The gardens were too quiet.

  Every leaf, every drop of dew, every distant rustle sounded too close — too aware.

  Alex’s voice cut through the stillness.

  “Ethan? Where the hell did you go?”

  Eri froze. Her tails went rigid, the tips trembling as her ears caught that familiar voice. Her breath hitched, chest tightening painfully. Alex.

  He was close — too close.

  She pressed herself against the trunk of a wide, flowering tree, her tails curling around her waist to hide their glow. Her heart pounded hard enough that she swore the sound would give her away.

  He can’t see me like this. He can’t…

  Her fingers brushed the shape of the neckce in her pocket — cold metal against her skin, heavy with the threat of erasure. Just touching it made her chest ache. She could feel its quiet hum, that strange magic whispering against her fingertips. One csp, one second, and she’d vanish back into Ethan.

  But she didn’t want that.

  Not again. Not yet.

  Eri’s ears twitched as footsteps crunched on gravel, closer now. Alex’s fshlight beam danced between the trees, slicing through patches of pale moonlight.

  Her whole body trembled. She backed up silently, every movement careful, the grass brushing against her bare legs. The light swept past her once — and for an awful, breathless moment, caught the faint shimmer of her tail fur.

  Alex stopped.

  He turned the light back.

  Eri’s breath caught. She dropped lower behind a bush, clutching her tails tight to her body, praying he’d think it was a trick of the light.

  The beam lingered… then drifted away.

  Alex muttered under his breath, “Swear I saw something…” His voice was tired, more confused than suspicious. He rubbed his temple, sighing. “Where are you, man?”

  She watched him turn and walk back toward the path. Only when he was gone did she finally let out a shaky exhale.

  Her hands shook as she pulled the neckce from her pocket, staring at it glinting softly in the garden’s faint glow.

  It looked harmless — beautiful even. But to her, it felt like a chain.

  Eri tightened her grip until her knuckles went white. “I can’t,” she whispered, voice breaking. “I can’t go back.”

  She slipped the neckce back into her pocket, curling her fingers protectively over it like it was both treasure and curse.

  The garden’s cool air brushed her skin, and for the first time that night, she realized she was crying — silently, uncontrolbly, caught between the fear of being found and the terror of losing herself again.

  The petals of the glowing flowers swayed gently beside her, like they could feel her heartbeat. She took one deep breath, then another, before forcing herself to move again — deeper into the garden, away from Alex, away from anyone who could take this fragile, impossible freedom from her.

  “Ethan?!”, Alex called once again

  The voice carried faintly through the glowing trees, sharp with confusion.

  Eri froze mid-step, heart pounding. Hearing Alex now much closer than before.

  Her breath came quick and shallow. Every instinct screamed at her to move, but the sound of his voice—worried, searching—hit something inside her that made it hard to breathe.

  She took a trembling step backward, tails brushing against the glowing pnts. Their light rippled from the contact, sending waves of brightness through the leaves like a beacon.

  “Shit,” she hissed under her breath, pressing herself lower.

  Her ears twitched wildly, tracking the sounds—footsteps crunching on the gravel path, branches pushing aside. Alex was close. Too close.

  Eri turned and ran, silent as her bare feet allowed. Her ten tails streamed behind her, catching light like flowing silver ribbons. The gardens blurred around her—blue and white, shadow and glow, the soft scent of flowers chasing her as she ducked between trees and twisted paths.

  “Ethan! I saw someone—hey!” Alex’s voice was closer now, sharper, more armed.

  Eri darted behind a rge tree, pressing her back against its rough bark. Her pulse thundered in her ears. Her breath came out in ragged gasps as she tried to think.

  She reached into her pocket instinctively—fingers searching for the neckce. I’ll hide it. Just in case.

  But the chain snagged between her fingers, slick with sweat—

  and slipped.

  “Wait—no, no!” she whispered, diving for it.

  The neckce tumbled in a slow, impossible arc, catching the moonlight—white and bck stone fshing once—before it vanished into the undergrowth.

  She dropped to her knees, digging through glowing vines and damp earth. Her fingers scraped stone and roots, but no cold metal met her touch.

  “Please… please…” Her voice trembled, the panic rising fast. The one thing that tied her to Ethan—the one thing that let her choose—was gone.

  “Ethan? That you?”

  Alex’s voice was right there, only a few meters away.

  Eri cmped her hands over her mouth, curling her tails around herself like a shield. Her heart hammered so hard she thought it might give her away.

  The fshlight beam cut across the space just ahead of her, slicing through glowing leaves. She saw the edge of Alex’s shoe, his hand lifting branches as he scanned the area.

  Her entire body trembled. She didn’t dare move, didn’t dare breathe.

  The neckce was gone.

  Alex was steps away.

  And she was still Eri.