Aeva’s hands were shaking against the steering wheel. Her heart rate was at least twenty over what it should be just sitting in the car. She tapped the screen, the phone mounted to the corner of the windshield.

"Reload, damn it," She grumbled under her breath, smacking on the screen until it cooperated. She couldn't afford to get into an accident. Aeva just needed it to work like an actual SMART phone for once.

You'd think with their name, they'd be better at doing what you meant them to do when you meant them to do it and not five minutes later - ugh. Another thing to complain about at a later date. She needed to focus on the road.

Lukas needed her right now.

... She really hoped he needed her, and that she didn't just forget he had a party or something. It wouldn’t be the first time. Even if he did, her worry needed confirmation to subside.

He was still in the same spot in the woods. His little icon hadn't moved an inch. Why? She was still at least two minutes away, and was speeding. Aeva didn't want to get pulled over, though if she did then she could have the officer come along to check on him, and if he WAS hurt, she could get him to help that much faster. Either way, there was no one on the road at that time of night. We lived in the middle of nowhere, so the streets basically rolled up at nine.

She was close. It was around the corner. She felt like her heart was going to burst out of her chest, adrenaline pumping, anxiety through the roof.

Go. Go. Go. Go. Go.

Pull off the road.

It said he was right here in the trees. She couldn't see his car, and she wasn't sure if that was a good sign or a bad one. If he didn't crash, he had to have parked somewhere. If he didn't... then, what? Did he walk here?

There was a small pullout, the sort that lets the slow car get off the road so everybody could actually pass them. Aeva stopped, got out, and fumbled with her phone with her shaky ass hands to turn the flashlight on.

The dim glow of her flashlight illuminated the haze and fog of the night. It was cold, and the air was damp from the drizzle of rain that seems to constantly hang over Oregon. She could remember the wetness that clung to her skin as clear as crystal. The phone’s light only let her see maybe five to ten feet further than she could already, and even then, it was only in the one direction, so usefulness was... mediocre at best. But Aeva had to work with what she had on hand.

Shorts weren’t the best decision Aeva made that night. Twigs and weeds clawed at her exposed skin as she trudged through the underbrush. The crunching under her feet came to a halt soon, as she came within the ring of his location. He was somewhere near here.

“Lukas?” She called out, voice threatening to crack and break, “Luke? It’s Aeva! Are you There? Luke?”

There was no answer. Of course, there wasn’t an answer. That’d be far too convenient and kind of the universe to just give her an answer from her damned brother. A few steps more and she saw a light ahead of her between the trees. All rationality escaped her mind and she fell into a dead sprint towards the source.

There he was on the floor of the forest, unconscious by the looks of it... but fuck she hoped he wasn’t dead. No. He had to be alive. She couldn’t accept anything else as an option. Her sprint turned into a scramble to a stop as she skidded to his side. Her knees would be torn to bits by the stones of the underbrush, and later perhaps that’d actually matter.

He was breathing.

She started to cry from relief, sobbing, and whimpering as she pulled his limp form into her arms. This relaxation in her heart was short-lived, however, as it finally dawned on Aeva that she didn’t pay attention to the light. The light, a possible threat, was now right in front of them.

Her eyes flitted up to meet its source.

While she was running towards it she thought it was the light of his phone’s flashlight or maybe his headlights or… something. She had it set in her mind that it was him. Now that she had two seconds to think about it more, though, none of that made sense. It was far too bright to be a phone, and there was no way to get a car in here without removing a heap of trees.

Her eyes focused on the form before her. It was a door, glowing a stunning blue, almost white light from its borders. No wall was attached to it. No foundation was under it. It simply existed out of place.

A gothic black doorway with white trim.

Aeva hugged her brother tighter, protective as she took in the sight of it. She didn’t know if this was what had hurt him. You could feel, or at least, she could feel, that it wasn’t of this world. Magic sure wasn’t a thing on Earth, and the only thing she could call this door was magical.

What was she supposed to do now? Her mind was blank. She didn’t know how to process any of this. To be honest, she froze. She knew she should have called the cops or an ambulance or anything. She knew she shouldn’t have gone alone into the woods.

The sound of twigs snapping behind them brought her mind whipping back into reality, and her eyes darted to the sound, her head turning so quick to the culprit that her neck protested with a twinge of pain.

Her gaze met that of another… a… thing. A creature.

Its form was hobbled and skinny, with skin like dirty porcelain. Cracks made a spider web of horrible mosaic sections… and its face… It had no eyes, no mouth, no features to speak of. As it came closer she could recognize it for what it was.

A mannequin.

Like something from a store that had been rotted and twisted into an abomination. A liquid, tar-colored substance dripped down its forearms and off its long fingertips.

Its neck creaked with an audible sound as its head lolled from the side to the front, then up straight to look at them. A chill ran down her spine as she watched, suspended with fear like a prey animal that knew it was caught. The cracks that marred and flaked away at its visage widened and split from one side as its maw stretched open, making itself a mouth where there was none previously.

It grinned, and a deep voice curled with chaos and dipped in echoes like it drew its sound from an old speaker spoke forth, “Oh...? And then there were two… Hello, little mare. So glad to have you join the party.”

The next thing she could remember was falling.