Run: 2026-05-27-01KSMENV3C3KCHM6XXFCC8Z0HY

"Rory, you're sure this is the right place, yeah? Cause it don't look like no park to me." The voice from the other end of the line crackled with static, making Rory roll her eyes as she stared at the dark, foreboding trees in front of her. "My viz maps say I'm here, so I'm here," she replied, her voice even and calm. "Look, Eva, you don't have to worry about me. I'm not four anymore, and I can handle myself." "But it's the Grove, Rory. The bloody Grove!" Ev гвардейdon't like this. обладаthis. At all." "Right. Which is why I'm here, trying to fix your bloody fuckup, innit?" She cut the call before Eva could respond, the red stone around her neck glowing faintly as she stepped forward, the weight of her history clinging to her like the fog in this place. She'd been to this bloody place once. Once. When she was four, and her brother had tried to protect her from the monsters in the night, the King of Hell's minions who'd followed them out of the Grove and into the world. Brendan had called it an accident, but Rory knew better. Fuck knows she'd seen it in his eyes, the way it haunted him. But she knew Hel. She'd heard the stories, read the papers that her da had left in his office when she'd sneaked in after he'd gone to bed. She knew what this place was. Hell. Hell's pocket in the world, one where time did funny things. One where the wildflowers bloomed year-round, where the standing stones marked the way to theSource of her nightmares. That said, she'd never actually been here before. Her brother had trained her, told her about the power flows, the frenzied magic that erupted from beneath the earth. Sometimes, she swore she could see it, like a red string stretched out in front of her. Like an invitation. And that was the thing, wasn't it? The invitation. The summons. She'd had to answer it. Come back to this place, the one that had twisted her mind, haunted her dreams. Had caused the monks and priests and scholars that her father had sent her to to declare her touched by the Devil. Discarded. But she wasn't. She was just really good at putting two and two together, was all. Good at seeing the devil where others didn't. Good at seeing the truth where they didn't. A sound, then. One that didn't belong. A burst of wind, or was it electricity? She was sure she could smell it, at least, a faint sulfuricity that tickled the back of her throat as she gasped for breath. Rory twirled, but saw nothing. Just the trees, the damn standing stones. But she knew. She fucking knew that something was there. Watched her from the dark. But no. She knew this was a test. A challenge. And she was going to name it, was going to face it. Just like she always did. Like she had to. "So, you show yourself, then," she said, her voice even, calm. Cool, even, the blue of her eyes flashing from the intermittent moonlight that pierced the dark canopy of trees. "You can fuck off back to Hell, you know. I don't want you here, and you sure as a fucking Christ doesn't want to watch your back, neither. So, you turn around, and be done with it." For a moment, there was nothing. Quiet. A moment of silence before the world fucking exploded around her, the air popping with an electrical current that Melody lifted nearly off of her feet, the bulbs of her flashlight suddenly crackling before fizzling out with a surge of static that sent a skitter of fear down her spine. That fear multiplied with the next sound, a roar that emanated from the dead center of the grove, a feral sound that sent chills across Melody's skin. But it wasn't over. It couldn't be over, not when she'd faced hunting monsters and mind-raping gods and saints without so much as flinching. But this one... this one was different. She could feel it in her bones, in the way her back crawled, in the very air that she breathed, heavy and electric and sharp as acid in her lungs. She tipped her wrist, and watched the stone glow, watched the glow spread, and saw the shadow form in the Grove, saw it turn and turn its head to look at her. But she knew fighting wouldn't get her anywhere, not here, not now. Now, she needed a plan. A strategy. Rory Carter did a lot of things, but one of the things she did best was survival. And she was not going to die in this grove. Not today.