I never spoke to her.
I didn't know her name, what music she liked, or if she had ever glanced my way. But every day after college, I left a few minutes behind her. I kept a distance that wasn't quite following, but never lost sight. She took the same route home, weaving through the crowded streets near the main road. So did I.
It wasn't courage. It wasn't obsession. It was a quiet, unquestioned rhythm.
That day started no different.
The street was loud with engines and footsteps. She stood near the curb, waiting to cross, her bag slung over one shoulder. I paused a few steps back, phone in hand, watching from the edges.
Then the light appeared.
At first, I thought it was a trick of the sun—a reflection from a window or a car mirror. But this light was wrong. It spilled from the ground like pale liquid, curling around her ankles, then her legs, climbing silently. It cast no shadow. People walked through it without noticing. Cars passed as if it weren't there.
But she noticed.
She looked down, confusion softening her features, and lifted a hand as if to touch the glow.
That's when I heard the horn.
A truck, barreling too fast. The driver hadn't seen the light. She hadn't seen the truck.
Time didn't slow—it stretched, thin and fragile.
I didn't think.
I ran.
My shoulder struck her side, shoving her back onto the sidewalk. She stumbled, falling hard, the light peeling away from her like a second skin tearing free.
The truck roared through the space where she had stood.
I didn't see where she landed.
Because the light—her light—now closed around me.
It didn't feel like being hit. It felt like being unmade. A million points of cold, pulling me apart into nothing.
—
I came back together on cold stone.
The air was dry and sharp, like after a lightning strike. I pushed myself up, palms scraping on smooth, dark rock. I was in a cave. A huge, tunnel-like cave, glowing with its own grey light. I was alone.
A flicker of blue light sparked before my eyes. I flinched.
The light sputtered. It formed jagged, broken lines before shattering into static.
A feeling, not a sound, stabbed behind my eyes: [̸e̷n̸t̵i̵t̴y̶ ̶n̴o̸t̷ ̵f̶o̶u̸n̴d̵]̷
Then, nothing. No instructions. No help.
A growl echoed from the dark. A creature stepped into the gloom. It was a wolf, but its fur was made of coarse, grey rock. Cracks in its stone skin pulsed with soft blue light. Its eyes were solid black.
It stared right at me. It looked hungry.
I froze. I had nothing. No stick, no knife.
The stone-wolf charged. It was fast.
I threw myself sideways, rolling behind a rock. Its jaws snapped shut on empty air with a sound like grinding stones.
I scrambled up. The wolf turned, pacing, cutting off my way back.
Trapped.
As it leaped for me, I threw myself sideways again, sliding on the wet stone near a small pool. My back slid over a perfectly flat section of the floor.
The wolf landed behind me, right where I had been a second before.
The stone beneath its paws flashed a bright, violent red.
SHINK.
Crystalline spikes, sharp and clear as glass, erupted from the ground. They impaled the wolf from belly to throat. It made a choked, grinding sound, twitched once, and went still.
The red light under it faded. The spikes dissolved into dust, leaving the dead wolf on unmarked stone.
I lay on the cave floor, gasping.
The trap. It had been right under me. I had slid directly over that flat stone.
Why hadn't it triggered?
I stared at the spot, then at my own hands. The stone remained inert, just plain rock. For the wolf, it had been instant death.
My heart hammered against my ribs, not just from fear, but from a cold, dawning confusion.
The wolf's body began to crumble, turning to grey ash. Where its heart had been, three small, glowing blue crystals remained, pulsing with a soft, steady light.
I crawled over and picked one up. It was warm, almost alive. I didn't know what it was, but it felt important. Valuable. I put all three in my pocket.
A narrow crack in the wall promised an exit. I took one last look at the dead wolf and the ordinary, deadly stone that had killed it.
The trap hadn't seen me.
Why?
I squeezed into the crack, leaving the cave and its silent question behind me.