Chapter 41: The creature of the river
The creature descended a little further. It glided slowly, making no sound. It passed close to the bushes, its black mist brushing against the branches, which withered upon contact.
Then he turned, very slowly, towards the rock where they were hiding.
Rhys held his breath. The creature came to a halt. It didn’t look directly at them, but Rhys was certain it could sense their presence, that it knew something was hiding behind the rock.
One more second and it would find them.
Then an idea flashed through Rhys’s mind: run. Get out of hiding, lure the creature away, and distract it before it discovered the others.
Be the decoy.
His body was already beginning to tense, every muscle ready to propel himself into the undergrowth, when a barely audible sound made his skin crawl.
The rustling of leaves moved by something more than the wind, just behind him.
Rhys instinctively turned, his heart wrenching with urgency, and then he saw Eun-woo. He was running.
His silhouette glided through the trees, moving quickly away from the group, without looking back. The mist closed in around him, swallowing him up little by little. For a moment, Rhys couldn’t move.
He was going to sacrifice himself.