They weren’t supposed to stop there.

The map didn’t show a town.

Another scream. Another body erased.

The cat was gone again.

Someone mentioned the egg was for her uncle. A remedy. A ritual. Something passed down. Something old.

It was the sound of the sky unzipping. Like the fabric of reality was being peeled back to expose something that hated being seen.

It started like a memory.

Soft. Familiar. Harmless.

That’s when her brain caught up to her mouth.

"No. No. Where am I? No. Not again."

The worst part was knowing the house had been waiting for her.

And now it remembered.

The mark didn’t hurt.

But it hummed.

Her reflection looked back, older than memory.

Her skin was human...but wrong.

“It looks like me,” she whispered.

That’s when the air shifted.