CHAPTER 1 — THE NIGHT SHE RAN
Lila Rowan had run away before — in that sad, pathetic way abused kids do.
A few hours on the porch roof.
A night at a friend's house whose parents pretended not to notice.
But tonight felt final.
Her mother's scream — shrill, cracked from years of drug use — struck something ancient inside Lila. Her dad's fist dented the wall an inch from her cheek. The air smelled like burnt chemicals and cheap beer. Their voices blended into that awful static that only broken households know.
She didn't grab a jacket.
She didn't grab her phone.
She only took the cheap wolf-shaped necklace she'd found in a thrift store years ago — the symbol of a strength she wished she had.
The woods swallowed her.
Trees bent like eavesdropping giants.
Thunder rolled, and the world opened up beneath her feet. She slid, tumbling down mud-slick earth. The river hit her like a cold fist. She tried to scream, but the current stuffed her mouth with bitter water.
As she sank, the water grew warm… then hot.
Purple sparks danced around her like fireflies.
Voices whispered in languages that felt older than bone.
Then everything went black.
CHAPTER 2 — THE WRONG SKY
Her lungs screamed first.
Then her eyes opened.
She lay on a bed of soft, blood-red moss. Above her, a sky full of bruised purple clouds drifted sluggishly. Two moons hung like watchful eyes.
The air smelled like old rain and something sweetly rotten — like fruit left out too long.
She shouted for help. Only the trees answered.
Something large moved behind her. Slow. Intentional.
The dread settled in her bones.
This wasn't Earth.
CHAPTER 3 — JONAH
A hand clamped over her mouth.
A boy's voice hissed: "Don't move."
She was dragged behind a rotted log.
Over it, she saw a nightmare.
A tall, eyeless creature — skin stretched like wet paper over long bones — sniffed the air. Its mouth was a slit of pulsing teeth, clicking in hunger.
When it finally slithered away, the boy loosened his grip.
He was thin, tall, curly brown hair sticking to his forehead. Older than her, maybe 17.
"Name's Jonah," he said. "Congrats. You landed in Hell's basement."
He pointed at a distant stone bunker.
"Come on. Before something hears us breathe."
CHAPTER 4 — THE SAFEHOUSE
Inside the bunker, fungus lamps glowed like dim lanterns.
Three other teens sat around a crude table:
Mara — short, muscular, hair dyed silver.
Toby — tiny, nervous, with taped glasses.
Avery — pale red curls, quiet, eyes like she had secrets.
They stared at Lila with something between sympathy and dread.
Jonah closed the heavy stone door.
"It's official," he said. "We've got another River-Fallen."
Mara crossed her arms.
"They never last long."
Lila swallowed hard.
CHAPTER 5 — STORIES OF THE FALLEN
Each told their story.
Jonah had fallen into a river while trying to save his younger brother. The boy vanished in the current. Jonah washed up here.
Mara fell during a storm — she never explained from what. But her eyes said enough.
Toby tripped on a hiking trail and never hit the ground.
Avery… refused to say.
Then they asked Lila.
She told them everything.
Her voice wobbled.
She tried not to cry.
When she finished, the room went silent.
Avery whispered, "You didn't deserve any of that."
And for the first time in her life, Lila believed someone meant it.
CHAPTER 6 — FIRST NIGHT
Night in the otherworld wasn't night — it was an event.
The air changed temperature.
The ground vibrated.
Something like wind, but thicker, began to move.
Demons roamed.
A whisper drifted through the bunker door.
"Li-la… sweet Li-la…"
Her mother's voice.
Jonah pulled her back.
"That's not your mom. That's a mimic. They imitate voices… right before they eat you."
Lila's heart broke all over again.
CHAPTER 7 — THE DAWN LORDS
At "sunrise" — a sickly white glow — the group peeked through cracks in the stone.
Towering skeletal giants, glowing from within, patrolled the realm. Their ribcages were cages of light. Their heads tilted unnaturally, like puppets lifted by strings.
One dragged a melted human form across the ground, its face twisted in eternal panic.
"The Dawn Lords," Toby whispered. "To be outside at dawn is to die screaming."
Lila gagged.
Avery placed a calming hand on her back.
"You get used to it," she said softly.
Lila hoped she never would.
CHAPTER 8 — INTO THE WASTES
They had to move.
Everything in this realm eventually found you.
Jonah explained that the observatory — a crumbling tower on a black hill — might hold a map home.
They traveled through bone fields: a landscape paved with ribs and skulls. Some human. Some not.
Something large stalked them. Lila felt eyes everywhere.
A low rumble followed them like a second heartbeat.
CHAPTER 9 — THE SKIN-FEEDER NEST
They stumbled into a cavern lined with human faces, peeled clean and pinned to the walls like wet paper lanterns.
Lila screamed — a tiny sound, but enough.
The demons came.
Thousands of needle teeth clicking.
Eyeless faces smelling for flesh.
Jonah fought. Mara stabbed wildly. Toby curled into a ball.
Avery stepped forward — shaking — and screamed.
Not a normal scream.
A high-frequency vibration that shattered stone and paralyzed the demons.
The cave went still.
Avery collapsed.
Everyone stared at her like she was something new.
Something terrifying.
CHAPTER 10 — AVERY'S SECRET
Back at camp, Avery told them the truth.
Her mother had experimented with sound, trying to expand human vocal range. Something went wrong.
Avery's throat was altered — permanently.
