When Shadows Whisper

Therrin's POV

The air was too still.

Even the birds had gone silent, their song cut off mid-note. Therrin could feel the way the forest held its breath, as if it too sensed the brewing storm. She crouched by the streambed, hands cupped beneath the water's surface. The cold should've been grounding. Instead, it only made her skin ache.

Something's wrong, Ari murmured in her head, no teasing in her voice now. Just dread.

"I know," Therrin whispered, barely hearing her own voice over the pounding in her ears. She stood slowly, scanning the trees around them. "Do you feel that… buzzing?"

A low hum vibrated in her bones, like the ground was growling. Then the light began to bend. Sunlight fractured strangely, becoming too sharp and too dim all at once. Shadows stretched unnaturally long, slithering over roots and rocks like hungry fingers.

Her heart skipped. "Ari?"

But Ari didn't respond. A pulse of heat erupted inside her chest—like two souls colliding—and then she was somewhere else.

Ari's POV

The forest blinked out.

No more trees. No more sky. Only a sprawling void.

Ari stood in a warped version of their shared mind-space. The ground cracked and hissed beneath her feet, shadow roots twisting up from the earth, groping for something. Her other half—Therrin—stood across from her, curled in on herself. Trembling.

"Ari," Therrin rasped. "I can't… move. What is this?"

"I think…" Ari looked around, her voice tight. "I think we're under attack. They're using us—our instability—to worm their way in."

Black fog slithered in from every direction. Faces formed in it—distorted, whispering, grinning things with too many eyes and mouths sewn shut.

"You wanted control," Therrin choked. "You wanted Dion—you took him. Maybe this is your fault."

The words landed like blades. Ari flinched. "I did it to protect you. I didn't mean to—"

Therrin's body convulsed in the vision, the seams between them tearing wide again. The pain of being split—two halves of one whole soul—shredded through them.

We're going to rip ourselves apart, Ari realized. And the shadows want that.

The creatures in the dark fed on it—on fear, on separation, on doubt. Their hunger was palpable.

Therrin's body writhed under the weight of them, shadow tendrils curling around her legs like chains.

Therrin's POV

She felt her body twitching in the real world.

Muscles locked. Breath hitching. Cold sweat clung to her skin. She could feel the shadows circling in the physical forest, but inside her, the real war raged. She and Ari were both being suffocated by it.

"Let me in," a voice coiled through the mind-space like oil. Feminine. Cruel. It wasn't Ari. Wasn't her.

A monstrous figure emerged from the fog, wearing her face—but hollowed out. Eyes pitch black, a grin too wide to be human. "I could fix you. I could split you for good."

"NO!" both girls screamed at once.

Grimm's POV

In the clearing, the world shimmered—and Grimm, in his feline form, shot out of the bushes like a shadow bullet.

He skidded to a stop at Therrin's feet. Her body jerked, her eyes rolled back, hands twitching against the dirt. A low growl built in his throat, but it wasn't for her—it was for what he sensed trying to burrow its way through her soul.

"Dammit, girl," he hissed. "You're stronger than this."

He jumped onto her chest, tail whipping furiously. "Listen to me, Therrin. Listen to the part of you that knows this isn't real. She's not your enemy. You are one soul—two lights in one flame."

Inside her mind-space, the warped ground trembled. Ari and Therrin both looked toward the sound of his voice—distant, yet cutting through the fog like a bell in the night.

"Grimm," Ari breathed.

Therrin's POV

His voice was anchor and blade.

Therrin turned, locking eyes with her other self. Ari stood bruised and wide-eyed, but not broken. Not yet.

"I'm scared," Therrin admitted.

"So am I," Ari said.

A moment passed. Then Therrin reached out her hand. Ari took it.

The shadows screamed.

A gale of energy blasted from the girls, a surge of light lancing through the fog. The monstrous imitation of Therrin let out a shriek and burst into black dust.

The shadow tendrils burned away from Therrin's real body as well, her back arching, chest heaving as she gasped in real air.

Grimm sat back, chest rising with a relieved sigh. "It's about time."

Ari's POV

Their connection clicked back into place like a puzzle piece snapping home.

Ari didn't feel like she was fighting Therrin anymore. She felt like she was holding her. Supporting her.

"I think I get it now," Therrin whispered.

"What?"

"You're not a mistake. You're me."

Ari's throat tightened. "And you're me."

They weren't healed. Not fully. But they were whole again—for now. And the moment they reconnected, the forest around them responded. The shadow fog lifted. The birds began to chirp again.

But something told Ari this wasn't the end of it. Just the beginning.

Grimm's POV

Grimm flicked his tail.

They're coming again. Stronger next time.

He didn't say it out loud—but he could feel the shift.

The moment of weakness between Therrin and Ari had cracked something open in the world. The shadow spawn had tasted them. And once they'd tasted a soul like that… they never forgot.