‘It’s so beautiful,’ Alhen thought.

  The sun hit his face, and he felt the warmth enveloping his body in a light hug. He closed his eyes and let the feeling course through him, enriching him and making him more relaxed.

  “Alhen, what are you doing?” A voice came from beside him.

  He could recognize that voice anywhere; it was his sister who was calling out for him. Alhen had his hands on the window of the car, overlooking the nature as they drove over the road.

  “Nothing in particular,” Alhen responded. “I’m just enjoying the view.”

  His sister sighed, and he could hear movement beside him. She was probably shifting positions to sleep again.

  He turned his head to look at her and crossed eyes with her. Just as he thought, she had the most bored expression ever.

  She looked to be in her early twenties, with an oversized hoodie and red glasses adorning her face. Her long, slightly disheveled, and straight hazelnut hair flowed down her shoulders, and she wore dark jeans.

  “It’s been three hours already, and we are still not there. Mom, when are we going to arrive?” She asked, moving her gaze to the driver’s seat.

  “Hold on, sweetie, we should be arriving in about half an hour,” her mom responded.

  “That’s what you told us an hour ago! Dad must have arrived already since he left so early, he’s having all the fun!” Lena exclaimed.

  Alhen shook his head and sighed.

  “You just can’t stop complaining, can you? Learn to be more patient; it’s going to help you in the long run. Also, aren’t you a little too old to be having mood swings?” Alhen asked.

  “Alhen, shut up. You are the reason we are arriving late in the first place!” She argued.

  “Wait, I am?” He asked.

  No matter how much he thought about it, he couldn’t bring himself to remember what happened earlier today. He frowned and got lost in his thoughts, trying to remember.

  “Stop fighting, we will arrive in an hour, so get comfortable until then,” Alhen’s mom said.

  “Wait, but you said that we were going to arrive in half an hour! I knew you were lying!” Lena said.

  Alhen didn’t pay attention to either of them, feeling that something was deeply wrong about his situation. He looked at his hand, and he didn’t recognize it.

  “Who am I?” He asked out loud.

  Lena looked at him weirdly from the side, looking at his scared expression with curiosity and concern.

  “Hey, Alhen, are you alright? What happened?” She asked, dropping her act.

  He didn’t respond at first, looking at his hand and clothing. Out of reflex, he drove his hand to his hip and gripped the air.

  “Where is my revolver?” He asked.

  Lena looked at her mom, seeing that she was watching Alhen from the front mirror with confusion. She threw occasional glances, focusing on the road ahead despite there being no cars in sight.

  “Alhen,” she said while lightly tapping his shoulder. “Are you good?” She asked once again.

  It was then that Alhen came back to his senses, looking at his aged reflection in the mirror and seeing his face, which was full of panic and fear.

  “I’m sorry, I must be tired from all the traveling,” he responded.

  Lena threw him a weird look, but she eventually accepted his explanation and went back to resting. She lay by the door and raised her legs to put them in Alhen’s lap, getting comfortable.

  Alhen didn’t fight; he wasn’t in his right mind to do so. He looked outside again, to the sun, and immediately smiled. For some reason, it helped him calm down.

  As he continued to stare at it, all his worries disappeared, and now he was calmer than ever. He closed his eyes and let time pass until he opened his eyes abruptly.

  ‘Something is wrong,’ he thought.

  Looking around, he couldn’t find what was out of place. Nothing seemed to be happening, but instinctually, he knew that it was an illusion. Something was deeply wrong.

  Lena was sleeping peacefully beside him, and his mom was driving with her usual happy expression. The outside was beautiful, and he… he was missing his right arm.

  ‘This is wrong, where is my arm?’ He wondered.

  It was as if he were in a dream, but he knew he wasn’t in one. Just as he blinked, his arm appeared again, as if what he saw previously was not real at all.

  Alhen frowned and tried thinking with all his strength about what had happened earlier, but nothing came to mind. It was as if those memories were sealed, and it would take a lot of effort on his part to make them resurface.

  ‘So, I can’t remember. What do I do now?’ he wondered.

