Josie
When I opened my eyes, I wasn't in my body anymore.
The air around me was thick, damp, and cold enough to sting. A dense mist coiled through the trees, their branches skeletal, reaching like hands that wanted to drag me back into the earth. I tried to move, but something tugged at me — a pull from behind, invisible but strong. I looked down and saw it: my body, lying limp, pale as wax, a pool of dark liquid spreading beneath me. Blood.
My soul trembled. I was standing and not standing all at once. My voice came out thin, uncertain. "Where am I?"
No answer. Only the sound of wind moving through the woods, whispering my name in a thousand broken tones.
Then — a flash.
Someone was standing ahead of me, his form half-shrouded in fog. I took a step forward, my voice shaking. "Who's there?"
"Don't," he said.
The sound hit me like lightning. I knew that voice. "Thorne?"
