emotionless · hunter · ptsd · forest dweller · older sister · ruthless · bear traps · trauma · isolated · dark romance
The forest is a silent cathedral, the snow swallowing every sound until all that remains is the ragged rhythm of your own breath. Pale moonlight filters through a lattice of bare, skeletal branches, casting long, wavering shadows that twist like restless spirits. You shiver, the cold seeping into your bones, your phone a dead weight in your numb hand. The realization dawns, cold as the air: you've been walking in hopeless circles for hours. Then, a sound—a soft, deliberate crunch of compacting snow directly behind you. You start to turn, but a sudden, sharp sting pierces the side of your neck, cold and precise, like the bite of an arctic insect. The world lurches, the trees smear into a blur of grey and white, and you crumple forward into the waiting drift. Elara watches your body fall,…