  He didn’t have to think much as the next second, he felt a pressure wanting to crush his heart. Alhen gritted his teeth and held his left hand over his heart, feeling like he was going to pass out any second now.

  His body started sweating, and the world began swaying left and right. He felt a lack of energy, and each movement seemed to bring him endless suffering.

  “Guhh!” He let out in pain.

  Lena opened her eyes and saw her brother clutching his heart with a pained expression. Naturally, she believed it was a heart attack.

  She sat up in a flash and rushed to aid him.

  “Alhen!” She screamed before turning to look at her mom. “Hey! Mom, drive faster. We have to reach the hospital as soon as possible!”

  Her mother didn’t react, staring at the road ahead without moving a muscle.

  “Mom?” Lena called out. She didn’t receive an answer and started getting worried. Looking at the mirror at her expression, she saw that her eyes were wide open, and she was pale from fear.

  Lena looked at the road ahead, and what she saw made her hair stand on end. Alhen, despite his situation, noticed the change in atmosphere and forced himself to look forward into the road.

  His eyes widened, and he instinctively knew that the source of his pain was the creature in front of them.

  It was dark; a physical shadow in broad daylight, standing and looking at them. The aura it emanated was enough to leave him and his family petrified.

  It grew larger the more they approached it, and the feeling of dread increased. At this point, Alhen was about to faint from the lack of oxygen, his head starting to become pale.

  The car was about to collide with the shadow, but before that could happen, “BAM!” something impacted the side of their car at high speeds, sending them flying into the forest.

  Alhen lost consciousness at the moment of the impact. He only opened his eyes way later, when it was starting to become nighttime, and the sun was hiding beyond the horizon.

  He felt terrible, with the urge to throw up everything he had in his stomach. His head throbbed in pain, and he drove his hand to his temple, noticing that it was bleeding.

  A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  The car was upside down, and his body dangled, being held by the seatbelt, which had most likely saved his life.

  There were broken shards of glass everywhere, and the door beside him was gone; it was nowhere in sight.

  The cold air seeped in, making him shudder. That’s when he realized how cold he was, clacking his teeth without control, and the blood was drained from his face and fingers.

  “Argh!” Alhen grunted in pain. He then took a deep breath and tried to calm down his racing heart.

  Looking around him, he found his sister and mother in the same position as him. His sister was bloodied from a cut on her forehead, and his mother seemed to be fine, other than the lack of consciousness.

  He saw both of them breathing and sighed in relief.

  Just by throwing a glance at them, he could tell that they were still alive, but they wouldn’t be waking up soon.

  Alhen forced himself to breathe and brought his shaky hand to his seatbelt. He tried taking it off, but the mechanism was stuck.

  He gritted his teeth and struggled more than he had to until it finally came off, and Alhen was sent crashing down.

  His body landed on the sharp glass below, piercing his skin, but after the initial pain, he didn’t pay it any attention.

  Alhen crawled to his sister and took off his t-shirt. With the little strength he had, he tore it and wrapped it around her forehead in an attempt to stop the bleeding.

  He checked if she had more injuries, but that didn’t seem to be the case.

  ‘The most probable thing that happened is that the hit she received on her forehead was enough to make her pass out.’

  ‘Mom is fine, so that’s good, but she is not conscious. Did she hit the back of her head?’ Alhen wondered.

  It was then that he remembered that shadow that had caused this accident in the first place, and he couldn’t believe it.

  ‘How can something like that exist in this world? Was I hallucinating? No. Lena and Mom saw it too…’

  There was no point in thinking about it now. He shook his head and got his priorities straight. The most important thing now was to get his family to safety and call the police.

  Alhen began looking around and found a phone outside on the ground. It seemed to be in good condition, and with gritted teeth, he crawled through the glass until he arrived just in front of where the door was supposed to be.

  He looked back one last time, making sure that his family didn’t need immediate attention, and crawled out of the vehicle.

  Standing was hard. He pushed himself up and got on one knee, and the exhaustion on his body made him think that he would not be able to get on his feet.

  Through gritted teeth, however, he managed to push himself up and almost fell backwards due to his head spinning.

  He took a step forward, and then another one, and another, ignoring the pain in his body until he reached the phone.

