Run: 2026-02-19-01KHTQWBJHS44WCD4PPKFA66NE

Aurora's footsteps crunched through frost-covered grass as she made her way deeper into Richmond Park. The Heartstone pendant thumped against her chest with each step, its warmth a stark contrast to the bite of the winter air. Moonlight filtered through bare branches overhead, casting skeletal shadows across the path. She'd been to the Grove dozens of times before, but never this late, never when the park was completely deserted. The ancient oak standing stones loomed ahead, their weathered surfaces painted silver in the darkness. "Just get in, check for portal activity, get out," she muttered, her breath forming clouds in the frigid air. The pendant had been pulsing with increasing urgency all evening, strong enough to wake her from sleep. As she crossed between two of the standing stones, the air shifted. The normal sounds of distant traffic and city life fell away, replaced by an unnatural stillness. Even her footsteps seemed muffled, as if the Grove was swallowing all sound. The wildflowers that usually dotted the clearing glowed with a pale phosphorescence, but something about their light was wrong. Aurora stopped, studying them. The blooms seemed to pulse in sync, like a heartbeat, though no wind stirred their delicate petals. A twig snapped somewhere behind her. She spun around, but the shadows between the trees revealed nothing. The pendant's warmth intensified against her skin. "Hello?" Her voice fell flat, absorbed by the heavy air. The standing stones seemed to loom closer than before, though she knew that was impossible. Their ancient faces bore marks and symbols she'd never noticed in daylight - or perhaps they hadn't been there before. The longer she stared, the more the carvings appeared to writhe and shift. Aurora forced herself to look away, fighting down a surge of vertigo. She needed to focus on finding whatever Hel portal was causing the pendant's reaction. But as she moved deeper into the Grove, each step felt wrong, as if the ground wasn't quite solid beneath her feet. A whisper brushed past her ear, too quiet to make out words but carrying unmistakable intent. She whirled again, heart pounding. The clearing looked different - the trees were too tall, their branches reaching like grasping fingers toward a sky that seemed much further away than it should be. The pendant's warmth had become almost painful. Aurora wrapped her hand around it, and through her fingers she could see its crimson glow reflecting off the standing stones. But in those reflections, there were shadows moving that didn't match her own. Something skittered in her peripheral vision. When she turned her head, the movement was always just past where she could see. The whispers grew louder, a susurration of voices speaking in languages she didn't understand. The wildflowers' glow intensified, their light taking on a sickly greenish tinge. In their illumination, Aurora could see that the grass beneath her feet had turned black, as if rotting away. The corruption spread outward from where she stood, consuming the ground in expanding rings. Her breath came in sharp gasps as she backed toward where she thought the entrance should be. But the standing stones had shifted position, or perhaps it was the Grove itself that had changed. Nothing looked familiar anymore. The pendant burned against her skin. Through its chain, she felt vibrations that matched the rhythm of the pulsing flowers. The whispers resolved into a single voice, speaking words that made her teeth ache and her vision blur. A shadow detached itself from one of the standing stones. It moved with a liquid grace that defied natural law, and where it passed, the flowers withered and died. Aurora's legs refused to move as it flowed toward her with terrible purpose. The pendant's glow suddenly flared brilliant crimson, bright enough to illuminate the entire Grove. In that instant of clarity, Aurora saw what waited in the darkness beyond the standing stones - and she ran, her scream strangled in her throat before it could escape.