Chapter 112: The First Dream

That night, Bella didn't sleep.

Not really.

She drifted in and out of something unnatural.

A void. A shadowed place. A prison of silence.

And then—

A voice.

"Mine."

Bella's lungs seized.

It wasn't a word.

Not really.

It was a feeling, a claim, something slithering through her blood like a sickness.

She tried to wake up, to pull herself free—

But the darkness wrapped around her like a second skin.

And then—

She saw it.

Standing at the edge of her mind.

Tall. Unnatural. Wrong.

Its limbs were too long, its body stretched into something human but not.

Its mouth curled into a grotesque grin, wide, impossibly wide, rows of jagged teeth gleaming in the blackness.

And its eyes—

Its eyes were hollow.

Empty.

Like a void of endless hunger.

Bella tried to move.

Tried to scream.

But she was trapped.

"You called me back," it whispered.

"And now I've come for you."

Then—

It lunged.

And Bella woke up screaming.