Side Story 4.85 - A Doorway?

Liliana's POV

The morning after the bleeding and the creeping and the not-sleeping, I thought things might finally feel normal again.

They didn’t.

Mama made pancakes. Papa hummed while fixing the squeaky back door hinge. Johanis flung syrup packets at me like they were ninja stars. Everything looked right. But my chest still had that buzz. That weird little whisper, like the wind was waiting to say something again.

After breakfast, Papa said we could go outside—"just around the house, not far, stay where I can hear you"—so of course we went to the woods.

The trees behind the pack mansion were supposed to be safe. That’s what Mama always said. They were our trees. Guarded. Watched. The boundary spells shimmered faintly in the light like stretched spiderwebs, and Johanis dared me to to