The tender wind bought sleep earlier that usual. Night had settled quietly around them.
The teens had found temporary shelter, with hand-made tents in an open space in the woodland, which sounded like a risk. But they didn't quite care. Their journey had drained them more than any of them cared to admit.
The United States was beautiful. But beauty did not mean safety.
Cole had been the last to fall asleep. He lay on his back staring up at stars as they claimed the night, listening to the distant hum of the year woodland.
Kevin was already snoring lightly.
Lenora slept with one arm folded under her head, the other resting on the Lupercalia's Artifact, to keep it in touch. Joyce leaned on her backpack, her eyes closed but her posture still guarded, like someone who never truly slept.
It was Midnight though and suddenly for some reasons, the wind began to rise. Cole noticed it first. A faint tapping started against the roof of the tent.
Then another.... And another — Rain. He exhaled slowly.
Finally, something normal.
But within minutes, the sound grew louder. Harder, soaking the tent, but it was still strong enough to stand it. Not the gentle rhythm of ordinary rain, but something sharper — something that struck surfaces with a strange hiss. Cole frowned.
A faint burning smell drifted in through the open part of the tent.
SSSSSSSS
The sound of something sizzling. Cole sat up.
"Guys," he muttered. Kevin didn't move.
The tapping became violent.
SSSSSSSS.
Lenora's eyes snapped open immediately.
"What is that sound?" she whispered.
Joyce was already standing. She gestured at them to keep quiet and she stepped closer to the open part of the tent, peering outside.
For a moment she said nothing. Then she whispered one word.
"Move."
Cole quickly rushed to the other side of the open part of the tent.
The rain struck every single thing outside, and every drop that touched the ground released thin trails of smoke. Kevin shot upright.
"Holy crap!" he said immediately. "No. No, that can't be normal rain."
The drops hit an old metal barrel outside and tiny white scars formed instantly across its surface.
No one did not quite know where Lenora got a dagger from but immediately she saw that, she grabbed a dagger from nowhere, "That's acid."
Kevin scrambled to his feet. "You're kidding."
"I wish I was."
Another drop struck the wooden part of the tent and the wood bubbled faintly.
Cole stepped back quickly. "We can't stay near the opening."
"Why on earth would acid rain fall in the forest by this time of the day?" Kevin was the one always asking questions.
The rain intensified, slamming against the ground like a thousand tiny knives.
For a moment, they thought the rain itself was the danger but they were wrong. The temperature inside the room dropped suddenly. A cold that had nothing to do with weather slid across the floor.
Joyce stiffened.
"Am sure you can feel that!"
Lenora nodded slowly.
"Yes."
Kevin rubbed his arms. "Why does it feel like a freezer just opened?"
... Then the shadows outside moved — Not like shadows should. They stretched across the rain-soaked ground… rising upward as if pulled by invisible strings.
Cole stepped toward the doorway. But Lenora was quick enough to pull him back.
"What is that?"
Through the curtain of falling acid rain, figures began to form. The heartbeat of the teens fastened and Lenora quickly grabbed the Lupercalia's Artifact closer to herself. At first they were just darker patches in the storm.
Then shapes.
Five of them.
Tall. Still. Silent.
They glided forward slowly.
Each one wore a long black cloak that swallowed the faint light of the Moon that had suddenly disappeared. The fabric hung heavy around their upper bodies, but beneath where their legs should have been — There was nothing except for only thick flowing black mist.
It twisted and curled like living smoke, never touching the ground, carrying them forward as though the earth itself refused to claim them.
Kevin swallowed.
"…Tell me ghosts can't hurt people. Ghost?!"
Lenora didn't look away from the door.
"Those aren't ghosts." She bravely sai, because it seemed they couldn't talk out of the tension of what they were seeing.
The figures stopped several feet away from the tent.
The rain fell straight through the black mist beneath their cloaks. One of them tilted its head, slowly.... Like it was studying them, looking for them.
Another lifted an arm, Not pointing. Not threatening — Just… acknowledging.
And in that moment, the air filled with a presence so heavy it pressed against their chests.
Cole felt it immediately. The same dark energy that had been following their quest from the beginning.
Joyce whispered quietly, "It's them . They found us."
Kevin blinked. "Is it a 'them' or a 'what'?" Joyce didn't answer.
The five figures drifted closer. The black mist beneath them swirled faster now, curling across the ground like living shadows.
A faint whispering sound began to echo around the forest.
Not voices, Not words — Just a low, unnatural murmur that crawled into the corners of the tent.
Lenora stepped forward, dagger raised. She had to..Her voice was steady.
"We're not giving you anything." The figures did not react. But the whispering grew louder.
One of them slowly extended its hand toward Cole. That was when everything exploded into motion.
Kevin's eyes flashed first. His pupils sharpened, the faint glow of something unnatural flickering behind them. His teeth lengthened slightly as his body shifted into its half-supernatural form. He didn't actually knew how he did it. It was more like an instinctual move.
"Alright," he muttered. His voice was deep and more edible "I hate creepy cloaked things."
Joyce changed next. The transformation was smoother, quieter. Her movements became faster, sharper, her presence suddenly carrying the cold grace of something not entirely human. Lenora didn't transform. She simply tightened her grip on the dagger and stepped into a fighting stance.
On the other hand, Cole was on the ground, yelling screaming. He wasn't trying to transform but his supernatural form was forcing it's way out, just like it did in his first transformation. He clenched his fists. Focused, reaching for the power that had answered him before.
The supernatural force that lived somewhere inside him but nothing happened. Panic flickered in his chest.
Again. He tried again. Still nothing, just pain and screams
Kevin noticed immediately. "Cole," he said quietly.
Cole's jaw tightened.
"I'm trying..."
Outside, the five cloaked figures began drifting forward.
The black mist beneath them spilled through the doorway like creeping smoke. The whispering turned into a rising, chaotic hum.
Joyce stepped beside Cole. Her voice low.
"Then we hold them off until you can."
Lenora twirled the dagger once. Kevin cracked his knuckles. The dark figures crossed the threshold.
And under the burning rain of the night sky, the real quest had finally begun.