The forest wasn't quiet anymore.
Not the way it used to be.
The branches didn't just sway they watched. The wind didn't whisper it warned. Lilith stood at the edge of the trees, flashlight in one hand, her mother's photo clutched in the other. She wasn't the girl who went to Camp Blackwood to heal.
She was the girl who came back to end it.
"You shouldn't go alone," her mother had pleaded that morning, eyes wet with guilt.
"I went in a child," Lilith had answered. "I'm coming out as what they made me."
And she left.
Without turning back.
The path to the lake looked the same, but it wasn't.
There were no birds. No insects. Even the wind seemed to hold its breath. Every crunch beneath her boots echoed like footsteps following hers.
Then came the laughter.
Childlike. Hollow. Cruel.
Lena's voice.
"Come find me, Lilith…"
She didn't run. Not this time.
At the lakeside, fog curled like fingers around her ankles.
And then, it rose.
A shape from the water.
No, not one. Three.
One wore Lena's face, lips curled in mockery.
One was faceless, a mass of dripping shadow.
And the third,Lilith almost dropped her flashlight
It wore her face.
But not as she was now.
As she'd been the summer she made the wish.
Innocent. Desperate. Afraid.
"You wanted this," it said in her own voice.
"You gave us the names."
"We only came to collect."
Lilith shook her head. "You lied to me. You promised she'd live."
"We kept that promise," the Lena-thing said with a grin.
"We gave her breath… but not her soul."
The three stepped closer.
"And now… it's your turn."
The lake behind them bubbled. A vortex of dark water opened like a mouth.
Lilith stepped back and then stopped.
Because she wasn't afraid anymore.
Not of them.
Not of the truth.
And not of herself.
She reached into her jacket and pulled out the old pendant.
Her mother's. A relic from the camp days. The one Agatha told her never to touch.
But now, Lilith understood.
It wasn't protection.
It was a seal. A lock.
And she had the key kk herself.
"You bound them once," she whispered.
"Now I'm going to do it right."
The air snapped. The wind howled. The lake shrieked.
The shadows lunged
But Lilith shouted a name.
Her full name.
Her true name.
The one only the woods and her mother knew.
"Lilith Aduna, daughter of Agatha, blood of the binding, soul of the oath..."
A blinding light erupted from the pendant.
The lake screamed.
The shadows burned.
And her past , her guilt , her fear
vanished.
When the light faded, Lilith collapsed to her knees.
The lake was calm.
The laughter was gone.
Only the real Lena remained, crumpled at the water's edge, blinking in confusion.
Alive. Whole.
Lilith helped her up without a word.
The trees swayed gently now. Like a thank you.
They walked out of the forest together this time, not looking back.