Blogtober 2025, Day 18: Enemy

 

Lucy's Path: Chapter Eighteen


The trail beyond the clearing looked different than before—too open, too easy. The air shimmered faintly, the way asphalt does on a hot day. Mark, Sarah, and Tyler exchanged a glance, then stepped forward together.

The moment they crossed the first ridge of roots, the woods shifted. The trees stretched taller, rearranging themselves with a sound like bones settling. Sarah turned—and Mark and Tyler were gone.

“Mark?” she whispered. Only the forest answered, whispering her name in a dozen borrowed voices.

Somewhere else, Tyler ran toward the sound of laughter—his sister’s laughter, bright and familiar. He saw her just ahead, the hem of her yellow dress flashing between trunks. “Wait!” he cried. “I thought you were—” He stopped. The girl turned, but her face wasn’t hers. Her eyes were hollow, shining like glass marbles.

Mark found himself on a narrow trail lit by a cold blue glow. Ahead stood a boy, maybe ten, with the same crooked grin Mark saw every time he looked in the mirror. “Hey, big brother,” the boy said. “You left me.”

Mark froze. “You’re not real.”

The boy smiled wider. “Neither are you. Not to her.”

Sarah, alone, clamped her hands over her ears as whispers clawed at her thoughts. “It’s not them,” she told herself. “It’s the woods. It’s the enemy.”

The light flickered. The paths merged again.

Only two figures stepped out of the fog.


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