They waited for what felt like hours, but no one else spoke through the comm.

Only the soft blink of the signal light reminded them that someone, somewhere, might still be listening.

Gabriel sat on a sloped patch of earth, holding the comm. Leonardo stood nearby, motionless but not relaxed. His eyes scanned the trees with quiet intensity, body loose and ready to move. He hadn’t spoken since the last message.

A low tremor rolled beneath them. Just a ripple, but enough to raise every hair on Gabriel’s arms.

Leonardo crouched down instantly, pressing one hand to the dirt.

Gabriel moved closer. “What is it?”

“Something big. Moving slow.” He straightened again. “And getting closer.”

Gabriel glanced down at the comm. “What do we do? They told us to stay put.”

Leonardo’s mouth pulled into a hard line. “That was before. We’re not waiting for something to find us. Not out here.”

Gabriel hesitated. “So we move opposite of what is approaching?”

Leonardo nodded. “With caution. We stay in sight of cover. No shortcuts. If something’s playing with the terrain, I want our backs covered.”

Gabriel nodded once, slipping the comm into his side pouch as he fell into step beside him.

They descended along the natural slope, boots crunching over fallen leaves and snapped twigs. Mist curled around their legs, rising from the ground like breath. Pale trees rose around them, thin, spindly things with white bark and high, skeletal crowns. The canopy above barely filtered the grey light.

Gabriel’s foot slid on a patch of glistening moss.

Leonardo caught him instantly, one hand gripping his arm with solid strength. Gabriel’s other hand clutched at his uniform, using it for balance.

He mumbled, “Sorry.”

“You keep doing that,” Leonardo muttered, “and I’ll start thinking you just like falling into me.”

Gabriel flushed and looked away, but didn’t pull his hand away immediately. Leonardo’s fingers lingered before releasing him, and they continued waking.

The comm crackled.

Sasha’s voice returned, low and clear: “You’re close. Cross the valley. Turn east. We’ve marked the ravine. There’s a flare.”

Gabriel’s heart leapt. He turned toward Leonardo, eyes wide. “That’s Sasha. That was him.”

Leonardo’s expression remained unreadable, but the line of his shoulders didn’t ease. “Too clear. Too perfect.”

“But the Hollow shifts,” Gabriel said, “Maybe it’s stabilizing. Maybe the zone changed just enough for them to find us properly.”

Leonardo didn’t argue. He just resumed walking, but now his hand hovered closer to his weapon.

Another crackle.

Natalia’s voice came through, calm, confident, exactly like always. “You’re almost there. Cross the ravine. We see you.”

They stopped. The comm pulsed steady green in Gabriel's hand, and he looked up, hopeful. “That’s her.”

But Leonardo’s gaze sharpened, scanning the trees and ridge above. “They see us,” he said slowly, “but we don’t see them.”

Gabriel blinked. “Maybe they’re on higher ground...”

“No.” Leonardo’s voice dropped low. “If they could see us from here, we’d see them too. This isn’t right.”

Gabriel’s pulse fluttered. He looked down at the comm, then back at Leonardo. “What do we do?”

Leonardo’s jaw tightened, eyes scanning the trees ahead.

“For now,” he said quietly, “we keep going.”

They walked in silence, the trees stretching taller and closer together. The stillness wasn’t peaceful. It clung to them. No wind. No distant growl of shifting terrain. Just the steady sound of their own footsteps and the low buzz of tension between them.

Gabriel glanced down at the comm again. Still clear. Still green.

His fingers twitched.

He was the one who had wanted to believe. But something was wrong.

Leonardo slowed. His eyes scanned the path ahead before he came to a full stop.

Gabriel stopped too. “What is it?”

Leonardo nodded toward a nearby trunk. “That look familiar?”

Gabriel squinted at the rough bark, then blinked. A smudge of white marked the base of the tree. It had been pressed on with enough pressure to stay despite the weather, but it had started to fade.

Chalk.

“I marked that,” Gabriel said, stepping closer.

Leonardo frowned. “Here?”

Gabriel hesitated. “I… thought I made it days ago. But I don’t remember this exact spot.”

Leonardo’s voice dropped. “Then maybe someone else marked it.”

Gabriel turned sharply toward him, a chill creeping down his spine.

A few steps later, something else caught the light, just a glint at first, near a low-hanging branch. Leonardo moved forward and plucked it loose.

He held it out.

Gabriel took a breath. It was a scrap of dark fabric. Midnight blue. Edged with fraying threads.

Leonardo’s eyes narrowed. “That’s our uniform fabric.”

Gabriel looked up at Leonardo’s uniform and there was no damage.

Leonardo didn’t say anything, but his posture shifted. “I haven’t torn anything.”

Gabriel swallowed. “Then where is this from?”

They exchanged a glance. Not panicked, but sharper than before.

