Chapter Seventy-Eight

Clara lurched as she fell through the portal, her heart beating in her chest. The warmth of the familiar realm wrapped her, but it brought no consolation. She spun around, searching desperately for Ethan. But the portal was gone.

"Ethan!" she shouted, her voice resounding through the trees. Her fears intensify, the reality sinking in, Ethan was caught within the abyss, alone.

Clara's knees fell to the ground and her eyes filled with tears. It was unbearable to think of Ethan, a man so firm and fearless that he had been locked in the darkness. She had to get him back. But how? The abyss was not a place one may basically walk into and out of. It was a living, breathing entity that feeds on fear and lose hope.

The ground trembled underneath her as a sudden wind cleared through the forest, carrying with it a faint, inauspicious whisper. It wasn't just the wind. The abyss was trying to speak to her, to taunt her. Clara's blood ran cold as she caught fragments of the eerie message: "You ca