Tyrell wouldn't wake.
He was breathing—barely.
But no matter what we did—water, slaps, cold towels—his eyes stayed shut.
And he clutched that spiral like it was a lifeline.
Or a curse.
Jules wanted to call for help. But our phones still had no service.
And the radio Mason brought was fried—its wires twisted, melted.
Zane tried the emergency generator in the shed.
But when he opened the box, there was no engine inside.
Just dirt.
Roots.
And a second, smaller box.
He didn't open it.
None of us did.
Not yet.
---
Mason woke up around 6:23 a.m.
Not gently.
He sat up violently like he'd just been drowning, eyes wide, mouth gasping—his back arching off the couch.
We rushed to him.
> "Mason?" I asked, touching his shoulder.
He flinched.
Then turned slowly—too slowly.
His head tilted, almost birdlike.
And when he spoke, the voice that came out wasn't his.
Too high.
Too calm.
Too knowing.
---
> "Ava," it said.
> "You remember the spiral, don't you?"
---
I staggered back.
Everyone froze.
Even Harper, who'd been whispering prayers again, went pale.
> "That's not Mason," she said.
> "That's Riley."
---
The voice laughed.
Not a child's laugh.
Not Mason's.
But something in between.
Dry.
Splintered.
Like wind blowing through broken reeds.
---
> "She followed me," the voice said.
> "She saw what took me."
> "And she didn't stop it."
Mason's face twisted—pain and rage. His skin paled like something inside was pulling at his veins.
> "She watched. And she smiled."
---
> "Ava," Jules whispered, "what's he talking about?"
> "You were there?"
---
I stepped back until I hit the far wall.
My breath felt tight in my lungs.
I remembered bits.
Shards.
But now they were reforming. Reconnecting.
And I remembered—
---
FLASHBACK – THE NIGHT RILEY DISAPPEARED
He ran into the Hollow after we all teased him.
I followed.
Only me.
He was kneeling in the clearing.
Drawing spirals in the dirt with a knife.
Not his.
Mine.
He looked up. Tear-streaked, shaking.
> "She's waking up," he whispered.
> "She doesn't like lies."
I asked who.
He turned.
And pointed to the tree.
The Crooked One.
Except…
It wasn't a tree anymore.
It had opened.
Like a mouth.
And something crawled out.
All root and bone and skin that looked like burlap.
It had his face.
Not exactly.
But close enough.
---
I ran.
I left him there.
Didn't scream.
Didn't help.
Because in that moment, I wasn't sure which Riley was real.
And I didn't want to find out.
---
Now, Mason's body stared at me with those not-Mason eyes.
> "The woods remember," the voice said.
> "She kept your secret until now."
> "But if you lie again—she'll take more than your name."
Mason collapsed.
Unconscious.
---
Zane tried to deny it all.
> "This is staged. This is trauma. People hallucinate under pressure."
But no one believed him.
Not even Zane.
Especially not when Harper walked into the kitchen…
And the refrigerator door had a message written in mud and hair:
> "SHE LIED."
"AGAIN."
---
Later that morning, I sat alone on the porch swing.
The spiral twig still in my hands.
And I noticed something new.
My name—AVA BROOKS—was starting to fade.
The wood grain was absorbing it.
Drawing it inward.
Replacing it with something else.
Another name.
One I hadn't heard in years.
"AVARIA."
---
That was the name Riley used to call me when we were kids.
He said it sounded like an old myth.
A protector.
A traitor.
Sometimes both.
---
Harper stepped out beside me.
Quiet.
She looked at the spiral in my hands.
Then at me.
> "That's not just wood."
> "It's a seed."
I blinked.
> "What?"
> "The spiral is a language," she said.
"A way for the forest to remember."
> "When you hold it, it learns your voice. It grows your truth."
> "And it doesn't like lies."
---
She crouched in front of me.
Took my hands.
Her fingers were ice.
> "You need to tell the whole truth before it blooms."
> "Before your name disappears completely."
> "Because once it does—you become part of her."
---
I didn't ask who "her" was.
Because I already knew.
The tree.
The Hollow.
The thing that took Riley.
She wasn't just part of the forest.
She was the forest.
And now she was awake.
---
That night, we found a new message—carved not in wood, but into Mason's skin.
Right across his back, bleeding but clean:
> "ROUND THREE – NAME YOUR SIN."