Chapter 6

Once every year, a silver unicorn appeared in the foggy woods outside the village. People said it brought good luck. Children left flowers for it. Hunters swore they saw its glowing white coat drifting between the trees like moonlight. One autumn, a girl named Elara followed the unicorn into the forest. The creature stood perfectly still beneath a dead oak tree. Its coat shimmered. Its horn gleamed like polished ivory. “You’re beautiful,” Elara whispered. The unicorn turned and walked deeper into the woods. She followed. The trees grew thicker. The fog swallowed the path behind her. Soon, the village lights vanished. The unicorn stopped beside a black pond. For the first time, Elara saw its reflection. The creature in the water wasn’t a unicorn. Its neck was too long. Its legs bent backward. Its face was stretched into a human-like grin packed with needle-thin teeth. The horn wasn’t ivory at all—it was a jagged bone protruding from its skull. Elara gasped. The unicorn’s reflection looked up at her. Then the real creature slowly turned its head. Its smile matched the one in the pond. “You weren’t supposed to see that,” it said. The voice sounded like dozens of people speaking at once. Elara ran. Branches clawed at her clothes. Something galloped behind her, impossibly fast. Every few seconds she heard its voice from a different direction. “Almost home.” “Almost safe.” “Almost.” She burst from the forest at dawn and collapsed in the village square. The villagers found her trembling and covered in mud. “What happened?” they asked. Elara pointed toward the woods. But there was nothing there except morning mist. She never spoke again. The next year, the silver unicorn returned. And this time, when the children left flowers at the forest’s edge, they noticed a new figure standing among the trees. A girl with pale skin and empty eyes. Smiling. Waiting beside the unicorn.