Chapter 90
Chapter 90
SOFIA BLISS
I froze when I saw my aunt’s calls.
Countless ones, one after another.
When I checked, I saw she hadn’t sent any messages — nothing but the calls — and that silence around me.
That frightening silence…
It felt more like there was a being there, breathing very close to me, as if it wanted to hunt me down. It was scary.
My heart was racing, and I could still feel that horrible sensation growing in my chest, as if I were actually trapped in that nightmare. I could still see... feel the wolves around me. I could feel the cold ground beneath my feet... that strange air.
No... it wasn't the feeling I had when the wolves surrounded me.
It was the last one.
The biggest one.
The one that walked slowly, in silence, waiting for the right moment to swallow me whole.
I still had the phone in my hand. I didn’t know what to think of those calls, but my hand was shaking so badly I almost dropped the phone.
I decided to call back.
Praying it was nothing. In that moment, Letícia was the only thing on my mind.
I hope she showed up. I thought.
''Pick up… please… pick up…'' I murmured to myself, gripping the phone as if it would slip from my hands.
Letícia, to me… she was like a sister.
My first friend.
The first person I could count on for everything.
And now, with her disappearing like that, my heart was screaming that something was wrong. Very wrong.
I sat on the bed, trying to breathe, trying not to throw up from anxiety, trying not to cry before I even knew anything.
I waited.
It rang a few times.
When my aunt finally answered, it was like that disturbing silence — that inaudible terror — had crossed to the other side of the line.
Because she simply said nothing.
'' Auntie?'' I whispered, worried. ''Auntie… are you okay?''
Nothing.
And then I heard it.
A sniff.
Long, harsh, broken.
From someone trying to breathe between tears.
My gaze froze on the floor, empty.
''Auntie?'' I repeated, louder, standing up. ''What happened? I saw your calls, I… talk to me! For God’s sake!''
And her voice finally came.
Shattered.
A voice I had never heard from her before — not even at my mother’s funeral.
''Sofia… your father...'' She paused. ''He… disappeared.''
''What?'' the word broke, my body going numb. ''What… what did you say? Auntie… that doesn’t make sense. What do you mean disappeared? He was at the clinic. He was being taken care of. He… he…''
My body started heating up, my brain wouldn’t stop, and it felt like I was crashing.
My aunt’s voice choked.
''Sofia… I… I don’t know what happened… But they called. And then I ran here.'' She tried to breathe, to gather herself. ''He isn’t here, sweetheart… he isn’t here.''
The pain exploded inside me as if something were eating away at me from within, and all I could do was look around, even though I didn't know what was happening.
My whole body began to tingle.
My head throbbed, my hands began to burn.
And the air that I had barely been able to inhale before... now seemed to be burning my lungs.
''This… isn’t true, right?'' I hissed, my eyes burning. ''Please, tell me this is a sick joke. A prank. Anything… anything. Auntie, for the love of God! Tell me this is a lie!''
I screamed.
And all I wanted was an answer.
But my aunt didn’t have one.
All I could hear was her crying.
A stab in my chest made me stumble, and then that pain hit.
As if something inside my chest tore in half, splitting my ribs open, trying to claw its way out, hurting me, ripping me apart with no mercy.
''What… what is this…?'' I pressed a hand to my chest, gasping. ''Why does it hurt so much…?'' I fell to my knees, the phone dropping in front of me.
And everything went silent around me as that pain spread through every corner of my body.
My spine, my arms, my legs — everything.
It felt like I was being turned inside out.
I couldn’t hear my aunt anymore.
Everything was muted.
I shook my head, trying to go back to normal, trying to hear something, any sound at all.
I grabbed the phone, and it felt like my fingers cracked, but even so I held it tight and continued — I needed to know the truth, I needed to hear that everything was a lie, because if it was true, I knew… something inside me made that clear — I wouldn’t survive it.
''AUNTIE, FOR GOD’S SAKE… Answer me!'' I screamed, but then froze.
Because I couldn’t even hear my own voice — in fact, what I heard wasn’t human.
What I heard was the sound of an animal, of an unknown beast — and that sound had come from me.
And it was right then — exactly then — that I felt it.
Something broke.
As if an invisible wall that had always been inside me… shattered entirely.
Glass cracking.
And the shards ripping my skin from the inside.
It was more than painful — it was agonizing.
My head couldn’t keep up. It was fading, my mind disappearing.
Everything turned white.
Then black.
The phone slipped from my hand, and I heard it hit the floor, but it was distant — so distant.
As if I were underwater, sinking deeper and deeper.
I couldn’t cry anymore, couldn’t scream anymore.
I was just… going dark inside.
And in the absolute silence, something moved behind me.
Not physically.
But inside my mind.
Like a shadow taking form.
Like a black stain rising through my chest and my back, filling the hole that had been opened.
That presence — it was the same from the nightmare.
The same shadow.
The same wolf.
I lowered my head… and I swear I saw it.
Right there in front of me.
In the faint reflection on the phone screen.
It wasn’t my face.
It was his.
The wolf.