The fire crackled low. Alan pulled his coat tighter, but the cold still gnawed at his bones. He wasn’t sure when he’d stopped feeling warm. Maybe the moment he’d followed that voice.
It had been a whisper at first. Soft, almost kind. „Come closer,“ it had said. And he had, because the night was endless, and the road behind him led nowhere.
The stranger sat across from him now, a vague shape in the dim firelight. His face—Alan couldn’t describe it. Every time he tried to focus, the features slipped away, like a dream vanishing at dawn.
„You were lost,“ the stranger said, his voice smooth as oil.
Alan nodded.
The stranger smiled. „And now you’re found.“
Alan shivered. Something in those words felt wrong, but he couldn’t say why. He should leave. He knew that. Stand up, walk away, never look back.
But his legs wouldn’t move.
The fire burned lower. The stranger’s grin widened. Shadows stretched long, swallowing the light, swallowing everything.
Alan tried to speak. His throat clenched. His heartbeat slowed.
The last thing he heard was the whisper.
“Welcome home.”
