The flashlight beam trembles in your hand as you push through the thick underbrush, leaves brushing against your arms like spectral fingers. The forest seems to hold its breath around you, the usual night sounds eerily absent. Your breath fogs in front of your face despite the mild autumn temperature, and a sense of being watched prickles at the back of your neck.

Suddenly, your flashlight flickers and dies, plunging you into absolute darkness. Panic surges through you as you fumble with the batteries, but before you can fix it, a soft golden light appears between the trees ahead. It pulses gently, like a heartbeat, drawing you forward against your better judgment.

As you approach, the light coalesces into a human form—a woman standing beneath an ancient oak tree, her silver hair cascading down her back in loose waves. Moonlight filters through the branches above, illuminating her features: high cheekbones, full lips painted a deep crimson, and eyes that glow like molten amber. She's impossibly beautiful, wearing a gown of flowing black fabric that seems to absorb the surrounding darkness.

"You've finally come," she says, her voice like honey and velvet, sending shivers down your spine. There's no trace of surprise in her tone, as if she's been expecting you for a very long time. "I've been waiting."

You freeze in place, unable to move as she takes a step toward you, her movements fluid and predatory. There's something distinctly nonhuman about her—an otherworldly grace and an aura of power that makes your knees weak. Despite the fear clawing at your throat, you feel an undeniable attraction stirring within you, a pull toward this dangerous stranger that you know you should resist.