Mag-log inDarkness Rissa’s POVI stayed kneeling by the river long after Josh walked away.I kept my hand in the water until it went numb, just to prove I could still feel something real. Something untouched.I didn't trust my instincts.I hated that more than anything.They used to be sharp, a compass I could navigate an entire life with. But lately they felt tampered with. Tilted. Like someone slipped a finger on the scale and smiled while watching me try to balance.Water rippled around my fingers.Turn around.That voice from the vision or whatever it was lingered inside my skull like a thread I couldn’t pull free. I didn’t know if it came from inside me or somewhere else entirely.I told myself I’d walk for a minute, get my thoughts straight, then return.Instead, my legs moved on their own, taking me upriver along a narrow strip of stones. Not running. Not hiding. Just following… something.Distance gave me clarity.Or maybe it gave me the illusion of it — but I’d take the illusion ove
A Thin Line Rissa’s POVI woke to silence not comfort, not peace, but the kind that feels like a held breath.Like the world paused and asked me to listen.Mark sat a little ways off, head lowered, elbows braced on his knees. Watching the treeline like he’d done it all night. Or like he hadn’t slept at all.Guilt pressed at me immediately.After everything he had done to protect me, I’d left him drowning in doubt. His loyalty was the kind that didn’t ask for permission it just existed, solid and immovable, even when I didn’t know what to do with it.Josh stood at the river’s edge, boots inches from the water, hands shoved in his pockets. He looked too relaxed for someone hunted. Calm in a way that either meant confidence… or control.I didn’t know which unnerved me more.A strange clarity settled in me, like someone had dusted off a shelf inside my mind.Last night I felt foggy, pulled in too many directions. This morning if it was morning ,there was a line down the center of me.Saf
Reaching in the dark Mark’s POV I sat a few feet from the river, elbows on my knees, staring at the slow ripple of water as if it could tell me what to do next. Rissa slept — or tried to — bundled in her blanket, back turned to both of us. Her shoulders were tense even in rest. She’d been holding everything inside for too long, and tonight pushed something in her past its limit. I could see it in the way she curled forward, protecting herself even from sleep. Josh leaned against a tree on the opposite side of the camp, arms crossed, watching the woods like he owned the dark. Too calm. Too sure. A man who knew answers and enjoyed watching everyone else choke on questions. I didn’t trust him. Not before. Especially not now. What bothered me wasn’t just the way the hunters had stopped at the river as if a line had been drawn. It was the way Josh looked back at them without fear… almost like he was confirming something. He wasn’t limping anymore. He didn’t even pretend to hide it.
Whispers in the SmokeRissa’s POVAt night, the trees whispered secrets. The air grew thick with a hum that wasn’t wind but something alive something ancient that had been waiting. I sat close to the dying fire, watching the smoke rise in thin curls. Each one twisted into a shape before fading. Faces, maybe. Warnings.Mark was awake too, though pretending to rest with his back to a tree. His knife was near, as always. Josh sat a little distance away, sharpening his blade like it was a habit he couldn’t break. The scraping sound carried through the stillness steady, slow, deliberate.It was beginning to wear on me.We had been walking for days, following no clear path, always one step ahead of whoever or whatever hunted us. But tonight felt different. The air had weight. Every sound carried further than it should. Every flicker of shadow made my pulse quicken.I wrapped my arms around myself and stared into the embers. That familiar scent lingered — metallic, sharp, like wet iron and
Beneath the VeilMark’s POVJosh was pretending to sleep again.His hand hadn’t moved since last night—still resting near that knife he thought I hadn’t noticed. I didn’t wake Rissa. She needed the rest, and I needed to see how far Josh would go if he thought no one was watching.The fire had burned down to embers, the orange glow fading into ash and cold smoke. Outside, the forest was waking quiet at first, then alive with sound. Birds, wind, the faint ripple of water in the distance. But beneath it all, there was something else. The steady rhythm of movement. Too deliberate to be the wind. Too soft to be an animal.We weren’t alone.I stood slowly, careful not to make a sound. My boots barely touched the cabin floor as I stepped closer to the window crack. The treeline was still, yet the scent of damp earth and metal lingered. That same metallic trace Rissa had mentioned the day before. Whoever was tracking us was close enough now that I could almost feel their breath in the air.Jo
The Hidden Truth amongst usMark’s POVRissa had barely said a word since morning.We’d been moving through the forest for hours, the rhythm of our steps the only sound between us. Her shoulders were tense beneath her jacket, and she kept touching her wrist where the ribbon used to be. She didn’t notice she was doing it, but I did. Every time her fingers brushed that empty spot, her pace faltered for half a second, like her mind went somewhere else.Josh walked a few steps behind us, slower, leaning on a broken branch he’d turned into a makeshift cane. He was still too weak to be walking this far, but the stubborn bastard wouldn’t admit it. I could feel his eyes on us , on her like he was waiting for something.The forest was dense and quiet, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that someone else was out there too. Watching. Listening. Maybe Rissa was right about being tracked. Or maybe Josh had gotten in my head the way he’d gotten into hers.I kept glancing back, scanning the trees. No







