The first step beyond the heart of the bridge felt like a quiet shift of the world itself.
Moonlight, once silver and gentle, dimmed as if veiled by unseen hands.
Shadows thickened among the trees, their silence pressing close, heavy and unspoken.
Every sound of their footsteps was soft, yet it reverberated inside their hearts.
Prava slowed, her breath caught in her chest, while Rafael moved closer, his presence steady—
a shield against the uncertainty that lurked ahead.
He glanced at her, and in that fleeting look he saw the trembling light beneath her courage—
a flickering flame, fragile yet refusing to vanish.
Without a word, he reached for her hand.
The warmth of his touch was slight, but it spread through her like a promise she hadn't dared to hope for.
Then—movement.
From the edge of the forest, a branch snapped under unseen weight.
Prava startled, blood rushing in her ears, her heartbeat wild as if it might tear free from her chest.
Her lips trembled; she bit them until a faint taste of iron touched her tongue.
But she held her silence.
Something was waiting in the dark.
Not merely shadows—
but fragments of the past, restless and unhealed.
Rafael's voice broke the silence, deep and unwavering.
"Whatever waits ahead, I will be with you."
The words rang inside her like a bell, steadying her, reminding her she was no longer alone.
A sudden wind swept through, carrying the scent of rain and damp earth.
Above, the sky seemed to split—light flared like a silent lightning strike, too sharp, too sudden.
Prava felt it then: the pull of something greater, a door trembling at the edge of time,
a darkness that demanded to be faced.
Her grip on Rafael's hand tightened.
In the suffocating silence, the rhythm of two hearts beat as one—
a vow unspoken, yet binding.
And as they stepped together into the shadow,
the world shifted once more.