was gone.

And I didn't know what I'd done.