CHAPTER 26: SMILE

We didn’t stop moving until the unnatural weight pressing against our backs finally faded. Even then, no one spoke. Not until the forest around us felt real again. Until the trees weren’t just shapes in the dark but actual trees, and the sounds of the night returned in uneven, cautious trickles.

Julien exhaled loudly. "Alright. I vote we never do that again."

Felix let out a strangled laugh. "Agreed. All in favor of pretending we never saw that thing?"

No one argued.

I wasn’t ready to relax, though. Whatever that thing was, it let us go. That didn’t mean it wouldn’t change its mind.

Mira walked beside me, her expression unreadable. "You didn’t want me to attack."

"You saw what happened," I said. "The moment you prepared a curse, it reacted. That thing wasn’t mindless."

Wallace, still glancing over his shoulder, nodded. "It didn’t just lash out. It... responded."

"Responded," Julien muttered. "Yeah, that’s one way to describe almost getting impaled."

Garrick rolled his shoulders. "It was testing us."

I met his gaze. "Yeah. And we passed."

For now.

Felix shuddered. "If that was a test, I’d rather not find out what happens when someone fails."

We moved carefully, putting more distance between us and the clearing. The night felt colder than before. My mind kept going back to what the creature said.

Stillness... broken... Must be restored.

That thing wasn’t just lurking. It had a purpose.

That was what unsettled me the most.

Julien walked in step with me, his voice quieter now. "Lucian. That whisper I heard earlier... it was the same voice, wasn’t it?"

I didn’t answer right away. Because I already knew the truth.

"...Yeah."

Julien let out a slow breath. "Thought so."

Mira frowned. "That means it was watching us before we even got to the clearing."

Wallace muttered something under his breath. Probably calculations. Theories.

Felix groaned. "Awesome. Great. Stalker horror monster. Just what we needed."

We kept walking.

Eventually, the trees thinned, and the terrain sloped upward again. A good vantage point. I gestured for everyone to stop.

"Rest here for a bit," I said.

Nobody argued.

I leaned against a tree, scanning the forest below. The clearing was long out of sight, but that didn’t mean we were safe.

Julien settled onto a rock. "So, uh. We’re not gonna pretend that thing spoke like a person, right?"

No one answered.

Because we all knew.

That thing hadn’t been an animal. Not a mindless beast.

It had thought.

Wallace broke the silence. "Lucian. What do you think it meant?"

I ran a hand through my hair. "I don’t know."

And that was the problem.

Mira exhaled. "Something tells me this isn’t the last time we’ll see it."

She was right.

I just hoped, next time, it didn’t decide we were the ones breaking the stillness.

We didn’t stop moving until the clearing was long behind us. Even then, I could still feel it—like an echo in my bones, a lingering weight in the air. That thing had let us go.

That didn’t mean we were safe.

Julien finally broke the silence. "So... we’re just gonna pretend that didn’t happen?"

Felix scoffed. "I’d love to, but I think my soul just aged a decade."

Mira shot me a look. "What’s the plan, Professor?"

I exhaled slowly. The Academy was still a half-day’s journey away. Normally, I’d push for a straight march back. But after what we just encountered, walking into the Academy like nothing happened felt wrong.

I had questions—ones I doubted anyone in Noctis Ardentis could answer.

And more than that, I had a feeling that whatever we ran into... it wasn’t done with us.

I looked at my students. They were shaken, but they weren’t panicking. Even Felix, despite his complaining, was still standing, still focused.

Good.

"We’re not going back," I said.

That got their attention.

Julien frowned. "Not going back—wait, what?"

Mira didn’t seem surprised. "You think it’s too dangerous?"

I shook my head. "No. I think this is bigger than just a one-off encounter. That thing in the clearing—it let us go. But something tells me it’ll be looking for us again."

Garrick crossed his arms. "So what do we do?"

"We figure out what it was. And more importantly—why it reacted the way it did."

Wallace hesitated. "You’re suggesting... we investigate?"

"Yes."

Silence. Then—

Felix groaned. "Professor, I’d like to formally vote against this."

Julien grinned despite himself. "What, scared?"

"Terrified, actually! But sure, let’s walk right back into the nightmare, sounds great."

Mira ignored them, watching me closely. "Where do we start?"

That was the question. The Academy had libraries, but I doubted their records covered whatever we just saw. If I wanted real answers, we’d have to look elsewhere.

"There’s a town not far from here," I said. "Old place. If anyone knows strange things in this region, it’s them."

Wallace perked up. "You mean Black Hollow?"

I nodded.

Julien frowned. "Never heard of it."

"That’s because it’s not the kind of place you visit unless you have to," Wallace muttered. "They’re secretive. Don’t like outsiders."

"All the more reason to go," I said. "If they know something, we need to hear it."

Felix groaned louder. "Oh good, we’re going from haunted forests to creepy towns. Love this plan."

I ignored him. "We’ll rest for a bit, then head out. Stay sharp. That thing might not have followed us, but I don’t trust it to leave us alone."

