Sera stopped beneath the red rain, her eyes fixed on the small cabin perched atop the gigantic tree that rose in the center of the dead village like an ancient witness that had refused to fall despite the passing years. The wind howled violently through the withered branches, making them produce broken sounds that resembled distant moans, while heavy drops of rain continued pouring from the crimson sky, striking the decaying wood, the ruined walls, and the ground saturated with water and mud. There was nothing in that place that carried life—no movement, no human voices, no sign of any creature—as though the entire world had stopped at a certain moment and then been abandoned to slowly decay beneath this bleeding sky.
As for Sera…
She could not take her eyes off the cabin.
It was not the most beautiful thing she had ever seen.
Nor was it the strangest thing in this place.
Yet something inside it was pulling her toward it in a way she could not resist.
She had felt it from the very moment her gaze landed upon it.
A familiar feeling.
Ancient.
Buried deep within her for a very long time.
And yet…
Whenever she tried to give it a name, an image, or a clear memory, it slipped through the fingers of her mind like smoke.
She continued staring in silence.
One second.
Then another.
Then dozens of seconds passed without her even noticing.
She knew this cabin.
Or so her heart told her.
But her mind offered no explanation.
She could not remember when she had seen it.
She could not remember why that feeling had appeared immediately.
And she could not remember what it had meant to her in the first place.
All she knew was that she had stood here before.
On some day.
At some time.
For some reason.
Everything else…
Was buried beneath a dense fog that refused to lift.
She took a slow breath.
Then raised her gaze slightly toward the tree itself.
Strangely, it was not only the cabin.
Even the tree felt familiar.
The dead branches.
The massive trunk.
Its towering height.
Everything before her carried the same sensation.
The feeling of someone returning to a place they knew well but could no longer remember how they had first arrived there.
Sera clenched her teeth slightly.
She hated this feeling.
She would rather face an enemy standing before her than confront this irritating emptiness inside her head.
Because every time she tried to approach the truth, it felt as though something was pushing her away from it.
As though there was a locked door buried deep within her mind.
A door she knew contained all the answers.
Yet she was unable to open it.
She closed her eyes for a brief moment.
And tried to remember.
Anything.
A face.
A voice.
A name.
An incident.
Any detail that could explain why she was standing here.
But she found nothing.
On the contrary.
The harder she searched, the stronger the faint headache pulsing inside her head became.
And with it grew the unsettling feeling that she was approaching something that did not wish to be seen.
She opened her eyes again.
And looked back at the cabin.
This time, it no longer felt merely familiar.
It felt as though it was waiting for her.
It was a ridiculous thought if anyone else had considered it.
But she felt it clearly.
As though this cabin had remained standing here all these years waiting for the moment she returned.
As though her presence before it now was not a coincidence.
Lightning flashed across the sky for a brief instant.
Its red light reflected upon the old windows.
And in that exact moment…
Something inside her trembled.
It was not a memory.
Nor was it an image.
Just a feeling.
A sharp, fleeting feeling that passed through her chest and vanished before she could grasp it.
She frowned.
Then whispered in a voice so quiet only she could hear it.
"What is this place…?"
But the question was not entirely accurate.
Because in truth, she was not asking about the place.
She was asking about herself.
About the part that knew all of this while she herself did not.
She remained standing there for a while longer.
And with every passing second, the suffocating sensation grew stronger.
She could no longer endure standing like this.
She could no longer endure seeing the answer before her without being able to touch it.
And for the first time since awakening, she felt a genuine desire to force her mind to remember.
Even if the price was painful.
She lifted her head toward the cabin one final time.
Then the small wings behind her back moved.
Her body slowly rose from the ground.
While the wind and rain continued raging around her.
She was ascending toward the cabin.
But she did not feel as though she was approaching a place.
She felt as though she was approaching a lost part of herself.
A part that had been missing for a very long time…
And perhaps the time had finally come to face it.
Sera landed upon one of the massive branches extending near the cabin and stood silently before the old wooden door. The distance separating her from it was very short—only a step or two—yet she did not move. She simply stared at it while drops of red rain slid across the weathered wood and disappeared into its ancient cracks. The door was not frightening, nor did it appear unusual in any way, yet Sera felt a strange heaviness toward it that she could not explain. It was like standing before a memory she knew belonged to her, while not knowing whether she was ready to see it or not.
Her hand slowly reached toward the handle.
She stopped.
Then drew her fingers back slightly.
For a brief moment, a feeling arose within her that she could not fully understand.
A feeling telling her that everything would change if she opened this door.
That standing outside it was one thing.
And stepping inside was something entirely different.
As though this place hid more than answers.
As though it concealed a piece of her own life.
She tightened her fist.
Then finally pushed the door open.
A long creak echoed from the old hinges before the cabin slowly opened before her.
She did not enter immediately.
Instead, she remained standing in the doorway.
Watching.
Observing.
Trying to understand.
The interior was darker than she had expected, yet darkness was not the first thing that caught her attention.
It was the disorder.
A strange disorder.
As though something had happened here long ago and left its marks behind.
The wooden floor was cracked in several places, with some boards broken or tilted by years of moisture and decay. The walls were covered with dark fractures, while rotten wooden pieces hung from the ceiling, allowing droplets of water to seep through and fall upon the floor at regular intervals, breaking the silence every few seconds.
Sera stepped inside slowly.
Only one step.
Then stopped once more.
Her eyes wandered through the room.
An overturned table.
A shattered chair.
Old blankets scattered across the floor.
A small cabinet with one door torn away while the other hung crookedly from its hinges.
Everything suggested that this place had not been abandoned peacefully.
Something had been left behind here.
Something she could not see.
But could feel.
She moved farther inside.
And began examining every detail.
She was not searching for anything specific.
She was searching for herself.
She studied the walls as though expecting a memory to awaken from them.
And looked at the floor as though waiting to remember why entering this place filled her chest with such tension.
Then her eyes fell upon an old candle near one wall.
A candle that had melted halfway down.
And gone out long ago.
She stopped before it.
She did not know why.
But something inside her told her she had seen this candle before.
Or perhaps its light.
Or perhaps…
She had once sat beside it.
But the thought vanished before it could fully form.
Her gaze shifted toward another corner.
And there…
She noticed dark stains scattered across the wooden floor.
She approached them slowly.
Then bent down slightly.
Bloodstains.
Old.
Dried.
And yet…
Sera suddenly felt her heart tighten.
Not from fear.
But from pain.
A pain that appeared for a single moment and then disappeared.
Without realizing it, she placed a hand over her chest.
And tried to understand the source of that feeling.
But her mind remained silent.
No images.
No memories.
No answers.
Only that disturbing sensation that she had come close to something incredibly important…
Only to lose it once again