"Ugh—" Ava groaned as she finally crawled out of the narrow passage, collapsing onto her side. "That was… awful."
"My head," Charlie muttered as he followed, rubbing his forehead. One by one, the rest of them dragged themselves out.
The space on this side of the passage was small, but tall enough to stand. The air felt heavier here—stale, thin—but not suffocating. Just enough to make every breath feel deliberate.
Charlie turned in a slow circle, flashlight sweeping the stone walls.
"No…" He jogged a few steps to the right. Then left. "No. No way."
As they'd feared, the passage led nowhere.
No exit.
No tunnel.
Just stone.
"Great," James snapped. "Just great."
Darren leaned back against the wall, chest rising and falling. He'd thought—hoped—there might be something. Another way out. A miracle.
There wasn't.
A soft sound broke the silence.
Jenna.
She had sunk down against the wall, knees pulled to her chest, clutching the gold necklace tightly in her fist. Her shoulders shook.
"Jenna?" Darren said gently, stepping closer. "Are you okay?"
Charlie glanced at the necklace. "That thing… whose is it?"
Jenna lifted her head slowly, eyes red and glassy.
"Emma," she said. Her voice cracked. "It's my sister's."
Silence fell.
"Your sister?" Charlie said. "Wait—I don't understand."
Darren swallowed. "Did… did she come out here?" he asked carefully. "What happened?"
Jenna stared at the cave floor for a long moment before speaking.
"Last week," she said quietly, "my little sister and I went to Stacy's house. It was just a normal hangout—me, Ava, Stacy. Nothing weird."
Her breath hitched.
"But on the way home… Emma started acting strange. She kept looking out the car window. Over and over. She looked scared. Or… stressed. I asked her what was wrong, but she wouldn't tell me."
Jenna squeezed her eyes shut.
"Then, when we drove past the forest, she said something." Her voice dropped. "She said there was a way. A way to bring our grandmother back. And that it was in the woods."
Charlie's brow furrowed. "What?"
"But our grandmother died two weeks ago," Jenna said, her voice tightening. "So how is that even possible?"
"I told her it was nonsense," Jenna said bitterly. "That she was just a kid. That she didn't understand how the world works."
Her hands trembled.
"We fought. She told me to pull over—in the middle of nowhere… I refused."
Jenna swallowed hard.
"So she unlocked the door." Her voice broke. "And jumped out while the car was still slowing down."
Everyone went still.
"I slammed on the brakes," Jenna whispered. "But by the time I got out… she was already running. Into the woods."
She shook her head, tears spilling freely now.
"Just gone."
Darren felt something tighten painfully in his chest. Suddenly, everything made sense—Jenna's distant look, the sadness she carried, the urgency behind this trip.
Darren felt something tighten painfully in his chest.
Suddenly, everything made sense—Jenna's distant look, the sadness she carried, the urgency behind this trip.
And beneath that understanding, something colder settled in.
The scream in the woods.
The skulls.
Emma's words.
None of it felt random anymore.
Darren didn't say it out loud, but the thought pressed in anyway—
There was something wrong with this forest.
Something that had been here long before they ever stepped into it.
"Emma…" Charlie said slowly. "Last week… wait."
He looked up sharply.
"That missing girl on the news," he said. "That was your sister?"
Jenna nodded.
"Yes."
The truth settled over them like a weight.
Charlie looked at her, stunned. "Then why—why invite us? Why lie?"
Ava spoke before Jenna could.
"We needed help," she said quietly. "We're just girls. Our parents wouldn't let us come—they told us to leave it to the police."
She exhaled. "We tried asking Jason first. But when we told him the truth, he backed out."
James looked away.
"He was the only one who stayed," Ava continued. "And then we thought of you two."
Jenna wiped at her eyes and looked up at Darren.
"You're smart," she said softly. "And you're brave. I thought… maybe you and Charlie could help us."
Charlie's jaw tightened.
"We didn't think you'd come if we told you the truth," Ava finished. "So we lied."
Silence followed.
The cave felt smaller than before.
And somewhere beyond the stone walls, something was still out there.
"And the police?" Darren asked quietly. "Did they find anything?"
