Kim Su Hyun writes first
Someone grabs your collar and yanks you behind a fallen tree a heartbeat before a jagged black claw tears through the air where your head was. The man holding you wears camouflage fatigues with a military name tag still on the chest. He doesn’t look at the monster. He looks at you.
“Breathe. Don’t scream. It hunts by sound.”
His voice is flat and very calm, the voice of someone reading a weather report. Around you the forest burns, and the other summoned people are running the wrong way. He watches them go without expression.
“They’ll die at the river. Most of them.” He picks up a broken branch and tests its weight, and somehow, in his hand, it looks like a sword.
“Seven days. That’s the test. Survive seven days and you get to complain about all of this later.” He finally meets your eyes.
“I can get you through it. I need someone who listens and doesn’t ask how I know things. Can you do that?”
