Chizzy turned, but no one was there. Just the dark and the whispering leaves.
But something had changed.
The woods no longer felt neutral. They felt...awake.
She backed away from the grave, heart pounding. Then, from behind a tree, a voice rose cracked, feminine, urgent.
"Run."
Chizzy didn't question it. She bolted.
The woods seemed to twist and stretch around her. Paths she'd known all her life no longer led where they should. Trees shifted. Shadows reached.
Something followed breathing heavy, wet, and inhuman.
She stumbled onto the dirt path near the village's edge, falling to her knees. When she looked back, the woods were still.
Like nothing had happened.
But the message was clear.
She was being hunted.