The pull changed.
It wasn't just movement anymore.
It became consumption.
Leah felt it wrap around her completely, the air around her compressing as the portal took hold. The moment her body crossed into the light, everything behind her. Thalia, the mist, the creature; stretched unnaturally, as if the world itself was being dragged thin.
But she still saw it.
One last time.
Through the collapsing edge of the portal;
Thalia hit the ground;
Then moved.
Somehow.
Against everything her body had endured;
She rose.
Unsteady.
Bleeding.
But standing.
An arrow clenched in her hand.
Leah's breath caught as their eyes almost met through the distortion. Thalia didn't hesitate. She turned; not toward escape; but back toward the creature.
Back into the fight.
"Thalia…!"
The word barely formed;
Then the portal snapped.
The world folded inward;
And Leah was gone.
There was no ground.
No sky.
Only motion.
Violent;
Endless;
Overwhelming.
Leah's body was pulled through a tunnel of light that wasn't stable, wasn't smooth; it twisted, spiraled, fractured around her. Streams of brightness stretched like torn fabric, bending and snapping past her as if she were moving faster than the world could hold together.
Her arms were dragged forward, fingers spread, her body elongated by the force as if she were being pulled through something too narrow for her to exist inside.
She couldn't breathe.
Not because there was no air;
But because everything was moving too fast for her lungs to keep up.
Light streaked past her in sharp lines, then shattered into fragments, then reformed again. Colors flickered in between; faint blues, burning golds, sudden flashes of deep red; like memories trying to surface and failing.
Her body spun slightly;
Not fully;
Just enough to disorient.
Her legs kicked instinctively, searching for balance that didn't exist. Her shoulders strained as she tried to pull her arms back, but the force held them forward, locking her into the motion.
Sound warped around her.
Not silence;
But stretched noise.
Low, distant, like echoes dragged through water.
Her heartbeat thundered in her ears;
Too loud.
Too fast.
Each pulse felt disconnected from the last.
Time didn't feel right.
It stretched;
Collapsed;
Looped.
For a moment....
She felt weightless.
Then crushed.
Then nothing.
Then everything at once.
Her vision blurred as the light intensified, flooding her completely until she couldn't tell where her body ended and the portal began.
Then...
Something changed
.
A disturbance.
Subtle;
But wrong.
Far away;
In the real world....
The creature stood still.
The one that had taken the black smoke.
Its body stiffened suddenly.
Its head tilted upward;
Slowly.....
As if sensing something it couldn't understand.
Then.....
It reacted.
Violently.
Its chest convulsed, a deep, unnatural sound forcing its way up from within. Its mouth opened;
Too wide....
And a thick stream of black smoke burst out.
Not drifting.
Not slow.
It rushed out of it, like something escaping.
The creature screamed.
A raw, furious sound, filled with something closer to panic than rage. Its body twisted, claws digging into the ground as it fought against whatever was leaving it.
But it couldn't stop it.
The smoke rose rapidly, coiling into the air, gathering itself like a living thing. It pulsed once; twice; then shot upward, cutting through space with unnatural speed.
Gone.
Inside the portal;
Leah felt it.
Something entering.
Not from outside;
But into her.
The light around her flickered violently as the black smoke pierced through the flow, slipping through the cracks of the space she was being pulled through.
It reached her instantly.
No resistance.
No warning.
It slammed into her chest;
And seeped inside.
Her body arched violently, a silent scream tearing through her as the warmth of the portal was suddenly invaded by something cold.
Heavy.
Corrupt.
It spread fast.
Through her veins.
Through her chest.
Up her throat;
Into her head;
Her vision shattered completely.
Darkness and light collided inside her, overlapping, fighting, merging into something unstable.
Then....
Everything stopped.
Leah's eyes snapped open.
A violent gasp tore from her lungs as her body jerked upright, air rushing into her chest in a sharp, desperate inhale. Her hands shot forward instinctively, fingers clawing at the space in front of her as if she were still falling.
Her pupils were wide;
Too wide;
Struggling to focus as light hit them.
Real light.
Not the broken glow of the portal.
Not the red of the nightmare.
Something steady.
Something real.
Her chest heaved violently, breath after breath crashing into her lungs as if she had been drowning for far too long. Her vision flickered, adjusting slowly, shapes forming, dissolving, then forming again.
Her heartbeat pounded in her ears.
Loud.
Heavy.
Alive.
Her body trembled uncontrollably, every muscle tight, every nerve still reacting to something that had already ended.
But beneath it;
Something remained.
Deep inside her chest;
A faint;
Unnatural;
Weight.
Leah's eyes steadied slowly, the panic still burning behind them;
But now mixed with something else.
Something she didn't understand.
Something that shouldn't be there.
And as she sat there;
Breathing;
Shaking;
Alive...
The darkness inside her;
Stayed.
" Thaliaaaaa ! "
She shouted loudly.