Michael's breath caught, the world narrowing to a thin, trembling line. His knees buckled, slamming into the frost-bitten earth. The last of his strength fled his body in a cold rush, leaving him hollow, weightless, like a soul untethered.
Tears slid down his cheeks, warm at first, then chilling instantly in the frozen air. Each drop hit the ground with a delicate crack, like glass breaking under silence. The air wavered behind him, rippling outward in concentric waves, distorting the world as though reality itself recoiled.
A shadow fell across his back. And then the voice, low, intimate, monstrous, unfurled behind his ear: "Found you."
Michael froze. Every instinct he possessed, every honed reflex, every shard of training, collapsed beneath the weight of that single whisper. His breath shuddered in his chest, refusing to move, as if the sound alone had stolen the air from his lungs.
Something cold and impossibly heavy brushed the back of his neck. Not a touch. A presence.
