Chapter 14: Shadows in the Snow
The blizzard raged around them, each gust of wind like a knife against their frozen skin. Aarav and Karan trudged forward, using what little strength they had left. The satellite beacon blinked weakly in Aarav's hand, sending out their location signal into the endless white.
Hours passed.
Nothing but snow and silence answered them.
"We're close... I think," Karan mumbled, shivering violently.
Aarav wasn't so sure. In the whiteout, there was no sense of direction, no landmarks, no hope. Still, they pressed on, step by agonizing step.
Then — a shape appeared in the distance.
Faint at first. A dark, blurry figure standing against the white storm. Aarav's heart lifted. Rescue?
But as they drew nearer, Aarav's blood ran cold.
The figure wasn't moving. It was standing perfectly still, facing them, its shape too familiar.
Sia.
It was Sia.
Her hair whipped in the icy wind, her eyes hollow and empty, just like the creature had shown before. Her body was half-buried in the snow, yet she stood tall, unnatural, as if tied to the ground by invisible strings.
"S-Sia?" Karan whispered, stepping closer.
"Don't," Aarav said sharply, grabbing his arm. "It's not her."
But it was too late.
The figure's head snapped up. Those hollow eyes locked onto them, and a chilling whisper floated through the storm:
"You never escaped."
Suddenly, more shapes appeared behind her — dozens of them, forming out of the snow and mist. Their faces were twisted versions of the team members who had died — their memories, corrupted and reanimated by the creature's last breath.
The creature hadn't been destroyed.
It had become the land itself.
Aarav realized, with a sinking heart, that they hadn't survived the nightmare.
They were still trapped inside it.
Forever.