Mara wanted her gone.
Jonah defended her.
Toby was fascinated.
Lila sat beside Avery silently, offering comfort without words.
Avery leaned her head on Lila's shoulder.
"You're the first one who didn't look at me like a monster."
Lila squeezed her hand.
CHAPTER 11 — THE OBSERVATORY
Inside the observatory, dust floated like ash.
The ceiling held a mural of rivers across universes — glowing faintly.
One symbol matched a glowing mark on Lila's wrist.
Toby gasped.
"That means she's… chosen."
Jonah backed away.
"Chosen for what?"
No one had an answer.
But the answer came looking.
A loud crack echoed.
One of the Dawn Lords stepped inside — hours early.
The rules were changing.
CHAPTER 12 — THE DAWN LORD INSIDE
The giant was too big to fit — yet it squeezed through the doorway like flesh bending around bone.
Its glowing chest pulsed.
Its skull tilted toward Lila.
Jonah pulled her behind him.
Avery shrieked.
Mara grabbed her spear.
The creature raised a burning hand and pressed it to Lila's shoulder.
A brand seared into her skin.
Her name echoed inside her skull:
"Liiii-la."
Then it vanished like a dying candle flame.
CHAPTER 13 — RUNNING FROM LIGHT
Lila collapsed, trembling.
The brand glowed beneath her shirt.
She felt something inside her — something being… pulled.
The observatory warped around them.
Walls rippled like water.
They ran — stumbling through collapsing hallways and shattering telescopes.
Outside, dawn approached. The skies brightened, but not normally — like a wound opening.
Lila felt watched from all directions.
CHAPTER 14 — DOUBT AND FEAR
Back in the bunker, tensions erupted.
Jonah whispered, "She's cursed."
Mara snapped, "She's the reason the Dawn Lord came."
Toby said, "If she's marked… she might be the key home."
Avery defended her fiercely.
Lila heard everything from the hallway.
The words cut deeper than her parents ever had.
For the first time since arriving, she felt truly alone.
CHAPTER 15 — THE RIVER CALLS
The ground trembled.
The rivers — all of them — swelled at once.
Lila heard whispers inside her skull:
"Return…
Return…
The river waits…"
Water seeped through the bunker walls.
Monsters migrated in one direction — toward her.
Something ancient was waking.
Jonah locked the doors.
Avery hugged Lila tight.
But Mara stared at her with a look Lila recognized:
Desperation mixed with hatred.
CHAPTER 16 — BETRAYAL AT MIDNIGHT
Lila woke to a blow to the back of her head.
Mara dragged her, struggling, toward the roaring river.
"She's the key," Mara hissed. "A sacrifice. That's how we leave."
Jonah limped after them, screaming.
They fought. Steel flashed. Jonah fell.
Toby sobbed hysterically.
Avery screamed so hard her throat bled.
When Mara raised her knife again —
something dark burst from the trees.
A Skin-Feeder.
Mara's last scream was short.
CHAPTER 17 — THE SERAPH
The river glowed white-blue.
Steam rose.
The water parted like curtains.
A colossal angelic figure rose — all water, bones of light, mouth made of rippling currents.
The River Seraph.
Its voice was dozens of voices.
Thousands.
All drowning.
"Lila Rowan.
Approach."
Her legs moved on their own.
Jonah grabbed her hand. "Not alone."
The Seraph laughed, a sound like breaking waves.
"No one leaves this realm alone."
CHAPTER 18 — THE BARGAIN
The Seraph revealed the truth:
Humans who fall through the river are marked by trauma.
Pain makes them "thin," easy for the river to pull through worlds.
Lila, with her broken childhood, was perfect.
If she wanted freedom, she could choose:
1. Go home alone.
2. All return — but she must surrender something essential.
Her memories of pain.
Her humanity.
Her sense of self.
She cried.
Jonah held her.
Avery whispered, "We'll stay together. Whatever you choose."
Lila stepped forward.
"I choose them."
CHAPTER 19 — THE SACRIFICE
The Seraph touched her forehead.
Her worst memories vanished — torn out like weeds.
Her trauma dissolved.
Her fear burned away.
But so did something else.
She felt hollow.
Calm.
Unnaturally calm.
She glowed faintly, like her veins carried river water instead of blood.
The Seraph opened a rift in the sky — a doorway home.
CHAPTER 20 — THE TWIST: "THE RIVER NEVER LETS YOU GO" (Stephen King Ending)
They woke on the riverbank in their world.
Birds. Real birds.
Sky. Real sky.
Jonah laughed.
Avery sobbed in relief.
Toby kissed the ground.
Lila stared at her hands.
The faint glow remained.
For a week, everything seemed normal.
Then the oddities began.
She heard dripping water in dry rooms.
Mud appeared under her nails in the mornings.
Her reflection smiled when she didn't.
Jonah forgot whole pieces of the other realm.
Avery's voice cracked like broken glass.
Toby's journal dissolved into wet blank pages.
One night, Lila looked into the mirror.
Her reflection leaned closer.
Smiled wider.
Water dripped from its eyes.
"You never left."
The Seraph's voice filled the room:
"What returns…
is only a copy."
Her heart froze.
Her real body — the one she abandoned —
still hung in the demon realm, preserved like fruit.
The Lila here was nothing but a watery puppet,
slowly cracking apart.
As the mirror split and river water poured out,
she understood the final truth:
The river doesn't give back.
It replaces.
And the replacement was dissolving.