Leonardo looked at the branch again. “Either another S-Class was here before us or the Hollow is screwing with us.”

They moved on slowly. Gabriel found more marks, a bootprint that matched his own tread. A scrap of white fabric, tangled in dry underbrush. A piece of synthwire he didn’t remember losing.

Then the comm flickered.

“Over the ridge,” Natalia’s voice said, clear and close. “We see you. You’re almost there.”

Leonardo didn’t move.

Gabriel looked up from the comm. “It’s them.”

Leonardo’s jaw tightened. “No.”

“What do you mean?”

He didn’t raise his voice. But something in his tone shut down further argument.

“That wasn’t her voice,” Leonardo said. “The pitch was too flat. Natalia always slightly roll the ‘r’ when she gives orders. That didn’t happen.”

Gabriel stared at him. “You noticed that?”

“Course I did.” He paused, eyes still locked on the slope ahead. “It sounds like her. But it isn’t.”

Gabriel looked toward the ridge, heart climbing into his throat. “Then what do we do?”

Leonardo didn’t answer right away. His gaze swept the tree line again, slowly.

“For now,” he said at last, voice low but firm, “we keep going. Carefully.”

They followed the slope of the ridge in tense silence, every step cautious. The forest had thinned into scraggly brush, and beyond it, the land sloped sharply into a hollowed-out basin glowing faintly in the early light.

Gabriel’s breath caught.

There, below them, was a circular structure glowing blue in the middle of the clearing, just like the emergency beacons used by their team. The pulsing light shone steadily, casting long shadows across the clearing’s edge.

Figures stood around it.

Gabriel leaned forward instinctively, drawn like a tether had pulled him, his heart lifting before he could stop it.

“There,” he breathed. “That’s… that’s them.”

One figure had the tall, alert posture of Kael, arms crossed, half turned as if watching the perimeter. A second leaned slightly on one hip, the same way Natalia often did. The third had a loose, casual stance that could only belong to Sasha.

Gabriel’s voice trembled. “It’s them. It’s really them.”

He took a half step forward, like a tether had pulled him.

Leonardo’s hand shot out, hard on his arm.

“Stop,” he said.

Gabriel blinked, confused. “What?”

Leonardo didn’t answer immediately. He was watching the scene below with narrowed eyes.

“Look at their shadows,” he said.

Gabriel hesitated, then looked again, this time more carefully.

The shapes hadn’t moved.

But now, with Leonardo’s warning in his ears, he saw it.

The shadows weren’t right.

They twitched, subtle at first, then clearer. One of them shifted without the body moving. Another split for a moment, like a second outline peeled off before snapping back. They weren’t just flickering, they were wrong.

“What…” Gabriel murmured, pulse kicking hard.

Leonardo’s grip tightened. “Back. Now.”

Gabriel took a slow step back, the hopeful illusion cracking.

Then one of the figures turned.

The movement wasn’t fluid, it was like a rotation. The whole upper body twisted at once, as if on an invisible axis. The face turned toward them, stretched in a way no human face should be, and smiled.

Gabriel’s stomach turned.

The figure lifted a hand and waved. But the wrist bent the wrong way, fingers moving in a wide arc, mechanical and exaggerated.

Another stepped forward and opened its mouth.

“Gabriel… Gabriel… Gabriel…”

Three voices layered together. One sharp. One low. One high-pitched, childlike.

A third form glided into view.

Its features were eerily human, but too smooth. Too symmetrical. The skin pulled tight across unnatural bones. It opened its mouth and spoke again, perfectly mimicking Sasha’s warm, teasing cadence.

“Come here, little Guide.”

Gabriel jerked back. His legs moved on instinct now.

The comm in his hand burst to life. Static. Then a flurry of overlapping commands.

“Do not move... move... stay... we’re... safe... run... don’t...”

The voices collided and crashed into each other, playing fragments of orders in no coherent pattern.

Then came the final blow.

The beacon shattered.

It didn’t explode, it collapsed, as though crushed inward by a force too fast to track. Blue light turned to shards that vanished before hitting the ground.

From the center, something emerged.

It crawled forward on too many limbs. They weren’t arms, not exactly, just stretched extensions of whatever had been pretending to be human. The thing had no face, only parts of several. A jaw here. A pair of twitching eyes there. A mouth that split too wide and whispered in mismatched tones.

Gabriel stood frozen.

Leonardo stepped in front of him without a word, muscles coiling as energy sparked through his limbs.

“The Hollow’s done playing,” he said.

The ground shifted beneath them. Shadows collapsed inward.

Then the creature lunged.

Leonardo didn’t wait.

He grabbed Gabriel’s wrist and ran.

The world blurred around them as Leonardo pulled Gabriel into the trees, boots thudding over uneven ground.

