The next morning, Lilith stood at the edge of the lake. Same place where Lena vanished. Same place where the wind always seemed to whisper her name.
But this time, Lilith wasn't alone.
She had her father's flashlight. A notebook. A voice recorder. And inside her chest, a wildfire of rage and guilt and need.
She wasn't here to remember anymore.
She was here to confront.
She waded knee-deep into the water.
Cold, sharp, biting. But she kept going.
She reached the center of the lake where the stone once stood the one kids called "The Wishmaker's Throne." It was gone now, sunken beneath murky layers.
But the memory still burned.
"One stays. One goes."
That voice… it hadn't just belonged to the forest.
It had belonged to something else.
She closed her eyes and whispered into the wind.
"I'm here. I remember now. Take me instead."
Silence.
Only the water lapping at her knees. The sky, still. No voice. No answer.
But then...
A ripple.
Far out in the lake.
And then another.
And another.
Until the water stilled… and a figure slowly surfaced.
Not swimming.
Not floating.
Just rising.
Lilith's breath caught in her throat.
Long hair. Pale skin. Hollow eyes.
It was Lena.
Except… it wasn't.
The thing that wore Lena's face stood waist-deep in the lake, hands still, body swaying like reeds in the wind. Its lips didn't move, but Lilith heard the voice anyway,inside her skull, in her bones.
"You remembered too late."
Lilith stepped forward, fists clenched.
"I was a child. I didn't know what I was doing."
"But you wished anyway," the thing said, its voice splitting into two Lena's sweet tone layered with something ancient, jagged, inhuman. "You asked to be spared. And the woods obeyed."
"Then take me now. Let her go."
The thing tilted its head. Smiled but not kindly.
"There is no her left."
And that was when Lilith saw it.
The flesh along its arms, cracked like old porcelain. Pieces of skin falling away. Beneath it, not bone but bark. Roots. Dark water. As if the lake had hollowed out Lena's body and filled it with forest rot.
"I wore your guilt like a skin," the creature whispered. "But you buried it. And so I grew."
Lilith's hands trembled.
"What do you want from me?"
"You. Still. Owe."
The wind picked up.
Trees bent low.
The lake shimmered black as ink.
Lilith stumbled back, water up to her chest now. But before she could move farther, something grabbed her ankle beneath the surface.
Hard. Cold. Strong.
She screamed but the lake pulled harder.
Dragged her under.
And just before the darkness swallowed her, she saw them:
Eyes. Dozens of them. Watching. Waiting.
And a voice, softer this time, curling around her like a lullaby.
"One stays…"
She didn't remember how she got to shore.
She woke coughing water, mud in her hair, clothes soaked through.
But this time, she didn't cry.
She sat up slowly, teeth chattering, and looked out at the lake now still again. Almost peaceful.
She had been marked.
And she knew now, this wasn't just about Lena.
It was about the deal.
The one Lilith made.
And the price wasn't paid yet..