CHAPTER 10: THE HUNGER IN THE DARK

The creature stepped into the clearing.

For a moment, I forgot how to breathe.

It stood behind the three hunters, towering over them with a body that seemed too large and too twisted to belong to any living thing. Its shoulders were hunched, its arms unnaturally long, and patches of dark, matted fur covered its skin. Its fingers ended in curved claws that scraped against the ground.

Its eyes glowed a sickly yellow.

The wounded man beside me began trembling.

Not because of his injury.

Because of the creature.

I pressed my back against the fallen tree and held my breath. The smell of blood hung heavily in the air, mixing with the damp earth and the strange, rotten scent coming from the creature.

One of the hunters turned towards us.

His head moved slowly, as though he could already sense where we were hiding. He lifted his weapon, but the creature raised one long arm.

The hunter stopped.

A deep, rough sound came from the creature's throat.

It wasn't a growl.

It sounded like something trying to remember how to speak.

The creature lowered its head and inhaled.

Its nostrils flared.

Then its eyes shifted towards me.

My heart slammed against my ribs.

The wounded man grabbed my wrist.

“Don't move,” he whispered.

His fingers were cold and shaking.

The mark beneath my sleeve suddenly burned. I pressed my other hand over it, trying to silence the heat, but the pain only grew stronger. It spread from my wrist to my shoulder, then down through my chest.

The creature's head snapped towards me.

It had felt it.

I knew it had.

One of the hunters pointed at the fallen tree.

“There.”

The word barely left his mouth before the creature moved.

It crossed the clearing with terrifying speed.

Its claws struck the fallen tree, splitting the thick wood with a violent crack. Pieces of bark flew past my face.

I screamed and threw myself sideways.

The wounded man rolled away from the impact, groaning as the creature's claws tore through the place where we had been hiding.

I landed hard on my injured ankle.

Pain shot up my leg.

For a second, my vision turned white.

I nearly collapsed, but a hunter was already running towards me. I forced myself upright and limped away, using the trees to keep my balance.

“Catch her!” he shouted.

The three hunters spread out.

One moved towards my left, another circled behind me, and the third remained near the creature. They weren't attacking randomly. They were closing every possible escape route.

They had done this before.

They knew how to hunt.

And I was the thing they had come for.

Branches struck my face as I pushed through the forest. My ankle throbbed with every step, but I refused to slow down. The pain was becoming unbearable, yet the thought of that creature's claws reaching me was worse.

Behind me, the creature roared.

The sound shook the trees.

Birds burst from the branches, and something small scurried through the leaves near my feet.

I heard footsteps approaching from both sides.

I changed direction suddenly and stumbled down a narrow slope. Loose soil slid beneath my feet, and I grabbed a tree trunk to keep myself from falling.

A blade struck the bark beside my hand.

I gasped and pulled away.

The hunter emerged from the darkness, his silver-marked mask reflecting the faint moonlight.

“You can't run forever,” he said.

I backed away, my breathing uneven.

“What do you want from me?”

He took another step.

“The same thing everyone wants.”

“Then tell me what it is!”

His gaze dropped to my wrist.

My sleeve had torn, exposing the glowing mark.

His posture changed.

For the first time, he looked afraid.

“Cover it.”

I stared at him.

“What?”

“Cover the mark before it wakes.”

My stomach tightened.

“What does that mean?”

He didn't answer.

Instead, he glanced behind him.

The sound of breaking branches grew louder.

The creature was coming.

The hunter's grip tightened around his weapon, but he didn't look confident anymore.

I seized the moment and ran.

I pushed past him and climbed the slope, ignoring the sharp pain in my ankle. My hands scraped against the rough bark of the trees as I dragged myself forward.

I didn't know where I was going.

I only knew I had to put distance between myself and that thing.

But the creature was faster.

A heavy crash sounded behind me.

Then another.

The hunter screamed.

I turned for half a second.

The creature had caught him.

Its claws wrapped around his body, lifting him from the ground. His weapon fell into the leaves.

“Wait!” he shouted.

The creature opened its mouth.

Its voice came out low and broken.

“Elara.”

My blood turned cold.

It knew my name.

The hunter struggled in its grip.

“Don't let it—”

The creature slammed him against a tree.

His voice disappeared.

I turned away and ran faster.

My lungs burned. My vision blurred with tears, and my ankle threatened to give out beneath me. I stumbled over a root and fell to one knee, catching myself before my face struck the ground.

A sob escaped my throat.

I wanted to stop.

I wanted to disappear.

I wanted someone to tell me why every terrifying thing in the forest seemed to know something about me that I didn't know about myself.

But there was no time to think.

The creature roared again.

The ground seemed to vibrate beneath my hands.

I pushed myself up and limped forward.

Then I saw something ahead.

A faint light shone between the trees.

I moved towards it, desperate for any escape.

The light came from a narrow opening in the forest. Beyond it stood a broken stone arch, half-covered in vines and moss.

Ancient symbols were carved into its surface.

My mark burned violently.

I stopped.

One of the symbols at the centre of the arch began glowing.

It was the same symbol on my wrist.

“No,” I whispered.

A voice drifted from the other side.

“Elara…”

I stepped back.

The voice sounded familiar.

Not familiar enough to recognise, but familiar enough to make my chest ache.

Then it spoke again.

“Come home.”

The creature roared somewhere behind me.

The sound grew closer.

I stood between the approaching horror and the glowing arch. My injured ankle shook beneath me, and my fingers curled into fists.

I didn't know what waited beyond the stones.

I didn't know whether the voice belonged to someone who wanted to save me or something that wanted to use me.

But the creature was coming.

My mark pulsed.

The voice beyond the arch began to cry.

And behind me, something whispered my name once more.

This time, it wasn't the creature.

It was coming from inside the arch.