I always thought nightmares came in dreams. Turns out-they don't. Sometimes you just blink, and the world you knew vanishes like a browser tab closed by mistake.
The last thing I remember from my "previous" life was rain on the minibus window, the dim glow of a streetlamp, and the nasty smell of wet clothes. Phone in hand, earbuds in ears, scrolling through memes and music videos. A typical evening. So typical it made you want to scream.
I got distracted by a message-and in that moment, the world twitched.
Not "my head spun," not "everything went black." Just-a click. Like someone switched the channel. The engine noise vanished. The sharp scent of gasoline was gone, replaced by a raw, piercing cold that made my teeth chatter instantly. The rattling floor of the minibus was no longer under my feet.
I was standing knee-deep in snow. The night forest pressed down with silence.
"What the…" - my voice broke. A puff of white mist escaped my mouth.
The sky was low and leaden, not a single star. Dark tree trunks stood like black needles, and the snow reflected a strange, grayish light, as if it was glowing from within. I instinctively reached into my pocket-no phone. No backpack, no earbuds. Just a black hoodie, a jacket, jeans. Nothing supernatural, except one thing: I wasn't that cold, though I definitely should've been freezing.
"Hello?" - I shouted into the emptiness, not sure who I was calling. - "Hey! Anyone there?"
Only the wind rustling the treetops replied. Somewhere far off, snow crunched-a lone, sharp sound, like glass cracking under a heel. I turned sharply, but saw only darkness between the trunks.
Panic didn't hit immediately. First, there was a dull, almost mundane shock: how did I get here? Maybe this is a dream? A hallucination? I pinched my wrist-the pain was very real.
"Great," - I muttered. - "Either I'm dead, or I'm seriously tripping."
I tried to walk-the snow clung to my legs. At first, I just picked a direction at random, navigating by sparser trees, hoping to reach a road, a house, anything that might explain what was happening. But the farther I went, the more I felt like the forest… was watching me.
Not with eyes-something bigger, impersonal. Like I was a splinter in the flesh of this place.
Every minute, it grew quieter. Even the wind died down, which only made it worse. The silence pressed on my eardrums. I suddenly realized I couldn't hear my own breathing. It was there-my chest moved, mist came from my mouth-but no sound.
"Hey!" - I shouted again.
No reply. My voice was swallowed whole.
That was when the first real chill of fear ran down my spine. Something was wrong here. Not just strange-wrong. Like a glitch in a game when textures start to fall through and you see the void beneath the map.
I stopped. The snow around me was too smooth, too clean. No animal tracks, no branches. Just my own footprints fading into the darkness.
And others.
I didn't see them at first. They were off to the side, under a fir tree where the shadows were thicker. Huge, elongated prints, like hooves-but too long, with claw-like indentations. The snow around them was slightly darker, like it had been touched by something hot.
I bent down, instinctively reached out-and the air above the print rippled.
Not wind. Not a heat mirage. It was… a crack. Thin, black, appearing mid-air, right at eye level. It made no sound, but I could almost hear something whispering behind it. Like nails scraping glass from the other side.
I jerked my hand back. My heart dropped into my stomach.
The crack widened. Not outward-inward. Like I was staring into a slit between book pages, and instead of paper, there was night. A cold blew from it that had no right to exist. Not winter cold. Something… ancient. Hungry.
And then I heard a voice.
Not outside-inside my head. Not words, but a feeling of meaning, like watching a whole movie in a split second.
*You are lost.*
My chest tightened. I stepped back, but my legs went numb.
*You don't belong.*
Images flashed before my eyes: my reflection in the minibus window, the phone screen, the endless scroll, the same days, the same faces. The emptiness between messages. The emptiness inside.
*You want to be someone else.*
The crack pulsed, alive. I didn't want to move closer. But my body didn't listen. There was something… alluring in that voice. Like a song you hate but can't stop listening to.
"Who are you?" - I forced out.
The answer wasn't a voice, but an image: a forest, darker than this one. A massive shadow among trees. Antlers like twisted branches. Eyes-two coals burning in the void. And hunger. So sharp my teeth ached, my stomach twisted, though I hadn't felt hungry before.
*I am hunger. I am cold. I am the hunt.*
I knew the word before it was spoken.
*Wendigo.*
Somewhere from school memory, fragments surfaced: Native American legends, winter spirits, cannibal curses. A scene from a TV show-a toothy monster in the woods. I would've laughed-if not for the nausea rising in my throat.
"This… this is insane," - I whispered, though my voice no longer obeyed. - "This can't be…"
*You are already here. You already hear me.*
The crack widened by another millimeter-and that was enough to dim the world around me. Colors faded. The snow turned almost gray. The forest seemed to take a step back. Only me and the rift remained.
