It began with a twitch.
Maya's fingers moved.
Bhavna gasped, rushing to her side.
"Maya? Maya—can you hear me?"
Maya's lips parted, her eyes fluttering. Her breath stuttered as though trying to sync back with her body. Her gaze darted around—disoriented, foggy, panicked.
"Where… what is… Arjun?"
Bhavna touched her shoulder. "It's okay. You're safe. We found you."
Rana turned. "She's waking. Good."
Maya blinked, slowly registering faces. Rix. Tarun. Bhavna. And then Arjun, sitting quietly nearby, watching her.
She exhaled in relief.
But she hadn't even had time to speak—
When it happened.
A sound.
From deep in the forest.
Not close.
Not far.
Just… wrong.
It started low, like growling metal, and rose in pitch to a grinding, throaty screech. It wasn't like the mimic from the cave. This one didn't imitate anything human.
It was pure beast.
Instinct kicked in.
"Hide!" Rana ordered.
Within seconds, the group scrambled behind a giant fallen branch nearby, thick and hollowed by rot. Just a few meters from the clearing, it offered some cover—barely.
They ducked. Held their breath.
The jungle split open.
It moved so fast they didn't even see it approach—just a streak of grey fur, a blur of limbs, a gust of air—
And then it was there.
Massive.
Monstrous.
A creature shaped like a wolf, but towering—twice the size of a man, its back arched, bones like blades under its skin. Its snout was long and full of black teeth, curved backward. Its limbs were too long, and its eyes weren't animal—they were focused. Cold. Old.
It looked like a wolf that had evolved to hunt nightmares.
And before anyone could scream—
It lunged.
Its jaw opened wide and clamped onto the middle-aged man lying in the clearing. One bite. Gone.
Then the young woman.
Then the child.
Then the teen boy holding him.
One by one.
No hesitation.
No struggle.
Each body snatched, crushed, devoured, all in under ten seconds.
Blood sprayed.
Cloth tore.
Bones cracked.
It happened so fast, none of them behind the branch even moved. They couldn't. Their bodies wouldn't allow it.
Then—
The creature stood still.
Snout lifted.
And it howled.
The sound tore through the forest like a shockwave. High. Sharp. Endless.
The birds fled. The wind stopped.
And then, just as suddenly—
It turned and vanished, sprinting into the trees, kicking dirt and blood behind.
Gone.
Only silence remained.
Tarun was shaking violently.
Rix was frozen, his mouth open.
Bhavna had a hand clamped over Maya's mouth, who had just seen her fellow survivors ripped apart in seconds.
No one spoke.
No one moved.
Ten minutes passed.
It felt like forever.
Then, slowly, Tarun began to crawl forward, toward the edge of the branch.
He raised his head, eyes wide with hope.
"Maybe it's gone," he whispered.
Rana grabbed his shoulder and yanked him back.
"No."
He pointed two fingers to his eyes, then the jungle. "Watch."
He picked up a small stone and tapped it twice against the branch's hollow shell. A light, careful clack-clack.
Then waited.
Nothing.
And then—
A shape rose on the other side of the branch.
A massive head.
Yellow eyes.
Matted grey fur.
Its mouth dripping blood.
A piece of a leg—barely attached to a torn, twitching foot—hung from between its teeth.
It didn't snarl.
It didn't growl.
It just stared through the branches.
Right at them.
Tarun's soul left his body for a moment. His hands went cold.
Bhavna clutched Maya tighter.
Even Rana was still—his hand slowly reaching for the knife at his belt.
The beast didn't move yet.
It knew someone was there.
It was just deciding how to get them.