I didn't sleep.
I couldn't.
Every time I closed my eyes, I saw him-
Tall. Hooded. Waiting.
Like he wasn't following me...
He was already inside me.
---
At 4:12 AM, I left my room.
I needed to breathe, to move, to not think.
Fairhill was still asleep.
But the woods weren't.
There was a sound in the trees. A low hum.
Almost like... whispering.
I turned on my flashlight and stepped in.
Even though every part of me screamed not to.
---
The deeper I walked,
The louder it got.
Like voices circling my head,
But no language I understood.
---
Then-
A sharp pain.
I touched my chest.
Something was there.
A mark. Small. Faint.
Like a burn. In the shape of a blade.
I stumbled back-
And stepped on something hard.
I looked down:
> A silver chain.
A pendant... with an engraving:
"October 17."
---
I knew that date.
I didn't know why-
But my whole body remembered it.
---
Suddenly, I heard footsteps.
Fast. Heavy. Behind me.
> "Who's there?!"
No answer.
Just the sound of something not human breathing.
---
I ran.
Branches whipped my arms, roots pulled at my shoes.
The air got heavier, thicker, like smoke without fire.
When I finally reached the edge of the forest-
Someone was waiting.
Nathan.
---
His face pale. Hands shaking.
Like he saw the same thing I did.
> "You went in," he said quietly.
"You saw it."
> "Saw what?" I asked.
He didn't answer. He looked over his shoulder, then back at me.
> "They warned us... not to look directly at it."
"It remembers when you look back."
I stepped closer.
> "What is it, Nathan?"
He finally looked me in the eye.
> "It's from before. Before we were even... us."
I didn't understand. My head spun.
> "Before what?"
Nathan swallowed.
> "Before Petra. Before the silence. Before you forgot what he did to you-"
---
I froze.
What?
> "Nathan... what do you mean?"
"Who did what to me?"
His mouth opened-
But no sound came out.
Like the forest swallowed his voice.
His eyes widened-he pointed behind me-
And I felt it again:
That whisper.
Not in the air. Not in my ear.
In my bones.
> "You're not ready to remember."
---
I turned around.
Nothing there.
When I looked back...
Nathan was gone.
---
I stood alone in the clearing, shaking.
In my pocket-
The pendant.
In my chest-
The burn.
In my head-
A voice that wasn't mine.
---
To be continued...
© Qussai - All rights reserved.
Do not copy or repost.