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CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Fiona's heart pounded as she waded through the dark forest, moonlight casting eerie shadows on the twisted branches above. The sinister trees seemed to reach for her, their gnarled limbs threatening to snatch her away from her desperate search for Joslyn. The air was heavy with dread and fear; it clung to her like a cold, damp shroud.
"Joslyn!" Fiona called out, her voice trembling. "Where are you?"
Her legs felt like lead weights, but she forced herself to move forward, driven by an unrelenting anxiety that tightened its grip around her chest with every step. The forest seemed to go on forever, each tree mocking her attempts to find her sister.
"Please, Joslyn... answer me," Fiona whispered, tears streaming down her face. She tried to run, but the ground felt like it was shifting beneath her feet, sinking her deeper into the dark abyss.
As she stumbled through the underbrush, a chilling smell assaulted her senses – the inescapable stench of death. She gagged and covered her mouth with her hand, panic rising like bile in her throat.
"Joslyn, please don't be dead," she said, her mind racing with horrifying possibilities. "I have to find you. I can't lose you again."
Fiona's breath came in ragged gasps, her lungs burning as she pushed herself to keep going. The oppressive darkness weighed heavily on her, threatening to consume her entirely. And still, she searched, determined to find her sister amidst the seemingly endless nightmare.
But the forest went on and on, and the smell of death grew stronger with each passing moment. It surrounded her, suffocating her, taunting her with the possibility that she might be too late. Despair threatened to overtake her, but she refused to give up.
"Joslyn!" Fiona screamed one last time, her voice cracking under the strain. "Please, just let me find you!"
As the words echoed through the dark forest, she could only pray that it wasn't too late to save her sister from the same gruesome fate as their victims.
Just as hopelessness threatened to overtake her, Fiona tripped over something lying on the ground. She hit the moist earth with a thud, pain shooting through her as she scrambled to regain her footing. Glancing down, her heart leaped into her throat at the sight of insects crawling up her legs.
"Get off!" she screeched, frantically swiping and shaking her limbs. The sensation of their tiny legs clinging to her skin sent shivers down her spine. With one last desperate attempt, she managed to remove the last of them and took off running once more.
"Joslyn!" she cried out again, her voice ragged and hoarse. "Where are you?"
Her sister's name echoed eerily through the dark forest, the silence that followed only amplifying her fear. But then, through the twisted maze of trees and shadows, she saw her—Joslyn, standing there, bathed in a sliver of moonlight.
"Joslyn!" Fiona shouted, tears streaming down her face as she ran towards her sister. "I found you!"
As she drew closer, Joslyn slowly turned to face her. But the relief Fiona felt quickly turned to horror as she realized that her sister wasn't alive at all. Her skin was riddled with decay, corpse fauna feasting on her flesh. Fiona could hear the sickening sound of bugs burrowing beneath her sister's skin, consuming her from the inside out.
"Jos... Joslyn, no," Fiona whispered, her voice trembling. "This can't be happening."
"Help me, Fiona," Joslyn murmured weakly, her voice barely audible. "It hurts."
Fiona wanted to reach out, to embrace her sister and somehow make everything okay. But terror held her back, keeping her rooted to the spot. The gruesome sight before her was almost too much to bear, a grotesque reflection of the very same insects she had analyzed on their victims just days before.
"Joslyn, I'm so sorry," Fiona choked out, her heart breaking as she watched her sister's body disintegrate. "I wish I could do something."
Fiona's eyes snapped open, her heart pounding as she gasped for breath. The room around her swam into focus, the pale morning light filtering through the curtains and casting a warm glow on the walls. She was no longer in that dark, twisted forest; she was back in Jake's bedroom, safe and sound.
"Thank God," she whispered, her voice hoarse and shaky. It had just been a dream—a horrible, gut-wrenching nightmare. Fiona glanced over at Jake, who lay beside her, his brown hair tousled and his chest rising and falling in a steady rhythm. He looked so peaceful, completely oblivious to the turmoil raging inside her.
"Joslyn," Fiona murmured, her sister's image still fresh in her mind. But it wasn't the vibrant, laughing Joslyn she remembered—it was the decaying husk of her sister, her body consumed by those insidious insects. The same insects she'd studied on their victims only yesterday.
As relief washed over her, Fiona couldn't help but dwell on the eerie similarities between her dream and the case they were working on. The two murder victims they'd discovered had been far more decomposed than they should have been, given how recently they'd died. And the cause of their accelerated decay? Corpse fauna. Just like in her dream.
"Jake," Fiona whispered, nudging him gently with her elbow. "Wake up."
He groaned and shifted away from her, pulling the covers up over his head. "Five more minutes," he mumbled sleepily.
"Jake, please," Fiona insisted, her voice tinged with urgency. "I need to talk to you about something."
"Fine," he grumbled, reluctantly opening one eye and squinting at her. "What's got you so worked up?"
"Those insects we found on the bodies yesterday," she began, her words tumbling out in a rush. "I had this dream, and—"
