Chapter 4 ECHOES IN THE DEAD ZONE
CHAPTER 4: ECHOES IN THE DEAD ZONE
IRIS’S POV
“Iris, you need to calm down, okay?”
Lyra’s voice cuts through the fog in my head like a sharp blade.
“There is nobody here except us,” she continues, her words tumbling out quickly, breathless with panic. “And you’ve been here for only God knows how long. I was searching for you and you just vanished. Do you want to give me a heart attack? Like, what the hell is going on?”
I stand where I am, frozen in place.
My eyes are wide, unfocused, darting through the trees. My grin feels strange—fuzzy, like my brain hasn’t quite caught up with reality yet.
I turn slowly in a circle, scanning the forest.
The trees.
The shadows.
The empty clearing.
I definitely wasn’t imagining that.
Lyra looks at me like I’m unraveling right in front of her.
She moves quickly, stepping around me and planting herself directly in my line of sight, blocking my view of the woods as if she’s trying to physically force my attention back to reality.
“Iris,” she says more softly now.
Her hands come up, one on each side of my head. Her palms are warm against my temples as she gently tilts my face so I’m forced to look straight into her eyes.
Her expression is tight with worry.
Deep worry.
The kind that makes your stomach twist.
“I don’t know what is going on with you,” she says quietly, studying my face as if searching for signs of damage. “Maybe it's because of those stupid fantasy books you keep reading.”
She gestures nervously toward the forest around us.
“No. This is why they call it the Dead Zone. This is why teachers have warned us a thousand times never to come here.” Her voice tightens. “We need to leave. Right now, Iris. We are literally standing in a place we’re not supposed to be.”
Her fingers press slightly firmer against my temples.
“So please,” she says, her voice trembling now, “let’s just go.”
“No, Lyra. No.”
My voice shakes as the words leave my mouth.
I gently push her hands away and step around her, moving deeper into the forest again.
The air feels colder here.
Still.
Wrong.
I glance left.
Then right.
He was here.
He was right here.
“I mean… I saw it,” I say, my words stumbling over each other as my thoughts scramble for order. “They were—there were people. Cloaked people. And there was this guy who… he…”
My voice trails off as my hands begin moving instinctively, gesturing helplessly in the air.
“I don’t know how to explain it,” I say breathlessly. “It’s confusing. There were witches—I mean, I think they were witches—and they were throwing these things. Energy. Violet and black and red. And then there was this guy and he…”
My chest rises and falls faster.
“He turned into a wolf.”
The words sound ridiculous even as they leave my mouth.
But I keep going.
“And then I saw him,” I whisper.
My voice softens, my gaze drifting somewhere far away as the memory flashes through my mind again.
“He pulled me away. He grabbed me. He looked at me and then he held me and…”
I stop.
The words die in my throat.
My eyes fall to the forest floor.
Because suddenly I realize how insane I must sound.
To anyone else, it probably sounds like I’ve completely lost my mind.
But I know I haven’t.
I know what I saw.
Slowly, cautiously, I lift my head and look at Lyra.
Her reaction tells me everything.
She’s standing several feet away now, staring at me like I’ve just started speaking in another language.
Her eyes are wide.
Her lips are slightly parted.
It’s the exact expression you give someone when you think they belong in a psychiatric hospital.
And it makes my chest tighten.
I squeeze my eyes shut, grinding my teeth together as my fists clench at my sides.
“Yes, you know what?” I say bitterly. “I understand. I sound crazy.”
My eyes snap open again.
“I sound stupid.”
I take a step toward her, my voice rising with frustration.
“In fact, yes, you have every right to think I’m stupid right now,” I continue, waving my hands in exasperation. “Everything I’m saying sounds like nonsense. Like something a mad person would say.”
My chest rises as I draw in a shaky breath.
“But I’m not stupid, Lyra,” I say firmly. “I know what I saw.”
I point toward the forest behind me.
“I saw him. He is real.”
My voice softens again, almost reverent.
“And he looks exactly the way I see him in my dreams.”
Lyra’s expression tightens.
“Exactly the same,” I continue quietly. “The shape of his face. The structure of his nose. And those eyes…”
I pause, remembering them.
“Those golden eyes.”
My voice drops to a whisper.
“Majestic.”
“Please just stop.”
Lyra’s voice slices through the moment like a knife.
The raw panic in her tone makes me fall silent instantly.
I look up at her.
She’s shaking.
Her hands tremble at her sides. Her lips quiver as if she’s trying to hold herself together.
“Just stop,” she repeats, her voice barely steady.
“We need to get out of here right now, Iris.”
Her breathing becomes uneven.
“I don’t know what this place is doing to you,” she says, glancing nervously around the forest as if something might leap out of the shadows at any second. “But I cannot stay here anymore.”
Her eyes lock onto mine.
“I’m leaving.”
Her voice drops lower.
“And I swear to God, if you do not come after me, I’m calling a psychiatric hospital.”
The threat hangs in the air.
“You know what happens when they find you,” she continues, her voice trembling now. “They’ll lock you up. Because right now, Iris, you are not in your normal senses.”
The words hit harder than I expect.
I blink.
Once.
Twice.
Maybe she’s right.
Maybe I have gone too far down this strange obsession with the mysterious man in my dreams.
Maybe the forest did something to my mind.
Maybe I collapsed out here and imagined the entire thing.
The war.
The witches.
The wolf.
The man with the golden eyes.
What the hell is going on?
My thoughts spin wildly as I blink rapidly, trying to ground myself in reality.
Finally, I nod.
“Hey… hey, relax,” I say quickly, lifting my hands in surrender.
“I’m sorry.”
My voice is softer now.
“I’m really sorry.”
Lyra studies me carefully.
“I’ll come with you,” I say.
Her eyebrows rise slightly.
“Really?” she asks.
I nod immediately.
“Yes. Of course. Let’s just get out of here.”
I gesture vaguely behind us.
“I think I just wandered into the wrong place or something.”
Even as I say the words, my mind refuses to settle.
I don’t know what to believe anymore.
All I know is that Lyra’s terrified expression is making things worse.
I don’t want her thinking I’m insane.
And honestly, there is no one else I could ever tell this to.
No one who would believe me.
Because what I saw…
I saw a man transform into a wolf.
I saw cloaked figures throwing violent streams of energy that could tear through trees.
I saw something that looked like a supernatural battlefield.
The kind of thing you only see in movies.
Or fantasy novels.
That couldn’t have been real.
Right?
Maybe the forest played tricks on my mind.
Maybe this stupid, cursed Dead Zone did something to me.
Maybe Selene throwing my necklace into this place triggered some kind of hallucination.
Speakin
g of the necklace—
I glance down at my hand.
The silver pendant is still resting in my palm.
I stare at it for a moment.
Then a small smile spreads across my face.
At least I got it back.
I close my fingers around it and nod firmly.
“Let’s get out of here,” I say.
