Uncompelled

The fog always had a way of swallowing things whole in Mist Haven.

Streetlamps flickered like they didn’t want to exist tonight, and the chill curling around the woods felt like it was watching me as much as I was watching it.

I should have been worried. Normally I would have been more cautious.

But tonight - I wasn’t.

Instead, I was spinning, laughing, catching the firelight on my fingertips as the music thumped in my chest. Tonight, I was untouchable.

Tonight, I belonged at the center of everything—the fire pit, the laughter, the warmth of other people pressing in from every direction. I felt electric, unstoppable.

Tonight, for the first time since the accident—the surgery that nearly ended me—I felt free.

Free from the fear, from the fragility, from the nights I spent staring at hospital ceilings wondering if I’d make it.

As soon as we’d reached the Founders Fire, Ruby had already vanished into the crowd, her laughter cutting through the noise somewhere to my right. Lillian lingered at my side for a moment longer, eyes flicking toward the tree line like she didn’t trust it.

“I’m going for a refill,” she said. “Don’t wander off.”

I smirked. “Don’t need to, Lill. Trouble finds me.”

Her expression tightened like she didn’t find that funny, but she didn’t argue with me either. She disappeared into the crowd.

I knew I should listen to her, but couldn’t bring myself to care about the consequences tonight.

I’ve played it safe my entire life and still, the accident had almost claimed my life.

No more.

I wouldn’t be a willing victim any longer.

Left alone by the fire pit, I threw myself fully into the moment. Arms in the air, hips swaying, music pulsing through me, I let myself be bold. Allowed myself to feel weightless. The stress, my recovery, the endless campus routine—all of it fell away. My mind finally clear.

I was alive. Nothing else mattered.

Until my foot caught on something invisible.

Not realising how far away I’d spun from the camp fire, I stumbled, arms flailing, trying to catch myself. My foot twisted over a root and gravity won, taking me down from my high.

I tumbled down the mossy slope, arms scraping against fallen branches and wet leaves, heart hammering, until the firelight and music were nothing more than a muffled memory.

I stood on shaky legs, hands trembling. My pulse started racing—not just from the fall. The fog here was different, thicker, curling into the underbrush with intent. The smells changed. Earthy, damp, and faintly… metallic. My stomach knotted.

My breathing came in short, shallow rasps as I looked up, noticing the height of the hill I’d rolled down.

“Shit,” I muttered, brushing my scraped hands free of soil. The dirt burned as it embedded itself into the tiny cuts and grazes on my palms and I bit back a gasp of pain.

The fog was thicker here. Heavier. It didn’t drift so much as gather, clinging to the ground like it belonged there. The air smelled damp… earthy… and faintly metallic.

My stomach tightened.

“Okay,” I whispered to myself. “Just find the path.”

Orienting myself, I looked around, trying desperately to find the cobbled stones that could lead back up to the party before it wrapped up and we needed to return to our dorms.

I couldn’t afford to be left out in the dark. Alone. Vulnerable.

There had been too many animal attacks lately, shared on campus news. The latest had been two nights ago and I didn’t want my face to be the next to mourn.

A low, unnerving rustle came from my left. My chest tightened, every instinct screaming at me to run. But my curiosity—stubborn, dangerous curiosity—won out.

Maybe if I didn’t have that last drink I wouldn’t feel so brazen.

I crept forward, eyes straining through the mist.

Two silhouettes were crowded next to a tree.

A man stood in front of another frame, the fog faintly wrapped around his form as he leaned into whoever it was he had against the tree.

A breathy gasp echoed through the wood, a cry that was swallowed.

I looked away, wondering if I’d just happened upon a couple that had snuck away from the crowds to have their own private rendezvous.

Another sharp cry came from the girl and I couldn’t help but watch them.

Every instinct in me screamed that this was wrong.

The man wasn’t moving naturally. His body carried a grace, a quiet precision that no human could ever possess.

He shifted and there, pinned to the tree by his body, was someone I knew: Nora Moreland from my English Literature class. She looked… helpless. Not moving, no longer reacting to the man’s touch.

I stepped forward, causing a twig to snap beneath my feet.

The stranger’s head turned, his hand still gripping her shoulder, keeping her in place.

His eyes shifted through the darkness, assessing for the source of the sound.

And then he looked towards where I stood.

My stomach plummeted.

Every nerve screamed run, but I was rooted to the spot, trying to understand what I was seeing. The man—tall, impossibly calm—turned slowly. Facing me fully.

Cold eyes, unreadable, sharp locked onto me before he flashed a smile—deliberate, slow, wholly terrifying.

I inched backwards, knowing I was in the presence of a predator.

“You shouldn’t be here,” he said, voice low and smooth, cutting through the fog like a blade.

“I—I didn’t…” My own voice sounded small, fragile, absurd.

He let go of Nora’s still frame, her body slumping to the ground as he stepped closer.

Panic clawed through my chest.

I felt it before I could think—the pressure in the air, the weight pressing against my mind. In a blink, he’d moved too fast for my eyes to track.

This close I could see perfectly how dark his eyes had turned. How wide his pupils had blown as he encroached my space, forcing me backwards.

He tilted his head slightly, studying me like I was a problem he hadn’t expected to find.

“I said,” he murmured, “you shouldn’t be here.”

I blinked hard, my head beginning to pound.

“You won’t remember this,” he said, smoothly, commanding.

My brain felt foggy—my thoughts refusing to be scrambled under his intense stare.

I felt my mind push back.

I blinked. My pulse thundered in my ears. The fog felt thicker, heavier, it threatened to consume me, but the more I pushed back against the phantom presence, the more his smile faltered.

I swallowed hard. “What were you doing to her?” I asked, my voice steadier than I felt.

His head tilted in almost a serpentine manner, eyes tracing my features in a scrutinising way.

The man took another step towards me and I stepped back, my back pressed firmly against the rough bark of the tree. I glanced around, trying to think of a way to escape.

His hands landed on either side of my head, keeping me trapped.

“You didn’t see anything. Now forget this whole encounter and leave.”

I shook my head. “No.”

His eyes darkened further, the veins under his eyes deepening in colour.

“You are a problem,” he whispered and then I saw a flash of teeth as he bared his face down towards mine.

Sharp, pointed—

“Step away, Silas.”

A calm, measured voice entered the darkness. Another figure cut through the mist, his steps slow and deliberate.

His eyes found mine first, then flicked to the man in front of me.

“She’s human,” he said composedly, but the steel in his voice cut through everything.

The first man studied him like a predator weighing competition. “Exactly,” he said, low, almost amused.

“You’ve had your moment,” he said evenly. “Back off.”

I wanted to scream, run, throw myself into the fog and disappear. But I couldn’t move. Every muscle refused, frozen between fear and adrenaline.

Silas’s gaze dropped briefly. “Always the same,” he murmured. “You never learn.”

He turned back to me, the strange darkness around his eyes having seeped away in the shadows of night. He leaned close, his nose brushing against my neck until his mouth was next to my ear. His voice dropped to something almost gentle.

“Until next time… little fawn.”

A shiver raced down my spine, my pulse hammering in my ears. And then he was gone—melting into the fog before I could even draw a breath.

The other figure lingered a moment longer, eyes never leaving mine, before slowly retreating into the shadows as well.

Mind reeling, I stayed rooted to the spot, straining to see through the mist for any sign of them.

I’d always been warned that Mist Haven had secrets.

Ancient.

Dangerous.

And tonight, it appeared that I had stumbled straight into one of them.