Julia runs blindly through the dense forest, which has suddenly become a labyrinth of darkness. Branches lash at her face, roots grip her ankles, as if nature itself were trying to hold her in place.
Behind her, she hears something even worse—sliding footsteps, unpleasantly drawn out, as if the creature wasn't following them but crawling across the ground and trees simultaneously.
"Faster!" Marek cries, gripping her hand tighter.
But Julia already knows she can't run any faster.
Something tugs at her from within—a symbol. A sharp pain, as if a glowing circle were opening in her skin. She feels the symbol pulsing faster and faster… in time with the footsteps behind them.
"We have to hide!" Julia hisses through gritted teeth.
"It senses movement," Marek replies. “If we stop…”
At that moment, the moon goes out.
Suddenly.
Completely.
As if someone had cut the light with a knife.
Julia stops dead in her tracks.
“Marek…?” Her voice trembles, for the darkness is so absolute she can’t even see her own hands. “Where are you?”
No answer.
“Marek?” she repeats, louder this time.
The forest is silent.
The silence is thick, wrong.
One that isn’t ordinary silence—it’s *space*, waiting.
Julia takes a step to the side, hand outstretched.
“Marek, speak… please…”
And then she hears it.
Not behind her.
Not beside her.
**Right next to her ear.**
*Julia…*
Natalia’s voice—or whatever is wearing her voice like a mask.
Julia freezes.
Her heart pounds so hard she can hear it in her ears.
Something cold brushes the back of her neck.
*Don't run away anymore... You came to me, after all.*
"No..." Julia whispers, fighting back tears. "It's not you. You're not Natalia."
Something changes her tone immediately.
*Are you sure?*
A cold finger—too long, too thin—slides along her neck.
Julia screams and jumps to the side, tumbling into the wet leaves.
She hears the creature move behind her, slowly, with disturbing satisfaction, as if toying with her fear.
And suddenly—a bang.
Light.
Flashlight.
"JULIA!" Marek leaps out of the darkness, grabs her hand, and pulls her to her feet.
Behind them, something howls, a long, deep wail that no longer resembles a human voice.
The flashlight's beam trembles in Marek's hand.
Julia catches her breath.
"I lost you..." her voice breaks.
"You didn't. It separated us," Marek replies gruffly. "It does. It separates people. It feeds on loneliness."
Before Julia can ask what that means, the ground BELOW them begins to tremble.
Subtly at first.
Then increasingly louder.
And suddenly... Julia takes a step and... the ground disappears.
She screams, falling down, sliding into a dark crevice that has opened between the trees like a mouth. Marek catches her wrist at the last second.
The flashlight's beam reflects off something beneath her—something wet, mobile, as if thousands of long fingers were moving just beneath the surface.
"Hold on!" Marek growls, clenching his fingers so tightly that Julia hisses in pain.
But from beneath the ground, arms begin to emerge.
Long arms. Black, as if made of smoke.
Skinny fingers emerge from the cracked earth, trying to reach Julia.
"Marek!" she screams. "It's pulling me in!"
Marek scrapes the skin on his hands, but pulls them higher.
One of his black hands wraps around her calf.
The cold paralyzes her entire leg.
Julia feels something whispering in her head—wordless, but the command is clear:
**Come back to us.**
"NO!" Julia screams, slowly yanking her leg free.
Marek tugs with all his might and… succeeds.
Julia flies to the surface, and they both fall to the ground.
The crack disappears.
As if it had never been.
Silence falls again.
Heavy.
Tensive.
Julia gasps, trembling.
Marek places a hand on her shoulder. "Now you see why Natalia disappeared."
Julia looks into his eyes and finally understands.
Not fully...not yet.
But something clicks inside her.
"It...didn't come for me today," she whispers. "It came **to finish**."
Marek pales.
And Julia adds:
"Because Natalia wasn't the last one chosen...right?"
Marek's silence says it all.
There's only one answer.
Natalia wasn't the last one.
**Julia is supposed to be next.**
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