Pack of Shadows

at the kitchen table, poring over its pages, her mind racing with the strange and dark stories it contained. Each tale seeme

a place where the fabric of reality was thin, allowing things from the other side to slip through. Some of the tales were ancient, passed down from the indigenous

full of ominous hints and warnings, but it mentioned the stone and described it in a way that made Ava's skin crawl. The woman had been marked, the legend said, chosen by

d she felt the same pull? Had she been marked

, that there were dangers lurking in the shadows that she didn't fully understand, but she also k

lder, she glanced at the journal and the old book lying on the table. She considered bringing them but decided against it. This journ

ginning to set, casting long shadows across the streets, but she knew she had to reach the forest before dark. Maggie's warn

sky. The air grew cooler, and the sounds of the town faded away, replaced by the rustling of leaves and the distant call of birds. Ava hesitated fo

d deeper into the forest, the trees closed in around her, their trunks gnarled and twisted as if shaped by some anci

with energy, a low, thrumming vibration that she could feel in her bones. She took a deep breath

ight, but Ava could still make out the strange symbols etched into the stone, their meanings lost to the ages. She approached it

rrent of electricity running up her arm. Ava gasped, but she didn't pull away. Instead, she pr

y swallowed the light. The forest fell silent, the only sound the pounding of her own heart. Ava felt

e vision

he trees younger and taller, their leaves thick and green. She saw people moving through the woods, their faces blurred and indistinct, dressed in the simple

round it. They were chanting, their voices rising and falling in a rhythmic cadence that sent shivers down her spin

it had held for centuries. She saw more scenes,glimpses of the people who had come to the stone over the years, each one marked by the same sense

t now the sky was dark, the air thick with the scent of rain. The stone was glowing with an eerie light, its surface pulsing with a rhythm t

t its eyes,those eyes were piercing, glowing with a light that was both mesmerizing and terrifying. Ava felt a cold dread

t reached out a hand, and Ava could feel the coldness of it even from where she stood. T

are m

er snapping back into focus. The forest was silent once more, the stone still and unyielding beneath her hand. She gasped f

nd the only sound was the win

d just seen, but she knew one thing for certain, the stone had marked her, just as i