Each breath tore through my chest like a blade. The air was icy, thick with mist. A pale glow, filtered by a veiled moon, cast shifting shadows on the trunks. In the distance, owls hooted. But it wasn’t them that chilled my blood. It was them.

I threw a trembling glance over my shoulder. And I saw them.

Wisp-like silhouettes, like torn fragments of souls, floated between the trees. They rippled in the darkness, like crows made of ash and smoke. A shrill hiss accompanied them, like wails ripped from death itself. Below them, massive hounds surged through the fog. Their eyes, pale and empty, gleamed like dead moons. Their paws barely touched the ground, but their hoarse barks split the night like knives.

And in their midst… him.

Riding a ghostly horse whose hooves left no trace, the hunter advanced. Slowly. Inexorably. He wore a long black coat with ashen reflections, floating around him as if it were woven from liquid darkness. His face was hidden beneath a veil of shadow, but his eyes… his eyes burned with a supernatural blue light. Icy. Inhuman. And they were fixed on me. Me alone.

My throat burned, my muscles screamed. Each step sent jolts of pain through my legs, my ribs, my side. I tripped on a root, scraped my knees, but leapt back up, breathless, my heart pounding like it would shatter my chest.

I no longer knew where I was going, or how long I had been running. My arms were numb, my fingers frozen. All I could feel was that dull ache in my side, that metallic taste in my mouth… and that certainty: if they caught me, I would never wake up.

The wind carried their voices dissonant, terrifying. Funeral chants in a forgotten language, yet one my soul seemed to recognize. And amidst the cacophony...

— You will be mine, whether you want it or not, he howled with a mad burst of laughter.

His voice. Deep—deep as an abyss. It vibrated with an unhealthy intensity, coiling in my head like an incantation. Obsessive. Possessive. It didn’t need to shout to be threatening—every syllable struck, sharp as shattered glass.

They were coming for me. And I no longer knew if I was running to survive… or to escape another kind of death.

I clutched my necklace in my hand, so tightly my knuckles turned white. I had to hold on. I mustn’t stop.

Never.

I could feel their breath drawing closer. My own was growing erratic. My head spun. Dizziness overtook me, black spots dancing before my eyes. A cold shiver brushed the back of my neck… and suddenly.

I woke up with a start, my heart pounding so hard it felt like it would burst from my chest.

My head throbbed. I cradled it in my hands, trying to steady the tremors that racked me. The images still floated in my mind, hazy, clinging to my skin like a nightmare refusing to fade.

Breathless, I turned my head.

I was in my father’s car, in the middle of nowhere. He, hands on the wheel, drove in silence.

Toward my new life.

Or a new kind of hell.