Prophecy – Chapter 7 – The Path Ahead

Chapter 7

The shed still held the smell of iron and damp wood long after the movement had stopped.

Ghost stood where he was, the broken length of chain resting loose against his throat, his breathing steady despite the damage done to him. Across from him, Jacob shifted his grip on the knife, his attention moving between the bodies on the ground and the men still standing in the doorway.

William sighed, his gaze going first to Ghost, not Jacob, not the fallen men, just Ghost, watching him properly now.

“You’ve made a mess of this,” he said, though the words were aimed at Jacob.

Jacob’s mouth curved slightly. “It was already messy.”

William ignored him his focus remaining fixed on Ghost, measuring, recalculating.

“You fucked up,” he said after a moment. “You know that, don’t you?”

Ghost didn’t answer, but he didn’t look away either.

William took another step, careful with it, not crowding him, not pushing too far.

“You know why I’m here?” he continued. “Not for this fuckup.” A brief glance at the bodies, dismissive. “For your shift.”

Jacob shifted his weight, listening now, but he didn’t interrupt.

“The chain was a mistake,” William said. “It kept you with us, but it wasn’t how this should have been handled.”

Jacob’s brow lifted faintly at that, but he stayed quiet.

“You don’t need to fight me,” William went on. “You need to understand what’s coming. Who you are. You think we are the bad ones? You have no idea!”

Ghost watched him.

“You can’t control it on your own,” William added. “You don’t have the knowledge for that. You don’t have a pack.”

Jacob let out a quiet breath. “And you think you’re the solution?”

William’s eyes flicked to him, irritation there now. “You’re making it worse.”

Jacob shrugged lightly. “Seems this made it worse already.”

William let it go.

He turned his attention back to Ghost, his voice settling into something more measured again.

“You don’t have to leave like this,” he said. “Not without understanding what you’re walking into. I admit we went about this all the wrong way.”

Ghost’s expression didn’t change.

“You hurt me,” he said, voice scratchy and quiet.

William didn’t flinch.

“Yes,” he said. “I made you tough. I taught you pain and respect! And I would again if it meant you survive what’s coming.”

Jacob’s grip tightened slightly at that, though he didn’t move.

Ghost held William’s gaze for a moment longer.

Then, quietly, “I’m leaving.”

William didn’t step in front of him this time. He shifted instead, just enough to remain close as Ghost moved past, his gaze following him with a focus that had changed, less certain, more measured.

“You won’t get far,” he said.

Jacob fell in beside Ghost without hesitation, and together they crossed the shed and stepped out into the yard.

No one stopped them.

The camp had gone still in that particular way that comes when something has shifted and no one has yet decided how to respond to it.

They walked.

William stepped out after them, stopping just beyond the doorway. He watched them cross the yard, his attention fixed entirely on Ghost.

“Don’t let them get far,” he said quietly to the man who had come up at his side. “And don’t kill him. We need him.”

The hunters moved immediately.

William’s gaze flicked briefly to Jacob, then back to Ghost.

“You can deal with the other one,” he added, his tone unchanged, as though the instruction carried no more weight than the last.

He bent, picked up a loose rock, and turned it once in his hand before throwing it hard against the shed wall. The crack echoed across the yard.

For a moment, nothing else moved.

Then he straightened, the brief lapse already gone, his expression settling back into something composed and unreadable.

“Gary,” he said, walking past him without slowing, “get those bodies cleared.”

He didn’t look back.

__________

The forest took them quickly.

The sounds of the camp faded behind them, replaced by the quieter noise of movement through trees, the ground softer underfoot, the air cooler as the cover thickened.

Jacob listened as they moved, picking out the sounds behind them without turning fully.

“They’re coming,” he said.

Ghost nodded once, his pace unchanged.

“They won’t rush it,” Jacob added.

Ghost didn’t respond as they moved deeper into the forest.

The hunters weren’t trying to hide. Branches shifted, boots pressed into leaf litter, voices carried just enough to mark their position. They weren’t hunting yet. They were closing distance.

“They think I belong to them,” Ghost suddenly said.

Jacob huffed quietly in agreement.

They kept moving at the same pace, neither speeding up nor slowing down, holding the distance rather than breaking it.

After a while, the ground dipped slightly, a narrow run of water cutting through the forest. Ghost stepped across without hesitation. Jacob followed, glancing back as the first of the hunters reached it.

They came straight through, splashing without care.

“They’re not worried about losing us,” Jacob said.

Ghost gave a small nod, then tilted his head slightly, as though catching something just out of reach of sound. He held there for a moment, listening in a way that wasn’t quite listening, then gave another faint nod, as if whatever it was had settled into place.

Jacob watched him, not questioning it, just taking it in.

For a second, the thought crossed his mind that maybe it was the same as what happened to him sometimes, those moments where something slipped in uninvited, not quite a voice, not quite a thought, just a certainty that arrived without explanation and refused to be ignored. He had never tried to make sense of it. There had never been any point. Things like that either helped you or they didn’t, and if they didn’t, you didn’t last long enough to worry about why.

Ghost had already started moving again, changing direction without hesitation, as though whatever he had caught onto was clearer than anything he could see in front of him.

Jacob didn’t argue, just fell in beside him, matching the pace without thinking about it, letting the movement settle into something steady again. Whatever this was, wherever it led, it didn’t matter yet. They would deal with it when they got there.

