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I stumble. Sayer catches me.

"What did you see?"

Suddenly, I remember. Not everything. Not clearly. But enough. The hospital. The moonlight through the window. The nurse who whispered something strange. The feeling that something was wrong before anyone told me. And a promise. A promise I made when I thought I was losing him. Not to abandon him. Never.

The entity didn't create the connection. It exploited it. It attached itself to the grief of a mother who believed she had lost her child. A mother who never got to say goodbye. My eyes burn.

"Sayer."

He waits.

"I think I know why it chose you."

The entity shifts closer. Rhett struggles against it. I step forward.

"No."

Sayer grabs my hand.

"Mom?"

The word still catches me every time. Not because it feels wrong. Because it feels like something stolen that finally came back. I squeeze his fingers.

"It wasn't because you were connected to it."

The entity stops.

"It was because I was."

Sayer's face changes.

"No."

"Listen to me."

I turn toward the darkness. For 15 years, I have been afraid of the things I don't remember. The missing pieces. The blank spaces. The unanswered questions. But maybe the answers weren't hidden because they were impossible. Maybe they were hidden because they hurt. The entity moves. I don't.

"Carys!"

Rhett's warning cuts through the clearing. I hear him. I understand him. And I ignore him.

Not because I don't trust him. Because this is my part. The monster wants a mother who is afraid.

A mother who believes she failed. A mother who will let it define what happened. It chose the wrong woman.

I step closer. The cold hits me immediately. Memories begin forcing their way into my mind. Pain. Loss. Grief. All the emotions it has been feeding on. But beneath them…

Something else. Love. The one thing it cannot understand.

"I remember you."

The entity freezes. Not Sayer. Me.

"I remember wanting you."

The darkness twists.

"I remember fighting for you."