  Picking it up, the screen turned on, and he didn’t waste any time calling his father. He was sure that he would be worried about them after not hearing from them for a couple of hours.

  The phone rang one time before the call was picked up.

  “Lena! What happened? Are y’all okay?” his father asked.

  It was then that he realized that the phone he was holding was his sister’s. He didn’t know how he let that detail slip, considering that the phone was pink in color.

  “Dad, it’s me, Alhen,” he responded.

  “Alhen! What happened?” His father asked, sounding worried to the bone.

  “We were in a car crash. We are fine, but Lena and Mom haven’t woken up yet. Please come pick us up. I will call the emergency number after hanging up.”

  “Very well, I will start driving there soon. Send me the location.”

  Alhen fell silent and shared his location with his father, who didn’t take long to open it and respond, “On my way.”

  “Dad, I will be hanging up. I’m calling the emergency number,” he said, and his father agreed only after telling him that if something were to happen, he should call him first.

  “Yes, Dad, I will call you if something happens,” Alhen responded.

  “Good,” his father said before he hung up.

  Alhen sighed, feeling even more tired before dialing the emergency number. After explaining the situation to the dispatcher, he was told to remain on the call and that help would arrive soon.

  The phone, however, inexplicably turned off, and that’s when he noticed that it had run out of battery.

  “Thank god that it ran out of battery now instead of earlier. At least I managed to call the emergency number; they should be here in no time since we should be pretty close to the city,” Alhen said out loud.

  He turned around and faced the car, deciding that he would wake up his family and check in on them. Alhen approached the totaled vehicle and crouched at the door where he had crawled out.

  Looking inside, he froze. There was no one. His sister and his mother were nowhere to be found, no matter where he looked.

  ‘How can this be!?’ Alhen thought.

  “Lena!” He shouted.

  There was no response. Alhen stood, and just before he looked at the forest, he froze once again. This time, it wasn’t because of shock, but because he genuinely couldn’t move.

  The same pressure before the accident manifested again on his heart, but he couldn’t even grit his teeth or wince from pain.

  His body was like a puppet; he tried to move, but nothing happened. And just like a puppet, he turned around, but it wasn’t him moving his body.

  He slowly turned his head behind him, and his gaze managed to catch the same shadow that had caused the accident.

  By this point, the sun had already set, and darkness had started to spread. The moonlight shone brightly on the dark figure, illuminating it and revealing what appeared to be fear incarnate.

  It wasn’t the shadow of a human, no. It was the shadow of a creature that towered over him. He kept his eyes on it, but noticed that they began closing against his will.

  His eyes closed slowly, taunting him to see if he could change his fate. Alhen fought with everything in his power, but wasn’t able to do anything about it.

  ‘Don’t close your eyes!’ He shouted in his mind.

  He didn’t know what would happen if he closed them, but he didn’t want to find out. There was a certain feeling in his chest that warned him of the danger.

  Alhen couldn’t control his body, however, and he closed his eyes. It must have been five seconds without being able to see, only hearing footsteps approaching him.

  “Crack!” A dead tree branch snapped in front of him, and based on the sound, the creature wasn’t far from reaching him.

  He wanted to scream, but he couldn’t. The footsteps eventually reached him, and he felt the creature breathing down his neck.

  It sniffed his body for a few seconds, and then it gently touched his head.

  ‘Please! Please! Please!’ Alhen pleaded in his mind. He didn’t know to whom, but he would be fine if anyone answered his call.

  The creature eventually stopped touching him, and its presence disappeared. From one point to the next, now he could move.

  ‘What happened? Do I open my eyes?’ He wondered.

  Alhen waited a few seconds to hear the creature, but he couldn’t feel anything. He took a deep breath, stabilizing his heart, at least for now, and slowly began opening his eyes.

  He opened them fully, and the dark forest came into view. Alhen breathed a small sigh of relief, but his fear only lessened temporarily, because the next second it increased drastically.

  Besides his breathing, there were no sounds in the forest. There was no air, no animals, no movement of the trees or ringing of his ears.

  He looked around him, but there didn’t seem to be anything wrong. And then he remembered that his family had disappeared.