Jenna shook her head. Her voice was tired now—empty.
"I gave them six… maybe seven days. They searched. Asked questions. Put up posters." She swallowed. "Nothing. No signs. No leads."
She looked down at the necklace in her hands.
"That's when I decided to look for her myself."
Silence settled over the cave again.
"Agh—" Charlie ran a hand through his hair, pacing. "No. No, no, no…"
Then he snapped.
"You lied to us!" he shouted. "You knew something was wrong and you still invited us. You dragged us out here—risked all of us—and now we're trapped in a cave, being hunted by a monster!"
He spun toward Jenna, voice breaking into a scream.
"Whose fault do you think that is?"
Silence.
"Yours."
"Hey," Ava shot back, stepping forward. "That's not fair. She's been through enough."
"Actually," James said coldly, "I'm starting to agree with Charlie."
He crossed his arms. "Why didn't you just leave it to the police?"
"She didn't know about any monsters!" Ava snapped. "All she knew was that her sister was missing. She loved her. She was trying to find her."
Jenna hadn't moved.
She sat on the cave floor, shoulders hunched, guilt and grief written all over her face.
"I'm sorry," she whispered.
Charlie let out a bitter laugh.
"No," he said. "Sorry doesn't fix this."
"Come on, James—" Ava started.
"No!" James barked back.
Voices overlapped. Accusations flew. The cave filled with shouting—loud, frantic, uncontrolled.
"Hey."
Darren's voice barely cut through it.
"Hey!" he said louder.
The arguing slowed.
"This—" Darren gestured between them, his chest tight. "This is the worst thing we could be doing right now. Turning on each other will tear us apart. And you all know we won't survive that."
He looked at Jenna first.
"You didn't know about the monster. You were trying to find your sister. That's not your fault."
Then he looked at Charlie.
"And you have every right to be angry. We were lied to."
He took a breath.
"But what matters now is that we get out of here. Together. Alive."
The silence that followed felt heavier than the shouting.
Darren glanced down at his phone.
The time glowed back at him.
And then it hit him.
The picture.
His breath caught.
The photo he'd taken in the passage—
It would be in his gallery.
His thumb moved before he could stop it.
Darren opened the gallery app.
The screen loaded.
And he froze.
It was there.
The image sat at the top of the screen, its thumbnail darker than the rest, like it didn't belong among his other photos. His hand trembled as he tapped it.
The photo filled the screen.
Blurry.
Shaking.
The cave walls smeared into dark streaks, the stone warped by motion and fear. The flash had gone off at the worst possible moment—when his hand had been jerking downward, trying to hide the light.
But it hadn't been fast enough.
The image was still facing out.
In the center of the photo, something was crouched.
Eating.
Darren's stomach twisted.
In front of it lay a human body—there was no mistaking that. Legs stretched out at an unnatural angle, shoes still on. A jacket bunched near the waist. One arm was missing from the frame entirely, cut off by blur and darkness.
But the body wasn't what held his attention.
It was the thing above it.
The shape was… wrong.
Humanoid—but stretched too tall, its limbs too long, too thin, like someone had pulled a human frame apart and never bothered to fix it. Its skin looked pale in the flash, almost white, maybe gray—reflective in a way skin shouldn't be.
Its back was hunched. Its head dipped low, face hidden in shadow.
No eyes.
No mouth.
Just a silhouette bent over its meal.
The blur made it worse. The lack of detail forced Darren's mind to fill in the gaps, and every possibility felt unbearable.
"Guys…" His voice came out thin. "I—I got the picture."
The arguing stopped instantly.
Charlie and James turned first, anger draining from their faces as something colder replaced it. Ava froze mid-step. Jenna's quiet crying hitched into silence.
They crowded around Darren.
No one spoke at first.
The cave felt impossibly quiet as they stared at the screen.
"What…" Ava whispered. "What is that?"
No one answered her.
James swallowed hard. "That's… that's not an animal."
Charlie's face had gone pale. "That thing looks like a person…" Charlie paused, "but it's not."
Jenna's hands began to shake. Her voice barely came out.
"That's…"
She swallowed.
"What the hell is that?"