Lucas reluctantly agrees to go with Lea. As they step out from his house into the quiet, dimly lit street, a shiver of doubt runs through his mind. The darkness seems thicker tonight, each shadow casting an eerie depth that heightens his suspicion. He questions why he didn’t just call the police, why he felt compelled to follow a stranger with a story that sounds increasingly improbable.

  The silence between them grows, with Lea walking a few steps ahead with a small light, her figure barely visible in the night. Each step feels heavier, each glance around a reminder of the unknown path he’s stepping into. Yet, despite the voice in his head urging caution, he continues, drawn into a current of mystery that he can’t quite resist.

  The path is narrow, flanked by towering trees whose branches weave together above.A sliver of moon hangs low in the sky, casting only a faint, silvery glow that struggles to penetrate the thick branches overhead. The dim light barely illuminates the narrow trail, leaving Lucas to rely more on his instincts than his sight. The forest hums with life, filling the silence between them with unsettling sounds—the distant howl of wolves, the rustle of unseen creatures moving through the brush, and the constant chirping of insects that only seem to grow louder with each step.

  As they press deeper into the woods, Lucas can’t shake an unsettling feeling. The path grows darker and narrower, yet Lea seems completely unaffected by the shadows and sounds surrounding them. She moves with steady confidence, as if this trail is familiar to her, untouched by the fear her own story should have inspired.

  Lucas trails behind, his mind racing with questions. The air is thick with tension, yet Lea seems unbothered, unburdened by the horror she described only hours earlier. His fear grows, not from the darkness around them but from the woman in front of him, whose composure feels both unnatural and unnerving. Each step stirs a new doubt, an unanswered question. Why does she seem so at ease? And why, despite his instincts telling him to turn back, does he continue to follow her deeper into the unknown?

  After what felt like an eternity of silence, shadowed steps through the forest, Lucas finally glimpsed something through the dim moonlight—a shape lying still on the ground. The silence pressed around them, broken only by the distant rustle of leaves and the occasional howl in the distance, an eerie symphony that heightened his unease. Lea, walking just a pace ahead, suddenly stopped, her eyes fixed on the figure sprawled across the forest floor.

  Lucas felt the weight of the night close in on him, confusion and doubt swirling within. Lea’s husband lay there, pale and unmoving, his face concealed by shadows, a sight both unsettling and oddly surreal. Lucas found himself rooted in place, unable to look away, yet paralyzed by a strange reluctance to move closer.

  Before he could gather his thoughts, Leah’s demeanor shifted. Her controlled, determined expression fractured, giving way to trembling hands and a voice edged with desperation. “He’s alive. He has to be,” she choked out, tears beginning to streak her face. In an instant, she was on her knees beside him, cradling her husband’s face, her voice rising into a frantic plea.

  “Please, help me carry him somewhere safe. We can’t leave him here... your house, it’s close.” Her words hung heavy in the night air, and for a long moment, Lucas hesitated, his instincts warning him to pull back. He looked down at the lifeless form, sensing that whatever life remained in Lea’s husband was slipping away, if it hadn’t already. Everything about the situation felt wrong, but her desperate eyes, the panic breaking through her voice, pressed on him, leaving him with little room to refuse.

  Lucas felt a surge of unease rise within him. “I should call the police or an ambulance,” he said, pulling his hand instinctively into his pocket. “When we get to the street, we can rush him to the hospital.” But as his fingers searched, his heart dropped—his phone wasn’t there. He searched again, patting down his coat, hoping he’d simply missed it, but it was nowhere to be found. He must have left it back at his house... or lost it somewhere along the way.

  “Please,” she whispered, gripping his arm tightly, “we don’t have time. Can we just get him to your house?”With no other choice left and the unsettling realization that they were completely alone out here, Lucas reluctantly nodded. He bent down, lifting her husband’s limp body onto his shoulder, his mind racing as they began the slow, silent walk back through the forest, deeper into the unknown.

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  Lucas struggled under the weight of the man’s body, each step feeling longer and heavier than the last. His mind buzzed with strange and uneasy thoughts, heightened by Lea’s shifting behavior beside him. She walked in silence, yet her calmness seemed out of place, adding to his growing sense of dread. With confusion swirling and fear gripping him tighter with every step, Lucas finally reached his house, unsure of what he was bringing inside.

