The jungle was quiet when I stepped into it. Not the heavy, suffocating silence of that night when the monster had stalked me—just the normal kind. Birds calling in the distance, insects buzzing, leaves rustling in the breeze.
Life going on like nothing had happened.
I walked straight into the trees, letting the branches close behind me like a door shutting, sealing me off from the village and everything in it.
The sounds of children laughing, Mia's sharp voice, the clatter of the kitchen—all of it faded until there was nothing left but leaves and dirt and the slow, patient breathing of the jungle itself.
I needed to think.
The clearing where I'd fought that monster was deeper in, but I didn't go there either. I found a spot maybe fifty yards from the village's edge, where thick roots rose from the earth to form a natural platform and a fallen log, slick with moss, gave me something to sit on.
