The forest whispered that night.
Lilith's legs burned as she pushed through the thicket, the book clutched to her chest, its pages now full of writings she didn't remember writing. Each word pulsed like it had a heartbeat of its own.
And somewhere beyond the trees the lake waited.
The same lake from her dream. From the girl's warning.
The same lake her mother used to take her to as a child… or so she thought. But now? It felt like the lake had been waiting for her far longer than she'd known it existed.
She broke through the last line of trees, and there it was.
Still. Moonlit. Too quiet.
Lilith stepped closer, every part of her screaming don't but something inside pulled her. Not just curiosity. Something deeper. Like the lake had a piece of her, and it was time to take it back.
She knelt by the water's edge and opened the book.
The page turned on its own.
Page 136 – "The Night of the Bargain"
A new scene bled onto the paper.
She saw herself much younger barefoot and soaked, kneeling right here by the lake. Her mother behind her, holding something wrapped in black cloth.
"Do you want to forget?" her mother had asked.
"Yes," little Lilith said, crying.
"Then say it."
"I give you my memory, so I may no longer ache."
The moment froze on the page. A shadow rose from the lake in the drawing. A face with no features. Watching.
Lilith's hands trembled. "What did I do…?"
She looked up from the book and the lake was no longer still.
Ripples formed. But there was no wind.
And then… a voice echoed. Not spoken aloud. It hummed inside her chest like it came from the pages themselves.
"You remember too much now."
The water shifted, rising, curling at the edges like something beneath was pressing upward.
And then she saw her mother.
Standing in the water.
But she was wrong. Her eyes were hollow. Her smile didn't touch her face. And her arms stretched out, palms open, beckoning Lilith forward.
"Come home," she whispered.
Lilith stumbled back, heart racing. "You're not her. You're not her."
But the figure in the water only smiled wider, voice layered with dozens of echoes.
"You invited us in, Lilith. Now the Watchers want you to finish what you started."
The book burst into flame in her hands.
No heat. Just light. Blinding and white.
She dropped it, and when it hit the ground it was ash.
And behind her… twigs cracked.
Someone was watching.
Lilith turned slowly, and her heart stopped.
It was him.
The boy from the photographs.
The one always standing behind her in childhood pictures, who she thought was just a stranger in the background.
But now he was right here. Breathing. Real.
"I'm the one who helped you forget," he said softly. "But I can't protect you anymore."