r fully dissipate. The streets were eerily quiet, the usual bustle of townspeople hurrying to their daily tasks muted by the thick air. Luke stood at the edge of the town square, his boots crun

savage claws, their insatiable hunger. But the more he heard, the more the stories seemed to blur with reality. These weren't mere creatures of legend. They were something else, something far darker. Something that had been waiting, hidden for centuries, until the time had come to strike. The town was on the edge of collapse, teetering between hope and fear. And Luke knew that if the beasts weren't stopped soon, Eldergrove would be lost forever. But it wasn't just the town that was in danger. It was Mary. Mary had been a part of Luke's life since childhood. He had grown up beside her, watching her from afar, his heart swelling with a love that he had never dared to speak. She was beautiful, strong, independent, everything Luke admired. But she had never looked at him the way he had looked at her. She had always been promised to another. Andrew, the son of a neighboring family, had always been the one to capture her attention. He was bright, charismatic, and everything Luke was not. Andrew was everything Luke could never be, and that had always been his greatest fear. But everything had changed the night Mary's parents were killed by the beasts. Mary had been shattered by the loss, her world upended in an instant. She had joined the Shadows, swearing revenge on the creatures that had torn her family apart. She had become a warrior in her own right, learning the dark arts to fight the beasts. And Luke, despite his feelings, had always stood by her, silent, distant, watching from the shadows. He had never told her how he felt, never found the courage to say the words that burned in his chest. He had always believed that she belonged with Andrew, that he would never be enough to win her heart. But now, everything was different. Now, there were beasts in the woods, and they were coming for everyone. Luke couldn't ignore the call to protect his town any longer. And as the day of reckoning approached, he knew that he would have to face not only the beasts but also his own heart. As he looked over the town, the weight of the situation settling over him, Luke could feel the tension in the air, the electric pulse of a storm that was ready to break. Eldergrove would never be the same again. And neither would he. Luke's mind wandered, lost in the gravity of it all. The deaths, the disappearances, the growing fear, it had all blurred together into a looming storm. It was no longer just the stories from his childhood, or the whispers from the elders at the tavern. It was happening now. In front of him. In his town. And he couldn't ignore it anymore. The heavy air around him seemed to thicken, the weight of the town's fear pressing down on his chest like an invisible hand. He took a deep breath and began walking toward the edge of the square, his boots echoing in the silence. The tension between the factions, the Calvary and the Shadows, was palpable. It hung in the streets like a fog, thick and suffocating. Each side had their own methods, their own approach to solving the problem, but no one had come close to finding the answer. No one had come close to stopping the beasts. Luke's gaze fell on the town's cemetery, where rows of headstones lined the hill. It was an unspoken tradition for the families of the lost to bury their dead there, even though the bodies were often little more than unrecognizable remains. There was no proper funeral, no ceremony, only grief. And the unanswered question of what exactly was out there, in the woods, waiting for them. His hand rested on the hilt of his sword, a comforting reminder of the discipline he had spent years honing. It was his duty to protect, his duty to fight. But it was also his responsibility to know when to accept help. And right now, he couldn't help but wonder if the Calvary alone would be enough to win this war. Would it be enough to save Mary? He clenched his jaw, the thought of her pushing through the storm inside him. It wasn't just the beasts that haunted his mind, but her. Mary had always been a presence in his life, whether he was watching her from a distance or walking beside her on those rare occasions when they shared a quiet moment. He'd admired her strength, her beauty, the way she carried herself. And when her parents had been taken, her transformation had been nothing short of breathtaking. Mary had joined the Shadows