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"I am!"

His face twists with effort.

"I can't!"

The entity reaches toward him. Not with hands. With darkness itself.

The room grows impossibly cold. Frost races across the windows. Halloween decorations outside begin activating one after another without power. Mechanical skeletons chatter. Inflatable ghosts jerk violently. Strings of orange lights flare bright enough to hurt my eyes. The entire town seems to respond.

I launch through the broken wall. The entity turns toward me. This time…

It smiles. Not because it's winning. Because it has forced me to choose. My son. Or the fight. It believes I can't do both. It doesn't know wolves.

I drive straight into it with every ounce of strength I possess. The collision tears another section of wall apart. Darkness explodes through the room like shattered ink. The entity reforms almost instantly. Still reaching. Always reaching.

Carys shoves Sayer behind her.

"No!"

She plants herself between them. The creature hesitates. Just for an instant. Recognition.

Again. It recognizes mothers too.

"Carys!" I shout.

"Move!"

"I won't!"

The entity changes direction. Not toward Sayer. Toward her. Its attention has shifted.

Because she understands it now. Because she remembers. Because recognition feeds it.

"Carys, don't look at it!"

She tears her gaze away just before another wave of visions crashes through the room.

The lights burst. Darkness swallows us. Only the carved pumpkins outside continue glowing through the shattered windows. Their grinning faces cast eerie orange light across the floor.

Enough.

We're fighting on its terms. We keep waiting. Reacting. Defending. And every encounter makes it stronger.

I slam both claws into the hardwood floor. My wolf surges forward with a roar that shakes dust from the ceiling. The sound isn't aimed at the entity. It's aimed at my family.

"Sayer!"

"Listen to your mother!"

He nods.

"Carys!"

Her eyes lock onto mine.

"Get him out of its reach!"

She doesn't argue. She grabs Sayer's hand and pulls him toward the kitchen. The entity follows. Good.