Back to Serena's POV
"Are you okay, Serena?! I'm coming!" Jared's voice cut through the storm like a desperate scream.
He tried to run toward me—but just then, thick vines shot up from the ground, coiling around his legs like serpents.
"What the hell?! I—I can't move!" he shouted, struggling against the tightening branches.
Maria too, was suddenly frozen, her arms outstretched—rooted in place as the cemetery itself seemed to awaken. The earth was alive, and it didn't want us to move.
I couldn't either. My legs were numb. My chest heavy.
I was still paralyzed with horror from what I saw at Rodriguez's grave. That face... that thing…
Jared screamed, wrenching against the vines, while Maria closed her eyes and began to chant—low, intense, ancient-sounding words that didn't even sound like her.
And then—fog.
Thick. Cold. Endless.
It rolled in like a wave, swallowing the world whole. My breath hitched as everything blurred. The graves. The storm. The sky.
Gone.
In that white nothingness, a voice came.
Maria's voice.
But I couldn't see her.
"Listen to me, Serena… the Universe can hear you. It understands you. Speak to it. Convince it. Show it that your purpose is to save the world. Remember… fortune favors the brave. BE BRAVE."
The words echoed inside me, but my body was collapsing.
The fog was in my lungs.
I couldn't hear anyone anymore. Not Jared. Not Maria. Not even myself.
Then—pain.
Something grabbed my legs.
I fell—hard—onto the wet, unforgiving earth. And then…
AGONY.
Like a thousand needles piercing my skin. Like I was being stitched to the ground by invisible threads of pain.
I screamed—cried—begged. The kind of crying that tore your throat. I clawed at the dirt, trying to pull myself out, but I was pinned.
Minutes passed.
Or hours.
I stopped fighting.
The pain paralyzed me. But it wasn't the worst part.
It was the despair.
It wrapped itself around my heart like ice.
I thought of my friends.
Of Uncle Benjamin.
Of all the things I couldn't do.
'This is the end,' I thought. 'Let them get out alive. Just let them live.'
"Serenaaaa!"
A voice.
Familiar. Distant.
"...Uncle Benjamin?" I gasped with what little breath I had.
The fog stirred.
And from the mist—a flashlight.
A figure emerged. Tall. Soaked. Eyes wide with panic.
"Serena!"
It was Alan.
Not Uncle Benjamin.
Alan.
He dropped to his knees beside me, cupping my face with trembling hands.
"Are you okay, my dear?" he whispered, his voice trembling with more fear than I'd ever seen on him.
My heart jolted.
He came back.
I wasn't alone.
I wasn't dead.
And maybe… maybe I wasn't done yet.
"It's not the end, Serena," Alan said, as if answering my thoughts. "This is just the beginning. You have to fight. Don't you dare give up."
"W-what?" I blinked. "Can you… hear me?"
He didn't answer—just brushed a wet strand of hair from my face.
Okay, not the time to be thinking about butterflies and soft touches in the middle of a storm from hell. But for some stupid reason, I still felt them.
Stupid, right?
The girl who cringed at the idea of romance was getting butterflies while practically bleeding out.
Except… I wasn't.
Alan helped me up—his hand warm, firm.
And suddenly—the pain was gone.
Completely.
I looked at my arms. My legs. My skin.
No bruises. No blood. No needles.
Nothing.
"W-What… happened?" I whispered.
Alan frowned. "You were screaming. I could hear you through the fog. But when I found you, you were just… lying there."
I couldn't explain.
I didn't even try.
Then—
"SERENA! LOOK THERE!" Alan shouted, pointing.
I turned.
And what I saw made my blood freeze all over again.