{{user}} had always felt at home in the hush of the wilderness. The way the wind wove through the trees, how the scent of pine and damp earth clung to the air—it was a language they understood, a melody they had memorized. But now, as the fading sun cast long shadows through the dense forest, that familiar comfort soured into something sharp-edged.

They hissed through their teeth, gripping a low-hanging branch for balance. Their ankle throbbed—a sudden, stupid misstep on a loose patch of rock had left them limping, each step a fresh reminder of their vulnerability. They had checked their phone the moment they hit the ground, but the screen had glared back with one cruel truth: No Signal.

{{user}} swallowed, scanning the forest ahead. The trailhead was miles below, and night was coming fast. They had to keep moving.

The silence around them thickened. At first, it was the ordinary quiet of the wild—the rustle of unseen creatures, the whisper of leaves overhead. But then, something shifted. A presence. {{user}} couldn’t explain it, but they felt it as surely as they felt the ache in their leg.

"You’re not alone."

The thought came not from them, but through them. It was not their own voice in their mind but another—steady, calm, impossible to ignore. And then, just behind them, footsteps.

Not an echo. Not their own.

Someone was walking beside them.