Chapter 474

The late afternoon sun cast long, skeletal shadows as the four teenagers hauled their gear towards the secluded campsite. Liam, the self-proclaimed leader, checked the map, his brow furrowed in concentration.

Beside him, Maya, always the pragmatist, double-checked their supplies. Ben, the quiet one, trailed behind, a perpetual shadow.

Chloe, brimming with nervous energy, chattered incessantly, already talking about ghost stories around the campfire. The woods welcomed them with a symphony of rustling leaves and unseen creatures, their calls adding to the isolation of the area.

They pitched their tents in a small clearing near a creek, its gentle gurgle providing a constant, though somewhat unsettling, background score. Once the camp was established, a heavy silence seemed to settle upon the group.

Liam, trying to break the somberness, suggested exploring the nearby trails before it became too dark, a suggestion met with mixed enthusiasm. "Sounds fun." Maya stated plainly.

Ben nodded slightly, while Chloe seemed slightly hesitant, clinging to Liam's side. As dusk descended, the forest took on a different character, its familiar trees transforming into dark, imposing figures.

They walked in a close formation, the deepening shadows stretching their outlines into monstrous forms. A heavy fog began to coil around their feet, limiting their visibility, making the forest even more alien.

An unease grew between them as their playful mood dissipated. They agreed to turn back.

Back at camp, with the comforting warmth of the campfire pushing back against the encroaching darkness, a collective sense of dread fell upon the group, its invisible fingers slowly tightening around them.

The sounds of the woods were different now, laced with an undercurrent of unease. It sounded like breathing to Chloe, soft at first, growing with intensity as if the forest itself had begun to pant and groan.

Liam tried to soothe everyone's worries. "It's just the woods," He spoke, his voice trying to be light, but it wavered.

"You always get a bit spooky at night, relax." His attempt was ineffective, only seeming to heighten the tension. The story he was now trying to recount didn't make it much better either.

They had just settled when a sudden, bone-chilling screech tore through the quietness of the night. It cut short Liam's recounting of a local myth, an old story from a nearby town about disappearances and malevolent woods creatures.

Chloe jumped and cried out in surprise, and a sudden frantic rush seemed to grow within the circle of friends. All of their eyes frantically met, asking who else had just heard what they did.

The noise had an inhuman sound to it that no one in the group had ever experienced. It set them off.

"What was that!?" She uttered, her voice sharp. Ben and Maya just shook their heads with similar fearful eyes, all collectively knowing it wasn't a typical forest animal call.

Liam stood abruptly, grabbing a thick branch he'd set aside for the fire, holding it tight like it was a weapon. He said "I'll check around, you all just stay here and stick to the fire."

Maya nodded with pursed lips while Chloe reached out and grabbed at his sleeve, looking him directly into his eyes for a small moment. Liam ventured a short distance from the fire with no real aim.

There was only darkness and his imagination to greet him. The trees looked as though they were reaching for him, gnarled and claw-like.

When he saw nothing out of place, he returned to camp, attempting to downplay what they had all just heard. However, as he tried to reassure the group, another chilling scream tore through the night.

This one was closer, more guttural and full of malice. It brought the color out of every face in their small camping circle.

The hours following the second scream dragged, and every little sound had them on edge, they stayed awake until the very first light appeared and seemed to wash the terror of the night away.

The woods, painted with a gentle sunlight, seemed somewhat calmer, even forgiving. Liam, thinking himself and his group to be overly worried and maybe paranoid, decided to venture into the woods.

He went with the group in tow and searched for clues as to the screeches from last night. "There was no sign of any animals."

He admitted, attempting to soothe their worried hearts "There's probably some animal out here we've never heard before. Relax."

Even as he was talking his confidence seemed to be faltering, his bravado had seemingly faded to only a sliver of his earlier self. The group, now a small single unit, made a pact.

They'd stick together no matter what until they could leave for good later in the afternoon. It wasn't long into their group expedition into the woods, the same woods they all decided felt eerier with the early light of the morning.

Things began to go horribly wrong. Chloe stopped mid-sentence with her typical chatter, and as Maya looked back to find what was keeping her, there was simply nobody there anymore.

One second Chloe was there, the next she wasn't. A look of shock replaced all color in Maya's face.

