Chapter 224

Damon

The trees weren’t the same anymore.

The air was tighter.

And though neither one of us was Speaking of it, everyone around was scared. You could tell by just looking at them. You could tell that the silence that felt towards by the way they held their breaths, by the way everyone around seemed to be lurking about.

Nothing breathed like they used to. The forest, once alive with sound, chirps, rustling leaves, distant howls, was quiet now. Too quiet. As if nature itself was holding its breath. As if nature itself was preparing for the war that was now inevitable. As if they sensed what was going on around.

Even the ground felt wrong beneath my shoes. Like it remembered something we hadn’t lived yet. Like it saw something that we shouldn’t be seeing. Like it was living through a rough patch that shouldn’t be happening.

I stood at the edge of the eastern border, Carter to my right, Ethan a few paces behind. None of us spoke. Not at first.