Ana's Thoughts

We walked in silence, as if each step were a small betrayal against the reality we were trying to rebuild. The darkness surrounding us was not complete, yet thick enough to make everything we saw feel like an illusion, a reflection of something just beyond our reach.

I could still feel the pressure of that… entity. The presence, though distant, remained, watching us, waiting. Something inside me whispered that time no longer held the same meaning here. It wasn't just the passage of minutes or hours that mattered. It was something much older, much more unsettling.

Desperate to find something familiar, my mind began to wander. I remembered the first time I had felt fear. When I was a child, playing in the garden at home, I found myself staring at the largest tree. Something in its shadow drew me in, yet at the same time, something warned me not to get closer. And yet, I took a step. Just one. And in that moment, something inside me broke. As if a door had opened, and everything I thought I knew about the world—about what was safe—crumbled.

Now, here, it wasn't so different. The feeling of walking toward the unknown, uncertain whether we would find anything but emptiness at the end. What was this place? And what did that shadow want from me?

Eduardo stopped, his eyes fixed on an invisible horizon, as if searching for something he couldn't see. His breathing was heavier now, and I could feel that something in him had changed.

"Ana," he said, his voice unsteady.

I looked at him, trying to read his eyes, but all I saw was uncertainty.

"What are we going to do?" I asked, my voice trembling more than I wanted it to.

He didn't answer immediately, his gaze locked on some distant point. Seconds passed, tense, as the air around us seemed to grow even denser, heavier.

"I don't know," he murmured, almost like a whisper, but there was a palpable urgency in his tone. "But we don't have many options."

Then, a soft sound, barely perceptible, cut through the air. Something… or someone was approaching. I couldn't see it, but I could feel it—a pressure slipping between us, like a shadow lurking, waiting for the right moment to move.

"Do you hear that?" I whispered, my heart racing.

He nodded, his eyes as dark as the void surrounding us.

"Yes," his voice was low, tense. "Something's coming."

The shadow—still invisible, yet undeniable—began to speak again. Its voice was cold, distant, as if the words were crawling from an endless abyss.

"Do you think you can escape?" it said, its voice echoing in the air, coming from everywhere at once. The latent threat in its tone was unmistakable.

Fear took hold of me once again, a wave dragging me under without mercy. And then, I realized something. The question wasn't just about escaping this darkness. It was something deeper. What awaited us if we did? Could we truly escape from what was really hunting us?

Eduardo clenched his fists, his gaze locked ahead, his body tense like a wire on the verge of snapping.

"I don't know," he said, his voice lower now. "But we have to keep moving forward."

The ground beneath us trembled slightly, as if the very space around us had reacted to his words. A crackling sound, a whisper, and the air shifted, becoming even more oppressive.

"Can we run?" I asked, no hope in my voice, only an urgent need to know.

"I don't know," he repeated, but this time with more determination. "But we have no other choice."

The darkness seemed to respond to his words. It closed in around us, thicker, heavier, like a veil of night swallowing us whole.

The sound of something approaching grew louder. And with it, a feeling of inevitability settled over me. What was coming wasn't just an encounter with the dark. It was something more, something that had already found us.

Chapter 4: Ana's Thoughts (continued)

The air thickened even more, as if we were walking through an invisible fog. Each step echoed in my head, each sound of my boots against the ground amplified, as if somehow, I were trapped inside my own mind while the outside world faded away.

The tremor in the air intensified, and I could feel it on my skin, as though the very atmosphere was charged with something heavy, something waiting to crash down on us. The silence around us wasn't peaceful. It was dense, filled with invisible presences.

I glanced at Eduardo. His face was impassive, but there was something in his eyes—something I couldn't name, but I knew he felt just as trapped as I did.

"This isn't normal, is it?" I asked, my voice more broken than I intended.

He didn't look at me right away. His gaze was fixed, but not on me. He was staring at the void around us, as if waiting for something to emerge from the shadows. His breathing was deeper now, as though the pressure in the air made even the simple act of inhaling difficult.

"No," he finally answered, his voice barely above a whisper, more to himself than to me. "None of this is."

A noise—a dull, distant crack—made my heart stop for a second. It was faint, far away, but we were definitely not alone.

The pressure in the air increased suddenly, and I felt it in my bones. That strange sensation, that palpable presence surrounding us, was now much closer. It was as if something was watching us, waiting for the perfect moment to act.

Eduardo turned to me, his gaze sharper now.

"You don't have to follow me," he said, urgency in his words that he couldn't hide. "If there's a way out, I'll find it. You don't have to risk yourself."

I stared at him, confused. I didn't understand why he was saying this, why he seemed so determined to push me away. Did he really think he could get out of here alone? That he could save himself while I…? My mind clouded for a second, but I shook my head. I couldn't think about that now. We were in this together, and I wasn't leaving him behind.

"I can't leave you," I said, my voice steadier than I felt. "If we get out, we do it together."

A heavy silence fell between us, thick with unspoken words, unexpressed thoughts. Finally, he nodded—but not with relief. More like he had made a decision, one he himself wasn't sure he wanted to make.

"Then let's go," he said.

No more words. Only the sound of our footsteps against the strange, cold ground. The darkness remained around us, but something in the air began to shift. Not in a tangible way, but as if the very essence of the place had changed, as if something was beginning to respond to our presence.

And then, I saw it. A flicker of light, so faint it could have been a trick of my mind—but it wasn't. Something was changing, and it wasn't the darkness. It was something else, something I didn't understand, but that I could feel as a threat.

Eduardo stopped, his body tense. I looked at him, and saw that his eyes weren't on the light. No. He was looking at something else, something I couldn't see. Something moving.

"Do you see it?" I whispered, my throat tight.

He didn't answer immediately. His gaze narrowed, as if trying to focus, trying to understand. Finally, he spoke, his voice a trembling whisper.

"It's not real," he said with chilling intensity. "But we're seeing it. And that's all that matters."

The air grew denser, and the light began to pulse. It didn't shine like normal light; it flickered, unable to stay fixed, as if even time itself were trembling.

Then, the voice returned. The same cold, inhuman voice from before—only this time, it was closer.

"Do you think you can escape time?" it echoed, directed straight at us.

A shiver ran down my spine. Something moved in the darkness, something very close. Not a defined figure, just a shifting shadow. Something… was here with us.

Eduardo stepped forward, his body tense, but he didn't back down. He held his ground, firm, as if he were waiting, as if he were about to make a decision that would change everything.

"We don't have time for doubts," he said, eyes locked on the light. "There's nothing left to lose now."

And in that moment, I understood.

We were trapped in something far greater than us.