The Northern Forest
1055 Words
Selena’s POV
The sun had slipped beyond the horizon, leaving behind faint streaks of orange and purple that the night swallowed whole. Silver moonlight spilled through my window, but it didn’t feel gentle tonight.
It felt like a warning.
I stood frozen in the center of my room, heart hammering so hard it hurt. The letter in my pocket felt alive, heavy and pressing against my ribs.
*Tonight.*
One word. That was all it took to twist my stomach into knots.
Fear crawled up my throat, slow and suffocating. But beneath it burned something stronger—something that refused to let me crumble.
Nyra.
Her bright laugh. Her tiny arms wrapped around my leg. The children who still looked at me like I could keep them safe.
I swallowed hard.
“I don’t have a choice,” I whispered into the empty room. My voice cracked.
I moved to the wardrobe on shaking legs and pulled out the simplest clothes I owned—something light, something I could run in. My hands trembled so badly I had to stop twice just to breathe. But my decision never wavered.
Even when every instinct screamed at me to stay.
Even when my heart begged me not to go.
I was still going.
The house felt wrong as I approached the door—too quiet, too still. Like it already knew. Like it was mourning me.
My fingers lingered on the handle for a long moment. I closed my eyes.
*If I don’t come back…*
I couldn’t finish the thought.
I opened the door and stepped into the night.
---
The moment I crossed into the Northern Forest, the air changed.
It grew heavier. Colder. The moonlight barely pierced the thick canopy overhead, the branches twisting like skeletal hands reaching down to claim me. Shadows stretched unnaturally long, alive and watching.
My steps slowed. Leaves crunched beneath my feet, each sound far too loud in the oppressive silence.
My skin prickled.
A shadow flickered between the trees.
I froze. “Hello?”
My voice sounded painfully small.
No answer.
Then came the laugh—low, sharp, and wrong. It slithered from behind me.
I spun around.
Nothing. Only darkness staring back.
My chest tightened until I could barely breathe.
“Stop it,” I whispered, though I didn’t know who I was pleading with.
I forced myself forward, faster now. Branches tore at my arms. My breath grew ragged. That eerie presence followed, closer, breathing down my neck.
My foot struck something hard.
Pain exploded up my leg. I gasped, lost my balance, and crashed to the ground. Dirt scraped my palms. For a second I just lay there, trembling, fighting back tears.
*Get up.*
I pushed myself to my feet.
And the forest went deathly silent.
No crickets. No wind. No life.
A glowing circle ignited beneath my feet, pulsing like a heartbeat. Once. Twice.
Alive.
I stumbled back, but the light followed, rising, wrapping around my legs like invisible chains.
“No… please…”
I tried to run. A violent force slammed me backward into the center of the circle. Pain shot through my spine as I hit the ground.
“What is this?!” I cried.
I scrambled for the edge again, only to be thrown back harder. Tears burned my eyes.
I was trapped.
Footsteps approached—slow, deliberate.
My heart lurched.
I forced myself upright on shaking legs. A figure emerged from the darkness.
Still. Watching.
For one wild second, I thought fear had shattered my mind.
Then she stepped into the faint glow.
“Isadora.”
Relief crashed over me so hard my knees nearly buckled. “I’m here,” I rushed out. “The hunters sent another message. I didn’t want to worry you, so I came alone. I thought—”
My voice broke.
She said nothing.
She simply looked at me. Really looked. Her gaze was cold. Empty. Measuring.
“You’re injured,” she said at last.
“I… I am,” I admitted weakly.
Her eyes dropped to the blood on my skin.
“Not the way I expected you to be bleeding.”
A chill raced through me. “Isadora,” I whispered, smaller this time. “Please… help me.”
She stepped closer. Too close. Too calm.
“I can’t.”
The words didn’t make sense at first.
“What?” My voice shook. “What do you mean you can’t?”
I reached for her desperately. “Please don’t joke like this.”
She didn’t move. Didn’t soften.
And something inside me started to fracture.
“I warned you,” she said quietly. “Not to come here.”
“I had no choice!” I cried, voice breaking. “I had no choice.”
She watched me for a long moment.
Then she smiled.
It wasn’t her smile. It was cold. Cruel. Foreign.
“I’m scared,” I whispered. “Why are you here if you won’t help me?”
Her smile deepened, and my world shattered.
“To finish what I should have done a long time ago.”
Everything inside me turned to ice. “I don’t understand…”
A low growl tore through the trees.
I turned too late.
A rogue wolf exploded from the shadows. Pain—sharp, blinding, merciless—ripped through me as claws tore into my flesh. Warm blood spilled across the ground.
I screamed.
I fell.
Through blurring vision, I stared at Isadora.
She stood perfectly still. Watching. Not moving. Not helping.
Just watching me die.
“Why?” I choked out, blood coating my lips.
She stepped closer, slow and graceful.
“You were always too kind, Selena,” she murmured. “Too easy to read.”
My breathing fractured.
“I saw it,” she continued softly. “In a dream. You standing beside the Alpha as his mate.”
My heart stuttered.
“I couldn’t allow that.”
Tears slipped down my cheeks—hot, helpless. Not from the pain anymore, but from the betrayal slicing me open.
“So I made sure,” she whispered, leaning over me, “you walked into your own death.”
My vision darkened.
The world tilted.
Pain faded into a distant hum.
The last thing I saw was Isadora standing over me, smiling as I disappeared.
- Writer