The forest shifted again, the trees growing closer, the undergrowth thickening just enough to slow anyone not used to it. Ghost angled slightly, adjusting direction without pause.

Jacob noticed, but didn’t question it.

Behind them, the voices changed.

At first it was just a sharper edge, a raised tone where there hadn’t been one before.

“Hold—”

The rest cut off.

Another voice answered, further away than it should have been. “What the fuck is it?”

A sound came from deeper in the trees behind them. Something heavy and persistent hitting the forest hard, crashing through undergrowth with a force that didn’t slow or hesitate, wood splintering, brush tearing aside as though it wasn’t there at all.

Jacob turned instinctively, just enough to look.

He didn’t see anything but the men did.

One of them swore, sharp and sudden, then another voice cut across it, louder, carrying something that hadn’t been there before. Fear.

“Move! Move!”

The line broke without warning.

Men who had been steady moments ago were already turning, pushing back the way they’d come, no attempt to hold position, no thought given to direction beyond away. One crashed into a tree in his haste, another shoved past him without slowing, branches snapping back as they forced through.

It wasn’t controlled anymore, but blind panic. Jacob watched it for a second, frowning slightly.

“That’s new,” Jacob muttered.

Ghost didn’t look back.

“They can’t follow,” he said.

Jacob glanced at him, just briefly, a flicker of interest cutting through everything else. “Nobody in all these years knew you had a voice,” he said. “Sounds like it hurts.”

Ghost didn’t answer.

The crashing came again, closer this time, something large enough to force its way through the forest without slowing, branches snapping, undergrowth tearing as it moved.

Jacob didn’t wait to see it.

“Right,” he said under his breath, turning forward again. “I’m good with going this way.”

Ghost changed direction again, suddenly, just enough to take them into denser ground, where the trees closed in and the undergrowth pressed tighter around them. He lowered as he moved, his body folding closer to the ground, slipping through the tighter spaces without breaking stride.

Jacob followed, ducking under branches, pushing through where he had to.

Ghost moved faster.

Jacob nearly lost him once, just for a moment, when he slipped between two trunks and vanished from sight, but he caught him again ahead, still moving, still steady.

The forest shifted around them as the light faded, then disappeared entirely, leaving them moving through shadow and instinct more than sight. Ghost didn’t hesitate. Jacob stayed with him, matching the pace, letting the rhythm settle into something that could be held for hours.

At one point they slowed long enough to drink from a narrow stream, switching without speaking, then moved on again.

By the time the light began to return, pale and thin through the trees, Jacob felt the distance in his legs, a steady, manageable weight.

Ghost didn’t slow.

Jacob watched him for a moment, then shook his head faintly.

“You’re going to just keep going, aren’t you? We going to eat?”

Ghost didn’t answer.

Jacob let out a quiet, ragged, breath. “Right.”

The forest began to open gradually, the trees thinning, the ground flattening, the air shifting as the dense cover gave way to something wider.

“Brother, wait,” Jacob said, his voice lower now.

Ghost slowed.

Jacob was already moving before they stopped completely, knife in hand, stepping slightly ahead and to the side without making a show of it, placing himself between Ghost and the open ground beyond the trees. His attention moved quickly across the space, measuring distance, angles, anything that might shift or move against them.

Ghost glanced at him and gave a small shake of his head, the faintest hint of something at the corner of his mouth before it disappeared again.

Jacob caught it, just barely, and frowned. “What?”

Ghost didn’t answer.

Jacob held his position for another second anyway, then shifted back half a step, staying close instead of in front, the knife still loose in his hand.

They edged forward together. The trees gently fell away and a small valley lay ahead of them, the ground dipping gently before rising again. Early light settled across it in a dull wash, mist lifting in thin patches.

And there, set slightly back, was a cottage.

Stone walls, weathered but cared for. A low roof. Smoke rising steadily from the chimney.

Jacob stopped.

Ghost didn’t at first. He took another step, then another, before coming to a halt at the edge of the trees.

He was looking at it as though he had been expecting it.

Jacob followed his gaze, then looked at him, then back at the cottage.

“Want to tell me how you knew?”

Ghost turned his head slightly.

“That’s where we have to be.”

Jacob held his gaze for a moment, then nodded once.

“Alright.”

He looked back at the cottage, taking it in properly now.

There was a garden running along the side, neat rows of vegetables turned carefully into the soil. Someone had been working it recently.

A young woman was there.

Bent slightly at the waist, brushing dirt from her hands as she straightened. Blonde hair fell loose down her back, catching what little light there was. Her clothes were simple, sleeves pushed up, hands still marked with earth.

She turned her head slowly.

Her gaze settled on the trees… on them.

Jacob didn’t move at first. He just watched her, taking in the details without thinking about why he was doing it. The way she stood, the dirt still on her hands, the way she didn’t look surprised to see them.

Something about it sat wrong… or right. He couldn’t tell which, and he didn’t bother trying.

He shifted his grip on the knife slightly, not lowering it, just… not holding it quite as tight.

Beside him, Ghost had gone quiet.

Jacob glanced at him briefly, then back at her.

“You know her?” he asked.

Ghost didn’t answer and Jacob let it go.

He adjusted his grip on the knife, not raising it, just holding it as he always did, and stepped forward.

Ghost moved with him.

They left the cover of the trees and started down towards the cottage.

Chapter 6

Chapter 8