The creature moved first.
One second it was a silhouette between the trees, massive, ancient
and the next it was a breath away from me.
A blur of moonlight,
A shadow with weight,
A hunger disguised as calm.
I didn't even see it move.
I only felt it's movement, pressure dropping, temperature dipping, the forest pulling back as though it didn't want to witness what came next.
The Keeper yanked me sideways, but not fast enough.
A claw, long, sharp, curved, slashed the earth where my foot had been a heartbeat earlier. Soil exploded upward, spraying my legs with cold dirt and shredded pine roots.
"MOVE!" she screamed.
But my body wasn't listening.
It was caught somewhere between instinct and paralysis, between the wolf's gravitational pull and my own unraveling mind.
The creature's voice, its psychic whisper, still lingered like cold fingers around my skull.
"You forgot her name."
Her.
A word that cracked through my ribs like lightning.
"Who…?"
The question slipped out before I could stop it.
The Keeper spun around, eyes wide. "Kai, don't listen to it! That thing isn't speaking to you, it's invading you."
Maybe she was right.
Maybe she was wrong.
But the creature's gaze anchored me, deep, ancient, and disturbingly… familiar. It didn't blink. Didn't breathe the way normal beasts breathed. Its chest rose and fell with unnatural slowness, like it had all the time in the world.
The glowing silver ring around its pupils pulsed once.
My scar pulsed in response, like an echo.
Then it stepped closer.
Half a step, soft, controlled.
Predatory.
"Kai," The Keeper whispered, grabbing my face between her hands to force my attention away from the monstrous thing. "Stay with me. Look at me. Not at it."
Her touch was warm. Too warm. A tether against the cold invading my senses.
But it wasn't enough.
Not when the creature's presence pressed against me like a memory I didn't want but couldn't escape.
I swallowed hard. "It knows something about me."
"It knows how to manipulate you," she shot back. "That's not the same thing."
But the hole in my mind, the void shaped like a missing person, burned hotter.
Harsher.
Demanding answers.
"Tell me who I lost!" I shouted into the dark, voice cracking.
The creature's ear twitched.
Its mouth curled not into a snarl, but something far worse.
A smile.
Not human.
Not wolf.
Something in-between.
Its voice was a scraping purr inside my head.
"Come closer and I will."
The Keeper shoved me backward. "No. He won't."
The creature's eyes snapped to her, slowly, so slowly it felt intentional.
It studied her like she was an inconvenience.
Then it spoke again.
"You keep him small."
The Keeper stiffened.
My blood ran colder.
"You don't know anything about us," she hissed.
The creature tilted its head.
"I know you cling to a version of him that is already half dead."
She flinched like it had slapped her.
"Kai," she whispered, her voice breaking, "we need to leave. Now. Before it..."
A low rumble built in the creature's chest.
Not a growl.
Not a threat.
A warning.
"Run, little Keeper."
Before either of us could react, the creature surged forward.
The forest blurred, branches snapping, the earth trembling beneath its weight.
The Keeper dragged me by the wrist, practically hauling me along as she sprinted through the trees. I stumbled and crashed after her, my head pounding with each pulse of the scar. The Echo inside me howled, loud, violent, eager.
It wanted out.
It wanted to meet the creature.
It wanted to remember.
"Faster!" The Keeper cried.
"I'm trying!"
The forest seemed alive, trees leaning inward, roots tripping my feet, branches clawing at my clothes like they were trying to hand me over.
The creature's breath, cold and metallic was right behind us.
Too close.
Too fast.
My heart slammed against my ribs, my lungs burning. Every part of me felt stretched thin, like my body was being torn between the human running for his life and the wolf desperate to turn around.
Behind us, the creature didn't sound like it was running.
It sounded like it was stalking.
Effortless.
Inevitable.
The Keeper dragged me toward an outcropping of rocks near the river, a narrow passage only small bodies could fit through.
"Kai, squeeze through!" she ordered.
Something snapped behind us, loud, sharp, final.
A tree trunk.
The creature had stepped straight through it.
I shoved myself through the narrow gap, stone scraping my shoulder, cold water splashing up as I hit the shallow river on the other side.
The Keeper dove after me, sliding into the water just as the creature slammed into the rocks. The impact shook the earth. Stones cracked and dust rained down.
But it couldn't fit through.
For now.
"Come on," she gasped, grabbing my hand again.
We ran along the riverbank, our breaths ragged, splashing through the dark water until my legs felt like they were made of lead. The forest thinned, shadows bleeding into soft blue moonlight as we reached the edge of the woods.
Only when we stumbled onto the gravel path near the old rail track did we finally collapse, soaked, shaking, gasping for air.
The Keeper was the first to speak.
"What the hell was that?"
I leaned forward, hands on my knees, trying not to vomit from the mix of adrenaline and the Echo clawing inside my skull.
"I don't know," I whispered.
"That wasn't just a rogue wolf."
"I know."
"It wasn't one of your kind either."
"I know."
"It spoke to you, Kai."
"I KNOW!"
My voice echoed off the rails and into the night.
Silence stretched between us, heavy and sharp.
The Keeper sank onto an old concrete block, hugging her knees. She looked exhausted, not physically, but emotionally. Like something inside her had cracked.
"That thing knows about the curse," she said quietly.
I nodded.
"And it knew about your memory loss."
Another nod.
She swallowed hard. "Kai… you asked it 'who you lost.'"
I closed my eyes.
Her.
Whoever she was.
Whatever she meant to me.
"What are you remembering?" the Keeper pressed.
"Nothing."
I forced the word out like a blade pulled from flesh.
"That's the problem."
A long breath escaped her.
"Kai," she whispered, "tell me the truth. Did you feel like it was telling the truth?"
Truth.
The word tasted bitter in my mouth.
"Yes," I admitted. "I did."
The Keeper's shoulders dropped, devastation flickering across her face. She didn't look surprised. Just… hurt.
"Kai…" She ran a trembling hand through her hair. "I think the Echo took more than a memory tonight."
"I think so too."
"Do you think the creature really knows who it was?"
My throat tightened.
"Yes."
The Keeper looked at me for a long, long moment, studying my face the way you study a wounded animal.
"Kai, listen to me. Whatever you lost… I'll help you find it. We'll piece it together, scrape it out of your memories, draw it out of your blood if we have to."
Her voice trembled.
Not from fear.
From determination.
"We'll find her," she said softly. "Whoever she was."
I nodded, but the agreement felt colder than I expected.
Because deep down, a whisper curled around my mind:
What if she's better off forgotten?
The Keeper stood and brushed off her clothes. "Let's head back. Your body's going to collapse if we stay out here."
She took my hand again, guiding me across the gravel toward the abandoned rail factory, the safehouse.
But halfway there…
I froze.
Because something was carved into the rusted metal beam just outside the door.
Fresh.
Deep.
Angled claw marks forming four simple letters:
K A I O
I stared at the mark.
My pulse stuttered.
The Keeper stepped beside me. "Kai… who is Kai O?"
I shook my head slowly.
"I don't know."
But the Echo inside me growled, low and furious, as if it did.
As if the name meant something it didn't want to give back.
A shiver skated down my spine.
"Kai…" the Keeper whispered, dread twisting her voice, "this wasn't here before."
My scar flared white-hot.
And a voice slid through my mind again, low, amused, patient.
"You forgot more than you think."