> "THE MOUTH HAS REMEMBERED."
"NOW NAME THE ONE WHO BETRAYED."
The fire spat ash as the words burned black across the stone.
I sat frozen.
The spiral in my shoulder was alive now—moving beneath my skin in slow, measured pulses. Like it was listening.
Waiting.
---
Zane backed away from the hearth.
> "What the hell does that mean?"
Harper stepped between us, her voice soft but steady.
> "She wants her name spoken."
> "The one who turned the forest into a mouth instead of a grave."
> "The one who carved lies into roots."
---
Tyrell finally spoke, voice trembling.
> "You mean… Elarah?"
Harper nodded.
> "She wasn't always what she is now."
> "Once, she was a child—taken by the Hollow, trained by the last Mouth before Avaria."
> "But she grew angry."
> "She didn't want to seal the forest—she wanted to speak through it."
> "To become the voice, not carry it."
---
I closed my eyes.
And the name whispered back into me.
Not like a word.
More like a wound reopening.
---
FLASH.
A forest, centuries ago.
Younger me—Avaria—kneeling at the Crooked Tree.
Elarah behind me, sobbing.
> "Why can't I be the one?" she asked.
> "Why is it always you?"
> "You said I mattered!"
I turned to her.
Held out my hand.
> "You do."
> "But it isn't about want."
> "It's about weight."
---
But she didn't take my hand.
She walked into the Hollow instead.
And it closed behind her.
---
And she never left.
Not fully.
She became part of it.
The crooked crown.
The stitched mouth.
The endless spiral.
---
I opened my eyes.
The fire flickered blue.
I stood.
Walked slowly toward the hearth.
And whispered the name:
> "Elarah."
---
The flames died instantly.
Darkness swallowed the room.
Not silence—darkness.
Like something aware had stepped into the lodge with us.
No footsteps. No breathing.
Just the sensation of being watched by a thousand eyes buried in bark.
---
Zane raised the camera again, hands shaking.
> "What now?"
Then came the sound.
From the spiral carved in the floorboards—
A dry, cracking groan.
Wood splitting.
Roots writhing like worms beneath glass.
Then—
Blood.
Seeping upward.
From the cracks.
Forming letters.
One at a time.
---
> "THE NAME RETURNS."
"THE SEED UNBURNS."
"THE MOUTH MUST CLOSE."
---
The door slammed open.
Wind roared through the lodge.
The trees outside were closer now—crowding in around the house like teeth around a tongue.
Harper gripped my hand.
> "You have one chance," she whispered.
> "To finish what you started."
---
I turned to the others.
Zane, pale and near collapse.
Tyrell, tears streaking his cheeks.
Lena, awake now, staring at me like she knew something was about to break forever.
---
> "You said I have to close the Hollow," I said to Harper.
> "How?"
She pointed to my spiral-covered arm.
> "You have to speak the name into the seed."
> "Burn it."
> "Bind it."
> "And give it to the Hollow willingly."
---
> "But I don't have the seed."
She reached into her coat pocket and pulled it out.
Small. Black. Wet with sap.
The last spiral.
> "Riley gave it to me before he vanished."
> "Said it wasn't his anymore."
> "Said it was yours."
---
The moment it touched my palm, the spiral on my skin writhed—coiling tightly, burning.
And the lodge shook.
---
From the spiral in the floor, a shape began to rise.
A figure.
Tall. Lank. Wrapped in root-flesh and shadow.
Its face…
Was mine.
But stitched shut.
---
It stepped toward me.
The others backed away in horror.
But I held my ground.
> "You are the voice," I whispered.
> "But I am the mouth."
> "And it's time to close."
---
The shadow-me screamed—soundless but deafening.
And the spiral on my arm burst into flame.
My eyes rolled back.
I saw them all:
Riley.
Jules.
The other children.
The first Mouths.
All watching.
All waiting.
---
I dropped the seed into the spiral on the floor.
And whispered the name one last time:
> "Elarah."
---
It ignited.
White flame.
Roots recoiling.
Walls splitting.
The cabin screamed like a throat being torn open.
And in the center of it all—
She came.
---
Not as a girl.
Not even as a ghost.
But as a memory of what could never be healed.
A face of bark.
Eyes made of blackened names.
Mouth sealed with ash.
She looked at me.
And I looked at her.
> "You were my sister once," I said.
> "You wanted to speak louder than the silence."
> "But silence was the only mercy left."
---
I reached forward.
Touched her chest.
And the spiral between us turned to ash.
She screamed.
And shattered.
Into wind.
Into fire.
Into silence.
---
Then—
Nothing.
Just a cabin.
A forest.
And us.
---
The spiral in the floor? Gone.
The words on the hearth? Faded.
My arm?
Clean.
No scars.
No bark.
Just skin.
---
We stumbled outside.
The forest was still.
Breathing.
But not hungry.
And far in the distance, where the Crooked Tree once stood—
There was only a stump.
---
Zane fell to his knees.
Harper whispered a prayer.
Tyrell closed his eyes and slept.
Lena cried.
And me?
I walked until I found Riley's spiral.
Buried it in the dirt.
And whispered his name one last time.
---
The Hollow was closed.
But I knew the cost.
Not everyone had made it out.
And some part of me never would.