No one argued.

That was the best sign that they understood just how serious this was.

And as I looked at the darkened woods ahead, I had one thought lingering in my mind.

This wasn’t just about survival anymore.

Something was waiting for us in Black Hollow.

And we were about to walk straight into it.

We set up camp in a small clearing, far enough from where we encountered that thing but still within the dense cover of the trees. No fire—too risky. Instead, we settled for rations and the kind of tired silence that came from narrowly avoiding death.

At least, until Julien spoke.

"So, Professor, just to clarify—you want us to march into a creepy, probably cursed town full of secretive weirdos, all because a nightmare creature politely let us go?"

"Yes."

Felix groaned and flopped onto his back. "I hate this class."

I ignored him.

Mira smirked. "What’s wrong, Felix? Not enjoying your ’hands-on learning experience’?"

Felix shot her a look. "Oh, you mean ’being stalked by eldritch horrors’? Yeah, no, I prefer my hands-on learning to not involve potential soul evaporation."

Leo, ever the pessimist, muttered, "Maybe it already did something to us, and we just haven’t noticed yet."

That earned a long, uncomfortable silence.

"...Great. Now I feel itchy," Wallace muttered, scratching at his arm.

Julien grinned. "Don’t worry, buddy. If you start growing extra limbs, we’ll let you know."

"Or sell you to a scholar for research," Mira added.

Wallace scowled. "Comforting. Truly."

I let their bickering go on for a bit—it helped. Kept them from dwelling too much on what we saw. But we still had business to discuss.

"Black Hollow isn’t far," I said, bringing them back to the matter at hand. "We reach it by midday tomorrow if we pace ourselves."

Julien leaned back, resting his hands behind his head. "And what exactly do we tell them? ’Hey, we saw a thing that shouldn’t exist. Any ideas?’"

I gave him a flat look. "You let me handle the talking."

"Thank the gods," Felix muttered. "Last time Julien tried diplomacy, he nearly got us challenged to a duel."

Julien scoffed. "I nearly got us a free meal."

"You insulted the innkeeper’s mother."

"It was a compliment in his culture!"

Mira grinned. "And yet, we still got chased out with brooms."

I rubbed my temples. "Enough. If Black Hollow has answers, I’ll find them. You just focus on not causing problems."

Julien smirked. "No promises."

I sighed. These were my students. My future corpses.

And they were about to follow me into the unknown.

We moved at dawn, cutting through the thick underbrush with as much stealth as a group of exhausted, barely-trained students could manage. Which was to say, none at all.

Twigs snapped, boots squelched in damp soil, and every few minutes, Felix let out a dramatic sigh like he was trying to summon death himself.

"Professor," he groaned. "My legs are dying."

"They’ll live," I said, not looking back.

"No, really. I think they’re about to detach and go on without me."

"Good," Julien quipped. "Less weight for the rest of us to carry."

Felix let out an offended squawk, and I heard Mira stifle a laugh. At least morale was holding.

We pressed on, the air thick with the scent of damp earth and something else—something faint but growing stronger as we neared our destination. A metallic tang, sharp and cloying. Blood.

Cassandra, who had been unusually quiet, finally spoke. "Something’s wrong."

I didn’t need her to tell me.

As we emerged from the treeline, Black Hollow came into view. A small settlement, nestled between rolling hills and looming evergreens. But something was off.

No smoke curled from chimneys. No distant chatter. No movement.

The town was eerily silent.

"Okay," Leo muttered. "I really hate this."

"Maybe they’re all just asleep?" Wallace offered weakly.

Julien shot him a look. "At noon?"

Wallace shrugged. "Heavy sleepers?"

Felix clapped a hand on his shoulder. "If this turns into a horror story, you’re dying first."

I scanned the village, senses on high alert. No signs of struggle—no wreckage, no bodies in the streets. But that smell hung thick in the air, and the silence felt... unnatural.

"Stay close," I ordered. "We’re going in."

"Do we have to?" Leo whined.

I gave him a look.

"...Right. Of course, we do."

We stepped onto the main road, boots crunching against gravel. Shadows stretched from the empty buildings, their darkened windows staring back at us like empty sockets.

And then—

A door creaked open.

We all froze.

A figure stood in the doorway of a small, worn-down house. An old man, hunched and gaunt, his eyes sunken deep into his skull. His gaze locked onto me, and despite his frail frame, I felt a shiver crawl down my spine.

"You shouldn’t have come here," he rasped.

Felix let out a quiet, panicked wheeze. "Cool. Great. Let’s not be here, then."

I ignored him, stepping forward. "We’re travelers. We need information."

The old man shook his head. "Travelers don’t leave Black Hollow. Not anymore."

Mira crossed her arms. "And why is that?"

The man’s hollow gaze swept over us. Then, slowly, he lifted a trembling hand—

And pointed behind us.

A guttural click echoed through the air.

The hairs on my neck rose.

We turned.

Beyond the tree line, in the shifting shadows of the forest—something moved.

Watching.

Waiting.

And then, it smiled.