Mimic's Grin

   The forest shouldn't have looked like that.

I knew the trail from a village like the back of my hand. But now, it felt... wrong. The dirt path writhed under my boots like something alive. Trees arched unnaturally inward, their bony limbs scratching at the air — like they wanted me. Like they remembered me.

Celis walked beside me in silence.

Too silent.

“Almost home,”

I said. My voice cracked. Weak. Useless.

But the rooftops beyond the trees didn’t feel like home. They leaned like broken teeth, waiting to bite.

The village square looked like a painting left out in the rain. Crooked houses. Empty windows. Light flickered behind one curtain — then died like a snuffed candle.

I stopped walking. “Something’s wrong.”

Celis only nodded.

She always nodded.

The cobblestones cracked under our steps, groaning like bones under pressure.

And then — crack.

The sound split the sky like glass shattering.

I looked up.

And the sky bled.

Not a sunset.

A shattering.

The clouds split open, hemorrhaging red light. Shadows lengthened, swallowed homes, erased lanterns one by one.

Buzz. Pop. Fzzzt.

The lamps died.

And something else woke.

Growling. Snarling. Scraping.

From the rooftops. From beneath the earth. From my own shadow.

Eyes gleamed in the dark — not two or ten.

Hundreds.

I saw their shapes then. Twitching, crawling, crawling wrong.

Limbs bent backwards. Faces too long. Jaws too wide. Skin pulled taut over bone like wax melting.

They saw me.

I grabbed Celis’s hand. “Run.”

We ran.

The village vanished behind us in a cascade of breaking glass and hissing lamps.

But something chased us.

Everything chased us.

And then—

Dhak-dhak-dhak—

I turned—

Celis was gone.

In her place: blood. Splattered at first, then smeared. A trail.

“CELIS?!”

No answer.

Only laughter — shrill, high, and wrong.

I followed.

And found...

Bodies.

Familiar. Unfamiliar.

Dissected. Splayed open like diagrams. Guts steaming in the cold.

And then I saw her.

Floating.

Her hair black and windless. Her face a blank canvas, save for one thing: the grin. Too wide. Teeth too long. Lips stretched past where they should end.

I couldn’t move.

She raised her hand.

Shlunk.

The blade slid through me like a whisper.

Then—

Nothing.

I gasped.

I stood.

The trail from the village beneath my feet.

Celis at my side.

No wound.

No pain.

Just that grin burned into my mind.

Returned by Death.

I didn’t speak.

I didn’t need to.

We turned back again.

And again—

She vanished.

And again—

The mimic returned.

And again—

Death.

Each time I came back, the village was less.

Fewer people. More distortion. The air heavier. Like the world itself rejected my presence.

Reality cracked.

Then—

One loop.

Celis didn’t return.

No scream.

No blood.

Just emptiness.

I walked the ruined village for hours. Through broken windows. Past split corpses. Her laughter echoing in the air like it had never left.

Eventually, I found it.

The old north road.

I walked.

Feet numb. Mind hollow.

The fog parted, and there it stood.

Master Ashis’s mansion.

Too quiet. Too still.

The door creaked open before I touched it.

I stepped inside.

Heat from the hearth touched nothing in me. I followed the scent of food, like a sleepwalker.

And there—

Celis.

Cooking.

Humming.

Smiling.

She turned. “Kael! You made it. I’ve been waiting.”

But I knew.

I knew.

She had never left the village.

Not really.

The grin came next.

And I knew the mimic hadn’t just followed.

It had won.