Lila
After what felt like hours, I knew we couldn't stay there. The neighborhood offered no real safety. The broken windows, the wind, the shadow of the house behind us, everything reminded me of what had happened.
I took Hana's hand and led her down the slope of the hill, away from the streets, following a narrow dirt path that curved toward the outskirts. The neighborhood slowly gave way to scattered trees and underbrush, the smell of wet leaves and damp earth replacing the scent of concrete and dust.
Hana held my hand so tightly that my fingers had gone numb, but I didn't tell her to stop. If she let go, even for a second, I was afraid we would lose each other in the dim light beneath the trees. The sky above was still dark, like storm clouds that refused to break. No rain. No thunder. Just a heavy silence pressing down on everything.
We walked along the dirt path that led toward the edge of the forest. Dry leaves crunched under our feet. Every sound felt too loud.
"Lila," Hana whispered. "Is Daddy going to find us?"
I swallowed hard before answering. "Yes. He'll try. So we have to keep going so he knows we're safe. Alright?"
She nodded, but I could tell she didn't believe me. I wasn't sure I believed myself either.
We reached the cluster of rocks near the trees. I led her behind the largest one where the wind didn't cut so sharply across our faces. She sat down quietly. Hana was never quiet. That frightened me more than the darkness.
For a while, we just listened.
The leaves.The wind.Our breathing.
Then something else.
A faint grinding sound. Like stone sliding against stone. Slow. Heavy.
I straightened immediately.
"Don't move," I whispered.
Hana's fingers curled tighter around mine.
The sound came again. Closer this time. The ground under my foot trembled. Not shaking like an earthquake, just… shifting. As if something beneath the soil was awake and trying not to be noticed.
My heart pounded. I pulled Hana gently to her feet.
"We have to go. Quietly."
We moved back toward the path, but the earth just ahead of us, only a few steps away, bulged upward. The dirt lifted and split like something was pushing from beneath. A long crack formed, opening like a mouth.
Hana gasped.
Something enormous forced its way through the soil. Its skin was a dull grey, stretched tight over long, twisted limbs shaped almost like roots. It had no eyes that I could see. Just a wide, wet mouth filled with sharp, uneven teeth.
It didn't lunge. Not at first. It listened.
Its head tilted toward us.
I covered Hana's mouth before she could scream.
The creature dragged itself halfway out of the ground, one claw scraping against the stone where we had been sitting. Dust fell in soft clouds.
Then the ground trembled again… somewhere else. Farther away in the forest.
The creature paused.
It turned its head toward the other movement.
Toward something we couldn't see.
It made a low, grinding sound.
And then it sank backward. Slowly. Its body slipped beneath the soil, the earth closing over it until there was nothing left but disturbed dirt and a single split rock.
Hana began to cry silently into my sleeve.
I held her close, forcing my own tears back. If that thing could appear here, it could appear anywhere. And it wasn't alone.
Somewhere deeper in the forest, the ground thudded again. A distant cry echoed faintly, not a monster's cry.
A human one.
I stared into the trees, heart racing.
We were not the only ones running.