CHAPTER 5: The Past's Shadows

In her cabin's dimly lighted living room, Selene sat by herself at the ancient wooden table. Long, spectral shadows were created across the weathered flooring by the lingering moonlight that seeped through the thin draperies. Her arm scar continued to throb subtly, a vague discomfort that never seemed to go away completely. She had been plagued by a persistent sense of dread ever since the weird meeting in the woods—an eerie presence that remained in the air, muttering things she didn't comprehend.

Leaning closer, she traced the edge of an old, worn box—one she had never opened before—that was hidden under her mother's antique trunk. She opened it with reluctant resolve and found a stack of fading letters, old photos, and dusty diaries. She gasped. What was this? What had prevented her from seeing them earlier?

Selene's fingertips brushed across a stack of yellowed papers as she rummaged through the contents; each one was adorned with bizarre symbols—complex, almost ancient runes—that she couldn't identify but that seemed strangely familiar. Her pulse accelerated. Something about these symbols beckoned to her, beckoning as if they had secrets that only she could discover.

With one of the letters in her hands, she hesitated. Her mother's handwriting, a blend of graceful curves and hasty scribbles, was used to write it. toward first, the words appeared unremarkable—about basic things and mountain life—but Selene's eyes widened toward the end. A line, added in a hurry, almost as an afterthought, as if it had been scrawled in a hurry:

"The wolves are always watching."

Selene's pulse accelerated as her brow wrinkled. Wolves? Why would her mother, who had led such a peaceful life, write to her about wolves? More significantly, what had prevented her from seeing this earlier?

She turned the pages, her fingers shaking, looking for more, anything that may help her find the answers. Then she discovered it, a faded picture that made her breath seize in her throat.

Three persons were seen standing next to each other. One was her youthful, glowing mother, who had a kind grin on her face. However, the two people next to her... They weren't even human.

They were wolves.

Huge animals, their eyes shining like polished amber, their fur shining in the moonlight. The wolves seemed to be protecting her mother as they stood beside her, their bodies almost merging into one another. At their feet was a weird sign, gleaming dimly in the moonlight, etched into the earth, the same thing she had seen previously.

Selene felt her stomach turn. Are wolves protecting her mother? What was this?

She approached another pile of documents—her mother's journals—after carefully tucking the picture under her jacket. Stories of her mother's nightmares, bizarre images of luminous eyes, and far-off howling that seemed to speak directly to her were all included inside the pages. Selene was particularly drawn to a recurrent motif, though: "The wolves protect what's hidden." They keep an eye on the old powers.

Selene glanced over the submissions, each one more eerie than the one before it. In her writing, her mother described feeling as if someone or something outside the woods was observing her. About hearing eerie screams from a distance and feeling their presence on her spirit like an encroaching shadow. She had never spoken about any of this to Selene; she had kept it all a secret.

"I don't... With her fingers clenched over the pages, Selene said, "I don't understand." "Why didn't she share any of this with me?"

She felt the burden of unresolved questions pressing down on her chest. Something that her mother had been concealing was so profound that not even her diaries dared to speak of it. Selene was aware that she needed to continue researching, figure out what the wolves meant, and discover what her scar really meant to her.

Selene got up and paced the room with a new feeling of intensity. The ancient, fading chart that was affixed to the wall caught her attention; it had always appeared so unimportant. However, it seemed to be pulsing with fresh significance now. The odd runes from the letters matched the marks on it, symbols carved into the corners. Underneath the surface lay a route, a way. A road that somehow drew her in.

Carefully, she grabbed for the map and pulled it down. The paths seemed to hum under her fingertips as she drew them. Then something strange occurred—a sharp spike in temperature raced through her scar, sparking again. As if responding to the map itself, it flashed, blazing dimly under her sleeve. For a minute, her eyesight became blurry, with luminous eyes hiding around every corner and shadowy people dancing in the background.

Selene shook her head to clear her throat and whispered, "No… no, not now." However, the feeling just became stronger rather than going away. As if her body were being drawn into something completely beyond of her control, her scar pulsed in time with the symbols on the map.

Her breath came in sharp spurts as she staggered backward, gripping her arm. "What's going on? What is this?

The light under her skin became brighter, a constant radiance from the scar, and then the room's shadows seemed to move once more, twisting and curling about the walls' borders. The air was filled with vague, hazy whispers, sounds that were not quite human.

"Selene..."

She turned and looked around the room. "Who is present?"

Low and relentless, the muttering went on, becoming louder every second. Her scar was searing with a new ferocity as a shudder crept up her spine. It was more than simply an echo; it was an old presence that was waiting.

In her palms, the map started to shake. And suddenly, with a snap, a deep, frightening growl roared from the shadows, low and booming.

Selene stopped. The roar became louder, reverberating through the air, and her heart pounded in her chest. Slowly, she turned, and a pair of luminous eyes stood just outside her field of view. Bright and penetrating, amber.

Wolves.

Not your typical ones. Their figures were distorted at the edges, and faint shadows shifted between flesh and spirit as they shimmered like black phantoms.

With a rising pulse, she stepped back and muttered, "Stay away."

They did not, however, relocate. They observed her instead, patient, unblinking, and full of something far older than time.

"I will not allow you to—" she began, her voice shaking.

The earth shook under her feet, softly at first, then more forcefully, before she could continue. As the glowing eyeballs drew closer and closer, shadows became darker in every part of the room and extended outward.

"Selene..."

The voice reverberated, deep and low, eerily familiar—and full of promise.

And suddenly the vision broke just when the tension was at its height. The wolves, whatever they were, disappeared as if they had never been there at all, the brightness in her scar dimmed, and the shadows disappeared.

Selene stood silently by herself, breathing laboriously. Even though the map crumpled in her hands, there was still a strong feeling that something old—something that was waiting—was there.

"What am I getting caught up in?" Her voice was almost heard as she whispered.

Then she

realized—it had started, whatever it was.

And it was on its way to her.