Whispers of the Forgotten Pines

The silence was suffocating.

Ethan and Lillian stood frozen, staring at the ruins of the dead city before them. The air was thick with a strange energy, pressing against their skin like unseen hands.

Everything about this place felt wrong—as if it wasn't just abandoned, but forbidden.

"This place…" Lillian whispered. "It feels like a graveyard."

Ethan nodded, his eyes scanning the towering ruins. The buildings twisted unnaturally, their spires curving into the black sky, etched with symbols that pulsed weakly. They weren't just structures. They were remnants of something far greater—something that had once been alive.

As they took cautious steps forward, their reflections rippled in the glass-like ground beneath them. The distorted images shifted unnaturally, warping even when they stood still.

Then, the whispers began again.

Not like before.

These were closer.

Watching.

Lillian grabbed Ethan's arm. "We're not alone."

Ethan turned sharply. The ruins remained still, but something had moved in the shadows. A flicker—just at the edge of his vision.

Then another.

Shapes.

They weren't fully visible, just suggestions of figures—tall, thin, barely distinguishable from the ruins themselves. Their movements were too smooth, too unnatural to be human.

Ethan's breath hitched. "What the hell are those?"

Lillian's grip on his arm tightened. "The Watchers."

Ethan swallowed hard. "You've seen them before?"

Lillian shook her head. "No. But I've read about them." Her voice was barely above a whisper. "They exist between the folds of reality. Guardians of the forgotten."

Ethan clenched his fists. "Guardians of what, exactly?"

Before Lillian could answer, one of the figures moved closer.

Ethan's entire body tensed. The thing didn't step—it glided, shifting like smoke yet solid at the same time. It had no face. No eyes. Just a void where a head should be.

And yet, Ethan felt its gaze burrowing into him.

The whispers grew louder, swirling in his mind like a storm. Words formed, but they weren't in English. They weren't in any language he knew.

But somehow—he understood.

"You are not meant to be here."

Ethan's heart pounded. The voice wasn't spoken—it was inside his head, threading through his thoughts like vines.

Lillian gasped. Ethan turned—she had her hands pressed to her temples, her face twisted in pain. "They're… in my head," she choked out.

Ethan stepped in front of her, glaring at the figures. "Stay out of our minds."

The Watcher closest to them tilted its head, as if studying him. Then—

It raised a hand.

The moment it did, the ground beneath them shifted.

The black surface cracked, splitting open like a wound. A deep, endless chasm yawned beneath them, and from it came a sound—

A deep, inhuman sound.

Like something waking up.

Ethan grabbed Lillian and pulled her back as the Watcher took another step forward. The others followed, their forms shifting in and out of the darkness, surrounding them.

Lillian's eyes darted around. "Ethan, we have to run."

But where?

The ruins were a labyrinth. The Watchers moved like shadows, and now the very ground beneath them was breaking apart.

Then—

A light.

Faint, flickering—at the edge of the ruins. A doorway, glowing with the same blue light they had seen before.

Ethan didn't hesitate. "Come on!"

He grabbed Lillian's hand and ran.

The Watchers moved, gliding after them. The whispers turned into a roar, deafening, threatening to consume them.

The chasm behind them widened. Ethan didn't dare look back.

Just keep running.

The doorway was getting closer. Almost there.

The Watchers lunged—

And Ethan and Lillian leapt through the light.

There was no floor.

No sky.

No up. No down.

Just an endless fall.

Ethan and Lillian tumbled through a void of swirling blue mist, weightless, their bodies spiraling through nothingness. It was like being caught in a current, but there was no water, no air, no sound.

Just the sensation of being pulled.

Lillian reached for him. Ethan grabbed her wrist, holding on tightly. "Lillian—where are we?"

She shook her head, her hair floating wildly around her. "I don't know!"

The mist around them shifted, forming shapes.

Buildings.

Streets.

A town.

And then—the forest.

Whispering Pines.

Ethan's breath caught. They were seeing the town—but not as it was.

As it used to be.

The streets were different, the buildings older, the people dressed in clothes from centuries ago. The town was alive. Vibrant.

And then—

Screams.

A dark shape rose from the heart of the town.

A shadow unlike the others.

Something ancient. Something monstrous.

And just before Ethan and Lillian crashed into the vision—

Everything went black.

What was the vision they saw? Have they truly escaped the Watchers? And what is the dark force that destroyed Whispering Pines in the past?