  As they finally stepped inside his dimly lit house, Lucas gently lowered Lea’s husband’s body onto the floor. The man lay motionless, his pale face and limp form suggesting he might already be gone. Lucas glanced at Leah, expecting to see grief or desperation—but instead, there was an odd, almost relieved expression softening her face. The subtle shift in her demeanor felt unsettling, as if the tension had lifted for her in some unspoken way. The strange calm in Lea’s eyes left Lucas uneasy, a creeping sense of suspicion beginning to cloud his thoughts.

  After a brief pause, Breaking the silence, he turned to her, his voice cautious yet direct. "Lea... he looks like he’s already dead. Don’t you think we should call an ambulance and the police?"

  Lea’s eyes shifted, barely meeting his, and Lucas's unease grew. “Is he… really your husband?” he pressed, his tone growing firmer, each word carefully measured. “Or is there something else going on here that you’re not telling me?”

  For a brief moment, her expression faltered, and Lucas could see a shadow of something he couldn’t place—fear, perhaps, or something more calculated. The questions multiplied in his mind, each one feeding a rising suspicion that he was now entangled in something he didn’t fully understand.

  As Lucas’s questions hung in the air, Lea gave no response, her expression unreadable. She barely looked his way, her gaze fixed instead on the body lying motionless on the floor. The silence pressed down on him, making him uneasy. He felt a surge of frustration. If Lea wouldn’t answer, he needed to take action himself. Recalling that his phone was missing, he remembered a backup he kept tucked away in his bedroom. With a quick, uncertain glance at Lea, he excused himself under the pretense of looking for something useful.

  Moving down the dim hallway, the weight of everything that had just happened began to settle in. His mind raced with questions and doubts—none of this felt right. As he reached his room, he began searching drawers and shelves, shuffling through the odds and ends he barely noticed on a regular day. His hands were shaking, his heartbeat thundered in his ears.

  After rummaging through various drawers and finally finding the old, dusty phone tucked away in a corner, Lucas’s fingers trembled as he powered it on. He felt a wave of urgency, almost desperation, propelling him back toward the living room.

  He hurried down the hallway, his heart racing, ready to dial for help and get answers. But as he stepped into the room, he froze. The space was empty except for the lifeless body on the floor. Lea was gone, leaving only a lifeless body sprawled on his living room floor, and he felt the walls closing in.

  The house, once a quiet refuge, now felt like a trap—a place that had gone from stillness to chaos with Lea’s sudden disappearance. He was the only one left with this stranger’s body, no witnesses, and not a trace of proof that Leah had ever been there. He tried to steady himself, but every logical thought slipped away. Desperate to make sense of it, he turned and bolted out the front door, scanning the yard, the street, even the shadowed edges of his property. No sign of her.

  He called her name into the darkness, his voice swallowed up by the night, but there was nothing. Only the stillness, an unsettling silence that hung over him like a fog. He searched around, peering into the shadows, the trees, looking for any hint of her retreating figure, any proof that she’d even been there at all.

  But there was nothing. Just the quiet, and the overwhelming realization that he was alone—left with only questions and a body that he could not explain.

  As Lucas stood in the dim light of his living room, the gravity of the situation crashed down on him. The lifeless body of Lea's husband lay on the floor, and the absence of Lea sent a fresh wave of panic through him. Where had she gone?

  For a fleeting moment, the thought of calling the police flashed through his mind. But then, as he stared at the still form before him, a chilling memory surfaced from the depths of his past. He recalled a time when he had been entangled in a criminal investigation, the weight of suspicion heavy on his shoulders. Despite the lack of evidence, the fear of being branded a suspect had haunted him for years. It was the very reason he had moved to this remote house, seeking solace away from prying eyes and old memories.

  I can’t go through that again. The realization struck him like a cold dagger. If he called the police now, they would see only what was in front of them: a man alone with a dead body. He was the only suspect, and without any proof of his innocence, the past could resurface. The police would reopen old wounds, and he would be dragged back into the nightmare he had fought so hard to escape.

  He took a deep breath, feeling the panic clawing at his throat. No, he had to handle this himself. He had to find a way to deal with the body without involving anyone else. He couldn’t risk it; he wouldn’t let his past define him again.

  With grim determination, he knelt beside the body, formulating a plan. I need to act fast. The shadows of the room loomed over him, but in that darkness, he found a spark of resolve. He would do whatever it took to ensure that no one ever discovered what had happened here.

  As he glanced around, the silence felt oppressive, suffocating, but he steeled himself for the task ahead. This is just the beginning. Lucas knew he was treading a dangerous path, but there was no turning back now.

  To be continued...