Vera blinked awake, her body aching as if she’d been fighting something in her sleep. The world around her was different, unfamiliar. The air was dense, thick with the smell of damp earth and ancient wood. She sat up slowly, her hand instinctively reaching out beside her—only to find the space empty.
Zach was gone.
“Zach?” Vera’s voice wavered, a mix of confusion and rising panic. She glanced around, her heart pounding in her chest. The dense forest stretched out in every direction, trees gnarled and twisted, their branches reaching out like skeletal hands. Shadows loomed over her, casting an eerie glow in the patches of light that managed to break through the thick canopy.
The forest was nothing like the one they had entered together.
She stood, shaking off the disorientation, trying