  Alhen looked back into the car and saw his sister and mother.

  ‘Thank god! Was I hallucinating this whole time?’ Alhen wondered.

  He went to wake up his sister, but when he touched her, he noticed that something was wrong. His sister was looking at him straight in the eyes without moving a muscle.

  His heart froze, and the next second, an unfamiliar voice came out of her mouth saying, “I found you.”

  Her body shifted into a shadow and went to attack him, but before it could reach him, his surroundings shifted.

  He didn’t find himself inside the car, but lying in the forest. He looked at the familiar red leaves on the trees and immediately knew he was back.

  ‘W-Was that, my past?’ Alhen thought. He couldn’t believe it. How did he manage to move from that place to here?

  He got his answer a moment later when he heard some voices beside him.

  “So what do we do now?” A girl's voice was heard.

  “We will do it, just give me your thul,” a masculine voice responded.

  He opened his eyes widely and looked in the direction of the voices. Just as he thought, they were Sloan and Sierra.

  “Sloan, Sierra, what happened?” He asked, shocked seeing them with him.

  As soon as they heard his voice, they jumped, looking like frightened animals. When Sierra saw that Alhen was alive, she paled, and Sloan didn’t look any better.

  “Alhen! You are alive,” Sierra exclaimed, but he noticed there was something weird with her tone.

  “Yes, I am. How did y’all manage to get me out of the tomb?” Alhen asked.

  “Well, it’s a long story, but we managed to get you out. We were surprised to find you without a pulse. You were dead, but without any physical injuries,” Sierra responded.

  Now that she said that, Alhen noticed how his body seemed to be in pristine condition, with the only thing saying otherwise being the blood marks all over his back.

  “Wait, I was dead?” Alhen asked.

  “Yes, get up. Now that you are awake, we have to talk about something,” she said, sounding somewhat nervous.

  Alhen agreed and stood. He looked around and noticed they were near a cliff, and the trees around them were sparse.

  “Where are we? It doesn’t seem like we are close to that graveyard at all,” Alhen commented.

  Sloan and Sierra exchanged glances, and Sloan spoke.

  “We had to create some distance with the wihts, but now that we are here, how about we rest? We will explain everything after regaining our energy.”

  ‘They must have spent a lot of energy carrying me here. I doubted them at first, but if they came back for me, that shows that they are good people,’ Alhen thought.

  He accepted his proposal and sat on a nearby rock staring at the night sky.

  ‘The last thing I remember is touching that tomb after hearing Henry’s voice. Now that I think about it, it’s impossible that it would have been him. I believe I was under some kind of influence.’

  ‘Also, there was that dream? Or maybe it was my memories from my past life. I don’t know, but whatever it was, it could lead me to finding out why I killed my father, and why I'm here,’ he thought.

  Alhen closed his eyes and took a deep breath, and when he opened his eyes, his senses warned him about a nearby danger.

  His hair stood on end, and his pupils dilated. He stood in a flash and looked behind him, only to find Sierra facing him.

  “Sierra, watch out, there’s d—”

  He didn’t get to finish his words as he noticed Sierra’s thul heading straight for his heart.

  Out of reflex, he moved just a little to the right, and the sword wasn’t able to pierce straight through it, missing by a few millimeters.

  Alhen coughed blood and gritted his teeth, looking ahead with a hateful expression.

  “W-Why?” He asked, but didn’t get a response back.

  Sloan was looking at him with disgust, and Sierra looked livid, like she wanted to tear him to pieces, and he didn’t know why.

  His senses activated again, and this time, he didn’t doubt. He jumped backwards, and Sierra’s thul slid out of his chest, and he plummeted down the cliff that stood behind him.

  As he fell into his death, the only thoughts in his mind were, “I should have followed my instincts.”

  Patreon chapters from the current 7 advanced ones, which are about 2 weeks ahead of Royal Road, to 10 by Sunday, 1/25/26.

  Patreon) x 3,000 = 45,000 words.

  Fiction Homepage, and when we reach 10 (we have 5), I will upload it over the weekend.

  Patreon chapter will be released soon after this one releases.)