~Isla~
I was comfortable warped in is arms and then They came just before dawn.
I heard them long before I saw them—moaning through the trees like a wind that remembered pain. The forest stilled. Even the frogs stopped ribbiting. The air grew thick and wet and trembling, like it knew what was coming. I had just started to doze, head resting on Raul’s shoulder by the fire, when the first knock came.
It wasn’t on the door.
It came from the walls.
From the floorboards.
From beneath us.
And then they wailed.
Not a scream.
Not a cry.
But the long, hollow wail of something that had drowned long ago and still hadn’t stopped suffocating.
Raul bolted upright. I didn’t need to ask. I felt them in my bones.
“They found us,” I whispered.
Raul grabbed the bag of salt and the lantern. “Stay
