THE ENCOUNTER.
Recommended Song: The Night We Met – Lord Huron.
The night was a living thing—silent yet loud, endless yet suffocating. Shadows stretched between the trees, shifting with the wind, curling around the damp earth like ghosts of forgotten stories. The moonlight barely touched the ground, its silver glow lost beneath the thick canopy, leaving the world in a muted twilight.
She ran.
The soft earth cushioned her bare feet, her breath shallow but controlled, a delicate balance between urgency and silence. She wasn't running from something. Not exactly.
But the further she went, the more she felt it—a pull. A strange, invisible thread wrapping itself around her ribcage, tugging her forward, deeper into the heart of the woods.
The feeling had been there for as long as she could remember—a quiet knowing, a whisper against her soul. But tonight, it was unbearable, dragging her into the unknown.
Then she stopped.
A presence.
The air shifted, thickening like a held breath, pressing down on her skin. Her pulse pounded against her ribs, her senses sharpening.
She wasn't alone.
Her eyes lifted, scanning the darkness, searching for something—someone.
And then she saw them.
His eyes.
A gleam in the shadows, silver like moonlight against steel. Cold. Unwavering. Seeing straight through her, cutting through the dark like a blade.
Everything around them faded, the sounds of the forest melting into a deafening silence. Nothing existed beyond that locked gaze—an unspoken force tethering them together.
He was only partially visible, his face shrouded in shadow, leaving only those piercing eyes and the bridge of his nose exposed. But even in the dim light, she could feel the weight of his presence—commanding, unreadable, dangerous.
The world held its breath.
A moment stretched between them, fragile and unbroken, like the edge of a dream slipping through trembling fingers.
Then, his voice.
"Who are you?"
Deep. Measured. Laced with something she couldn't name.
Her fingers curled against the fabric of her cloak, grounding herself against the weight of the unknown. She should have answered. She should have moved.
But she didn't.
Because for the first time in her life, she wasn't sure if she was running toward danger—or something that had been waiting for her all along.
To Be Continued...