Beneath the moon

Chapter Three

Chapter Three: The Scar in the Woods

The trees were thicker here, older, twisted in a way that didn’t feel natural. Elena ducked beneath a low branch, boots sinking into the damp forest floor as she followed the faint outline of a forgotten path. Moss clung to every surface, soft and silent underfoot, and overhead, the canopy swallowed the light, casting everything in a greenish gloom.

She hadn't told Cade where she was going. Part of her wasn’t sure she knew herself. But when she saw that pendant in the photo, memories started surfacing unwanted, yet familiar. A carved symbol. A night she couldn’t quite remember. A dream she’d had since childhood where her brother’s voice echoed through the woods, calling her name. Always just out of reach.

The path wound deeper into the forest until it reached a clearing she hadn’t seen in over a decade. The treehouse was still there, or what remained of it. The wood had warped and rotted, hanging crooked like it might collapse at any second. One of the rope ladders dangled uselessly from a broken beam, swinging slightly in the wind.

Elena stepped closer, her breath catching as she saw the tree.

There it was carved deep into the bark, faded but unmistakable. The crescent moon symbol. It wasn’t something a child could’ve etched. The lines were too precise, too deliberate.

She reached out, brushing her fingers against the scar in the bark.

And froze.

A sudden snap of branches came from the trees behind her. She turned, heart hammering. Nothing but silence stared back.

“Hello?” she called, voice sharper than she intended. “Cade, if you followed me this isn’t funny.”

No answer.

She stepped back slowly, her instincts screaming at her now. Something was out there. Watching. Waiting.

She turned to leave and saw the footprints.

Not hers. Not boot prints. Barefoot. Deep. The heel barely made a mark, but the toes dug hard into the soil claws, maybe. Whatever made them wasn’t human. And it had been standing just a few feet from where she was now.

She knelt beside the tracks, her mind trying to rationalize. Could it be a bear? A large wolf? But wolves didn’t walk upright, and the stride... the stride was too straight. Almost like someone walking on two legs.

A low growl broke the silence.

She spun around.

It stood at the edge of the clearing half in shadow, half in light. Tall. At least seven feet. Covered in coarse, dark fur that shimmered with damp. Its eyes glowed amber, locked on her. Its chest rose and fell with deep, controlled breaths.

Elena didn’t move. She barely breathed.

The creature tilted its head, not like a predator sizing up prey but like something… curious.

Then, without a sound, it turned and vanished into the trees.

She stood there, heart pounding in her ears, body frozen. Her legs didn’t move until the growl faded completely. When they finally did, she ran. Branches whipped at her arms. Thorns scraped her legs. But she didn’t stop not until she burst out of the trees onto the gravel road, lungs burning, clothes torn.

Her truck sat where she left it, parked along the shoulder near the ranger’s station. She fumbled with the keys, hands shaking, eyes darting to the tree line every few seconds.

Inside, with the doors locked and the engine roaring to life, she sat for a full minute before she could even shift into gear.

What she saw wasn’t a trick of the light. It wasn’t some ghost story or hallucination.

It was r

eal.

And whatever it was, it knew who she was.