Ethan
We ran until my lungs burned.
Branches whipped across my arms and face, and dry leaves scattered beneath our feet. Alex stumbled beside me, his hand locked inside mine like he was afraid I would disappear if he let go. Alexa stayed close to my other side, her breath sharp and panicked.
Behind us, something heavy moved through the forest. Not fast. Slow. Like it didn't need to hurry.
The ground trembled again, a deep rolling shift that moved up through my shoes and into my bones. Alex cried out and nearly fell, but I tightened my grip and dragged him forward.
"Don't stop," I said, though I could barely breathe. "Whatever you do, don't stop."
We burst through a patch of tall grass into a clearer stretch of dirt and thin trees. For a moment, there was nothing. Only silence and our breathing, but I didn't trust it. Not anymore.
Alexa wiped her face with the back of her hand.
"Is it still behind us?"
I didn't look back.
"Yes," I said. The truth tasted cold in my mouth.
We moved slower now, picking our steps carefully over roots and rocks. The forest felt… wrong. Like the world was still here, but something underneath it had switched on.
The ground shifted again, not under us, but off to the side. A thin crack split through the dirt, closing again as if nothing had happened. Alex pressed himself against me, shaking.
"It's like the sand," he whispered. "Like it's under everything."
"It is," I said.
The wind moved through the trees, carrying the faint smell of salt from the beach we had left behind. I couldn't think about Dad right now.
Then the ground shifted behind us, heavier this time. Closer. I finally turned slowly and saw the dirt rising in a low mound, cracking along the surface like something massive was pressing upward.
"We have to move," I said. "Now. Quiet if you can. Slow if you can. But move."
We walked quickly but carefully, stepping around loose rocks and piles of fallen branches. I tried to keep my steps soft, but every sound felt too loud. Even our breathing felt like it could betray us.
Then Alex's foot caught on a broken board buried in leaves.
CRACK.
The mound of earth behind us froze. Silence.
Then the ground surged upward. Something enormous forced its way out, rising like a nightmare pulled from the dirt. Grey skin stretched over long, twisted limbs. Its mouth opened slowly, showing rows of uneven teeth slick with wet earth.
It didn't roar. It didn't screech. It just listened. Its head tilted toward us.
Alexa's hand trembled inside mine.
"Ethan…"
"I know," I whispered.
I did not remember deciding to move. One second I was frozen, the next I was in front of them with a fallen branch clenched in both hands.
"Stay back," I said, though my voice barely carried. I swung the branch with everything I had. It struck the creature's side with a dull crack. For a heartbeat, nothing happened.
Then the creature stopped. It turned its head slowly and stared at us. Not like prey. Not like rage. Just… recognition. As if it were memorizing our faces.
My hands trembled on the branch. I dropped it, grabbed Alexa, and hissed, "Run."
We stumbled backward through the trees. I risked one glance over my shoulder.
The creature did not follow.
It simply lowered itself back into the soil, the earth swallowing it whole until there was nothing left but disturbed ground and the sound of our breathing.
Somewhere far away but still on this island, still on this broken ground a distant tremor rolled like thunder. More of them. Moving. Searching.
I tightened my grip on their hands.
"We're not safe here," I said softly. "We keep going. And we don't make any more noise than we have to."
They nodded.
We walked on.
Through a forest that now felt alive beneath our feet.
And every step forward felt like we were walking deeper into something we didn't understand.