Crimson Dragon Prince

Lilly had taken the park path a hundred times. It was her usual-shortcut home after work—quiet, familiar, the kind of place where she could shake off the exhaustion of her shift and breathe. The park was peaceful in a way the city never was. No honking horns. No street vendors shouting. Just the soft crunch of gravel underfoot and the occasional hoot of an owl. But tonight, as she walked along the familiar trail, there was something... wrong. She couldn’t quite put her finger on it, but all day she’d felt it—like a shadow following her every step, a faint prickling at the back of her neck. It was an odd feeling, one she’d shaken off a hundred times before. Maybe it was just stress from her late shift at the café or the sleepless nights that had started to catch up with her. But the sensation had been there all day. She'd felt like she was being watched. It was subtle at first. The way the barista had stared at her a moment too long when handing her the espresso. The car that had followed her on her walk to work pulled into the same parking lot as her. The cold draft that had brushed against her when she was drying a mug, as if someone had opened a window she couldn’t see. Nothing had happened. Nothing overt. But that nagging feeling was still there, gnawing at her. And now, walking through the park, the woods around her felt… too still. The wind had died completely, leaving a dense silence in its wake. The leaves hung limp in the trees. No rustling. No whispering. No sound of life. Lilly paused, pulling her coat tighter around her body. A shiver ran down her spine. She glanced over her shoulder, half-expecting someone to be standing there. But there was nothing. Just the darkening park behind her. It was probably nothing. Probably just her overactive imagination. Still, she picked up the pace. She couldn't wait to get home, to shed the day's fatigue with a hot shower, fuzzy socks, and maybe curl up with a good book. Something with dragons and magic and slow-burning romance, like she always loved—something that made her forget about the mundane, about reality. But that strange feeling wouldn’t leave her. It clung to her like an uninvited guest. Her eyes flickered to the trees again. The way they stood, thick and ancient, their branches black against the sky. The shadows seemed darker, deeper. A rustle in the bushes. A figure moving just outside the reach of her vision. Lilly’s heart thudded in her chest. Stop it, she scolded herself. It’s just the wind, or a raccoon or something. You’re fine. She turned back to the path and forced her pace to remain steady, but the unsettling feeling kept gnawing at her. Then—something moved. Her breath hitched. She turned quickly, her eyes scanning the dark edges of the park, but all she saw was the fading moonlight casting long shadows across the ground. She exhaled shakily, but as she did, something else stirred in the air. Not a breeze, not the wind—but a ripple, like the air itself was bending around her. Her skin crawled. "Hello?" she called out, her voice louder than she intended. Her pulse raced. There was no response. Just the rustling of trees. Still, the feeling of eyes on her never left. It was as if someone—or something—was watching, waiting. Then, she saw it. A shadow moved between two trees, something tall and cloaked in darkness. For a moment, it was just a flicker at the edge of her vision. But as it stepped closer, she knew she wasn’t imagining it. The figure was tall—too tall, the kind of height that felt wrong for a human. Its cloak shimmered like oil, dark and swirling with something she couldn’t place. The face was obscured, hidden behind a smooth, bone-white mask, with glowing red eyes that bore into hers. Lilly froze. “Who are you?” she demanded, her voice shaky but defiant. The figure didn’t answer. Instead, the other two stepped forward from the darkness, equally imposing. Their movements were fluid, too graceful, too wrong. Their limbs stretched and bent at unnatural angles, like they were more than human, something… other. Lilly took a step back, her breath quickening. “You—what do you want?” She wasn’t sure what was happening, but the fight-or-flight instinct hit her hard. She reached for her purse, half-remembering the pepper spray she’d never actually used. The cloaked figures didn’t react. They just watched her, their glowing eyes unblinking. Then one of them raised its hand, fingers tipped in long, sharp claws. It pointed directly at her. The world shifted. It was as if the ground beneath her feet suddenly buckled, twisted, and the air turned to ice. A sharp crack of energy split the air, and Lilly felt herself yanked off her feet and slammed into the ground. Her body was locked in place, frozen in a cold, paralyzing grip. She tried to scream, but no sound came. The cloaked figure stepped closer, its clawed hand brushing against her shoulder. Cold. Unfamiliar. Alien. Lilly’s skin crawled at the touch, and her vision blurred, the world around her stretching and warping like smoke. She felt her body being pulled, lifted as if weightless, as though gravity no longer held her down. A portal opened before her—flashes of blue and silver light swirling in a crackling vortex, pulling at the very fabric of reality. Lilly’s stomach turned. No, she thought, desperately. This can’t happen. This isn’t real. But it was. And before she could think another thought, the world around her twisted and cracked apart, her body thrown into the rift. The cold air shattered her senses, the light searing her skin, and then