Ethan stretched his soul sense outward again, but this ti, instead of expanding it in all directions, he focused it like a thread, pushing toward a single point.
To his surprise, doing so increased his range. Like stretching dough, his awareness extended farther and farther, until he reached a spot that felt… different.
This was it.
The forest behind the village was made up of perfectly aligned trees. Not naturally grown—planted.
By their spacing, there should have been another tree standing in the spot he was sensing.
"We should check it out," Ethan said.
He must have gotten so clue. The others shared the sa thought as they followed him into the dense woods.
They walked for about five hundred ters before Ethan suddenly stopped. He knelt, running his fingers over the base of a tree stump, a stump that had been cleanly cut.
"Do you guys rember what kind of trees we saw when we first got near the village?" Ethan asked, standing up.
"Mostly cypress, I think," Victor replied.
Ethan nodded. "Sa. But look around. This part of the forest is full of redwoods. And these trunks… they must be at least sixty years old, right?"
The others exchanged uncertain glances.
What was he getting at?
Williams studied the trees and guessed, "Sixty, maybe seventy years."
Ethan swept his soul sense over the nearby trees, then said, "Sixty-three to sixty-four, to be exact."
He pointed at the stump. "And this one? It was cut down at nineteen or twenty years old."
Leo knelt and counted the rings. "Yeah, nineteen. So what?"
"Rember the newest house in the village? Doe ntioned that building was the last one constructed before the village was abandoned."
The group nodded.
Ethan continued, "The only redwoods we’ve seen are in this section of the forest. And what was that house built from?"
Realization dawned on them.
"The roof beam…" Celeste muttered.
Ethan nodded. "Exactly. The eighth knife mark wasn’t the last—it was the first. Soone carved it into the bark while the tree was still standing."
The weight of his words sank in. That ant—
"…That tree was a hanging tree," Leo said, his voice low. "Soone died there, and then they chopped it down to build a house. And if there really was a ghost attached to it…"
"It would have haunted the house," Victor finished grimly. "And killed everyone inside."
Ethan sighed. "If ghosts exist, then yeah. That’s exactly what happened."
At that mont, Celeste abruptly raised a hand for silence.
Everyone followed her gaze.
Doe whispered in shock, "No way… It’s never shown up this many tis before."
The Shadow Lynx had returned. It perched on a low branch, not far from them, staring.
Not at the group. At Ethan.
The others exchanged uneasy glances. Was it appearing over and over because of him?
Leo reflexively reached for his gun, but Celeste grabbed his wrist, shaking her head. They had spent half the night chasing dead ends, maybe this creature was the only real clue they had.
Ethan could tell that was what everyone was thinking, but that didn’t make the situation any less unsettling.
The group and the lynx remained locked in a silent standoff.
Then, out of nowhere, soone kicked Ethan. He stumbled forward, catching himself before falling. Whipping around, he saw the rest of the group staring back at him, feigning innocence.
’One of these bastards just kicked .’
His eyes landed on Leo, who just shrugged.
Definitely Leo.
Ethan glared. Leo made a gesture of innocence, as if to say, ’Wasn’t !’
The lynx tensed at the sudden movent, its body coiling, but then, when it saw that it was Ethan stepping forward, it stopped.
It just watched.
Ethan swallowed hard. He took another step forward.
Leo turned to Victor and whispered, "Man, you are cold-blooded."
Victor smirked. "It’s not like I have to take the bla anyway."
"…You," Leo muttered, suppressing his annoyance.
Ethan ignored them and focused on the lynx, his heart pounded as he took slow, careful steps toward it. When he was about five or six ters away, the lynx suddenly leapt from the tree.
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The group tensed, ready to fight, but it didn’t run.
Instead, it walked. Straight toward Ethan.
Ethan froze. Telling himself he wasn’t scared would be a lie.
The lynx circled him once, sniffing at his legs, then glanced at the rest of the group. Then, suddenly, it spun around and took a few steps away.
It paused, turned back and motioned with its head. Obviously it wanted them to follow.
Ethan turned to the group. Celeste nodded in response and so they followed. The lynx led them straight to its usual disappearance point. It paused there, glanced at them one last ti, then, without hesitation, it lunged forward and slamd headfirst into the base of a massive redwood.
The instant its body touched the bark, it vanished.
Gone.
Ethan blinked in shock. He hurried forward, pressing his hands against the tree.
Nothing. It was just a normal redwood. Solid. Rough. Completely ordinary. The others arrived seconds later. Ethan tried sweeping his soul sense over the tree.
Still nothing.
"…What the hell?" he muttered.
The lynx had led them here again, only to disappear without a trace. What was it trying to tell them?
The group looked at each other, frustration written across their faces.
Then—
"Is it just leading us in circles?" Leo muttered.
The mont he said it, a hissing sound ca from behind them. They spun around and saw the figure of the Shadow Lynx.
It had sohow materialized behind them without a single sound. And it looked pissed.
Its lips curled back, baring sharp fangs, eyes narrowing at Leo. Its tail lashed once, twice.
The realization hit them all at once. It had heard him.
"Shit," Leo whispered.
For a long, tense mont, the lynx just stared at him, growling softly. Leo, to his credit, took a step forward, lifting his submachine gun. "Look, you little—"
The lynx’s expression changed. It was subtle, but clear. A look of pure disdain.
Leo blinked. "Did… did this thing just look down on ?"
Before he could say anything else, a scent filled the air. It was a familiar scent.
Wood smoke. Cooking fires.The scent of a al being prepared In a village that had been abandoned for over fourty years.
The group turned toward the village and saw sothing that should not have been possible.
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