Side Story 4.79 - Breaking Tradition

Jhoanna's POV

The darkness swallowed me whole.

It wasn’t just the absence of light—it was something deeper, something that wrapped around my body like ice-cold chains, dragging me into the void.

For a brief, terrifying moment, I felt weightless, disconnected from everything.

Then—pain.

A sharp, searing pain shot through my skull, forcing my senses to snap back into focus. My knees hit the ground hard, my vision blurring as I gasped for breath. The air was thick, heavy, filled with something sickly and rotten.

Hans’ voice cut through the haze. “Jhoanna!”

I forced my eyes open. The clearing was no longer a clearing. 

The tree had changed. Its gnarled branches stretched out like skeletal