*You are alone. Where you came from, no one waits for you. Here-you can be more than a shadow in the window.*
Images shifted: me on the minibus, vanishing into the crowd; me in a room lit by a monitor; me among people laughing and talking while I stood behind the glass. Invisible. Unwanted.
*Didn't you want to be stronger? To be noticed? To be feared?*
I didn't want to answer. But something deep inside stirred. Because part of me… did. Not to be a monster-no. But not to be nothing.
"Why me?" - I asked, lips numb.
*Because you are already half-empty. The rest is easy to take.*
The crack lunged forward.
Not physically-it still hung in the air, a couple steps away. But I felt something cold and dry, like winter wind, slip into my chest. Not through the skin-right through me. My breath stopped. My heart slammed so hard my vision blurred.
I collapsed to my knees in the snow. My fingers dug into the icy crust, but I barely felt the cold. Only the emptiness spreading from within.
*Say yes.*
It wasn't a command. More of an offer. A promise.
I suddenly saw it clearly: if I agreed, this forest would no longer be hostile. The cold would be home. The darkness-shelter. No more fear. No more loneliness. Only the hunt. Only purpose.
"And if I say no?" - I rasped.
The answer came instantly: me, lying in this same snow, in silence that grows heavier like stone. Snow burying my body. No one searching. No one finding. The same emptiness-but without the chance to become anything else.
It was a disgusting choice. Unfair. But it was a choice.
I don't know how long I knelt there. Time stretched like gum. The crack hung in the air, black as a burnt hole. The forest was silent. The world held its breath, waiting for my answer.
When I finally inhaled, the air burned my lungs. The voice inside was quieter now-but more insistent.
*Say it.*
I raised my head. In the reflection of the black slit, I glimpsed my face-pale, pupils dilated. And behind me, like a shadow-a silhouette with antlers.
"Yes," - I said.
The world broke.
Not with a bang, not with a flash. More like glass under water: cracks spread through everything around me. The forest shivered. The snow under my hands turned to ash. The air filled with a sharp, metallic scent. The smell of blood, though there wasn't a single drop.
Cold stormed into me. Not from outside-from within. My bones ached as if dipped in liquid nitrogen. Muscles spasmed. I screamed-or thought I did, because again there was no sound.
Images flashed too fast to process: animals running through snow; people trudging down a snowy road; hunger gnawing from inside; eyes shining in the dark. All blurred into one stream.
Somewhere in that chaos: stone walls with black vines writhing like living things; wrought-iron gates; a sign with a name I somehow read instantly, though I'd never seen it before.
**NEVERMORE ACADEMY.**
The word seared my mind. An academy. People. Others. Not a lonely forest, not eternal cold. It flashed by-promise or threat, I couldn't tell.
The cold tore me apart inside. For a moment, I thought my skin would split. My bones groaned. My fingers spasmed, nails digging deep into the snow, like I was trying to hold onto the earth itself.
Then-silence.
I lay on my back, staring at the gray sky. Breath returned-heavy, hoarse. My heart beat slowly, but each beat like a hammer.
The snow beneath me was warm.
I sat up sharply. The world had changed. Sharper. I could see every crack on the bark of the nearest tree, every snowflake on a branch. I heard distant cracking-far away, a twig broke under someone's paw. I smelled it all: damp soil beneath the snow, pine resin, and something else… warm, sweet. Human.
I inhaled deeper-and realized the scent was coming from the right. Beyond the trees.
Somewhere out there was a person.
And with that realization, something new stirred inside me. Heavy. Hungry. It wasn't "me," but it wasn't foreign either. More like a part of my body I didn't know existed-until now.
*The hunt,* - whispered the voice inside, no longer distant. - *You feel it?*
I rose to my feet. The snow didn't feel as deep. Moving was easier, like my body was slightly different-stronger, more agile. I looked at my hands.
The skin was paler. The veins-darker. The nails… a bit longer than they should've been. Sharp.
The fear didn't vanish. It just made room for something else-cold as ice, but strangely calm. A realization: I was no longer who I had been. And there was no going back.
Far off, behind the trees, a yellow light flickered. Like a lantern-or a window. The scent of the person grew stronger.
And with it-the hunger.
I took my first step toward the light, not knowing whether it was salvation or another trap.
But one thing I knew for sure: the world I had entered was no longer just a forest.
And somewhere out there, beyond the snow and shadows, an academy with black vines on its walls-and a girl with raven-wing braids who loved dark stories-was already waiting for me.
But before I'd learn her name, I had to get used to what I had become.