Branches tore at their sleeves and scratched their skin. Gabriel winced as something sharp scratched his arm, but he didn’t stop. He barely kept his footing, legs aching, lungs burning. Behind them, the clearing split open with a howl that wasn’t wind. Or animal. Or human.

The comm screamed once more, glitching in Gabriel’s ear, then went dead for good.

“Don’t let go,” Leonardo barked, his grip tightening on Gabriel’s wrist. “Whatever it is, it’s fast.”

Gabriel stumbled on a patch of wet moss, heart pounding, but Leonardo caught him mid-fall with a quick, anchoring pull. They ran harder.

A low vibration rolled through the soil beneath them. Each footstep felt heavier. The air around them had shifted, denser, charged, like something was closing in from all sides.

Then a noise, wet and sharp, like tearing flesh, echoed behind them.

Gabriel risked a glance back.

A ripple warped the clearing behind them, distorting the trees. The flickering figures collapsed into black slivers, melting into the shape now crawling after them. It had grown. Changed. Revealed more of itself.

It was massive now.

Limbs bent at unnatural angles, too many joints. A torso of stitched-together wrongness, pieces of false human faces stretching over it like clay. A jaw too wide. Eyes layered and misaligned. One of its mouths whispered in a voice that wasn’t human, yet still said his name.

“Gabriel…”

“Stop looking,” Leonardo snapped.

Gabriel jerked his head forward, heart slamming against his ribs. “It’s copying us.”

“I know,” Leonardo muttered. “Just keep moving.”

They tore through a thicket of dry underbrush. Thorns dragged at their legs, but neither stopped. They plunged down a short slope into a narrow ravine. Gabriel skidded at the bottom, then gasped as his ankle twisted.

Leonardo caught him again, this time with both arms steadying him.

“You good?”

Gabriel nodded, out of breath. “Yeah. I’m okay.”

Leonardo let go, reluctantly, and they pressed on.

Above them, the branches groaned under something heavy. The sound followed, fast and precise, as if the thing knew exactly where they were going.

Gabriel felt it again, that wrong pressure against his mind.

When they rounded another bend in the ravine, Leonardo slowed abruptly, arm out to stop him.

Ahead, a thin slice of moonlight cut through the trees, casting a glow over a still figure standing between two crooked trunks.

It didn’t move.

It stood too still. Arms down, face half-hidden in shadow. It looked like a person, at first glance, but everything about it hummed with wrongness.

Leonardo’s body shifted, subtly positioning himself in front of Gabriel.

“It’s setting up a trap,” he said quietly.

Gabriel turned to glance back.

And his breath caught.

The way behind them had changed.

No ridge. No clearing. No trail. Just dense trees where open space had been minutes ago, branches that hadn’t existed before, roots that now blocked their escape.

Gabriel looked at Leonardo.

“What do we do?”

Leonardo’s expression didn’t change, but his shoulders rose with a slow breath.

“We stop running,” he said.

Gabriel stared. “What?”

Leonardo didn’t look at him. His voice was low, steady, firm. “It’s herding us. Trying to decide where we break. We need to take control before it decides where we die.”

He took a step forward, kinetic energy flickering faintly along his arms.

Gabriel swallowed hard and followed.

The ground beneath them trembled, not violently, but like something huge had just exhaled underground.

Leonardo’s hand flexed, and his stance shifted wider. The air around him sparked faintly. Gabriel felt the static crackle through his skin.

The figure by the trees slowly raised its head.

Its face… wasn’t right. The features looked human only until they moved. Then everything twisted. The nose elongated, the eyes pulled too wide. A mouth opened, but not where it should have been. Too high on the face. Too many teeth. It smiled.

Gabriel flinched back. His stomach twisted.

Behind them, a sharp, shattering noise echoed through the ravine.

They turned.

The glowing beacon they’d seen before was now cracking down the middle like broken glass. The hum it had emitted warped into a screeching buzz.

Then it exploded. Glass-like shards flared outward, then vanished mid-air. The humanoid shadows that had once stood near it collapsed, sucked inward like ash caught in a whirlwind.

In their place stood something else.

Its limbs were long, too long, too thin. They ended in hands that looked stretched, skin pulled too tight over visible joints. Its spine curved wrong, bending like it had too many vertebrae. The body didn’t shimmer anymore, it solidified.

Then the head turned. Slow. Wrong.

It had no real faces, like imitations, pressed into its skin like someone had tried to sculpt a human out of wax and kept changing their mind halfway through. A mouth opened and closed, lips moving without sound. Another split open along its shoulder, whispering Kael’s voice. Then Sasha’s. Then Natalia’s. Overlapping.

Gabriel’s breath hitched. He stepped back. “That’s not possible.”

Leonardo grabbed his arm. “Now do you see it?”

“I see it.”

The creature’s patchwork mouth finally settled on one sentence. It said, in a near-perfect echo of Sasha’s voice:

“Welcome back, little Guide.”