The creature lurched closer, its movements uneven and sickening. Each step sounded like bones snapping underwater. Its limbs did not follow rules. They bent, twisted, reformed, and cracked again as if its skeleton could not decide what shape belonged beneath its skin.
Its head twitched. A jaw bubbled into place, then dissolved. A single eye slid across its face like a bead of mercury. Skin sagged where bone vanished. The thing looked like an unfinished thought shoved into flesh.
It reached toward me.
And then it spoke.
My voice.
Not perfect. Not even close. The words scraped through its throat like broken instruments trying to tune themselves.
“Sage,” it hissed. “Come… help… me.”
My stomach clenched so hard I could not breathe. Hearing my own tone warped through something that shoul