A loud gasp left Ben, and Liam frantically turned his head around, trying to catch anything. All three tried to find Chloe, searching, yelling out for her.

In an instant it was over, Chloe vanished like a broken memory in the span of a breath of wind. Liam, refusing to believe what they all knew was very much happening, frantically called for her again and again.

"CHLOE!! CHLOE!" Ben and Maya simply began staring around and scanning for anything out of the ordinary with fear.

Every now and then, each would still look behind at where they were and wonder if they just went mad. This was becoming a nightmare.

Panic took over their once-stable minds as they rushed back to the camp, their movements quick, almost frantic. "We have to get out of here."

Liam said, breathless and frantic. "Right now, before something else…" His voice trailed off as his brain seemed unable to produce further words at what happened.

Maya didn't need words. However, their dash back to the tents ended only in a new set of horror.

Ben stumbled a moment into their rush to return back home to the camping grounds. He pointed to a tree ahead of them where there seemed to be small scratches in the bark.

Before he had a chance to warn them, an identical set of scratches could be seen moving rapidly and silently across a tree ahead of them before Ben yelled and dropped to the ground.

When the other two reached him it seemed the man was trying to claw at his throat, gurgling something that none of them could discern from his frantic vocalizations. There wasn't any wound, but his blood flowed thick.

Maya had to back away slowly. Liam was left to see all that had taken place.

He stood back frozen as a new wave of shock covered his every single thought. Then in the span of just another second it was all over.

Ben, once in distress, was gone, his blood soaked into the dirt. Again, without even a breath, one of the group was simply not there anymore.

What happened felt so wrong and illogical. It was against nature.

There were simply no answers as they continued onward back towards the tents. The air around them grew cold as they were running.

It was all turning to black. Maya and Liam finally arrived at their now abandoned campsite, their lungs burning.

Their once well-organized camp now appeared ravaged and abandoned with an unknown disarray of thrown gear that none of them were the cause of. Maya just stopped moving for a moment and stood staring off.

Her breath labored. The only remaining fire now felt pitiful and not like any type of comfort anymore.

All hope of leaving felt fleeting and she wanted nothing more than for her parents to know she was sorry for being reckless and silly. Liam was moving frantically in all directions, now screaming into the woods.

He yelled like a mad man "HELLO, IS ANYBODY THERE? WHAT IS GOING ON?!"

It brought more fear into the moment to just hear Liam scream like he was doing. It felt out of character, and a sign that everything he was doing was becoming more like a fevered hallucination.

Liam started going on his knees sobbing, pleading for someone to respond or let him in on their dark game, his fear turning him into nothing more than an erratic wreck. Maya finally moved forward with her body dragging.

She dragged herself towards her last known friend. The sun above turned completely white for a moment.

Then before Maya had a chance to grab him and leave the godforsaken place, she collapsed silently onto the floor where a second prior Liam was crying. She felt nothing.

The very second her forehead met with the dirt she vanished. Liam watched this as a broken sob shook his entire body.

All his strength gone. This nightmare continued with even more speed.

He seemed to not have even enough time to react. Liam now alone and trembling, decided to abandon what they came to camp with and simply decided that walking on a path back the way they had driven would be best.

With all that they experienced so far in one night and one early morning he decided running for his life was no longer an option. It's very real.

He knew. He made very little time to think or remember his last friends before he was confronted by what came from beyond that thick forest cover, his eyes widening as they took up all his attention.

With no energy to spare for anything other than staring, Liam did. He only focused all of himself onto the sight of his dead friends coming from within the woods.

It started with his group emerging from the tree line, walking mindlessly, their eyes dark holes without light. Their skin gray.

Each dragged their feet across the brush, making slow deliberate movements with no aim or sense. Then what he was staring at was followed by an almost unending row of missing people throughout time.

Missing people from this same place emerging from beyond his sights in the trees. Everyone who has gone missing seemed to finally all return with no soul.

His body seemed to refuse the fact that his mind now processed all this into an instant new understanding. It was a sick, cruel fate for those in his town and surrounding areas.

As Liam stood and looked on, every inch of himself screamed to run. He felt himself start to tremble at a faster and faster rate, not quite able to control the bodily panic building in him.

This new fear felt like a beast coming out from under him, this was a type of horror that defied words, and left his own comprehension to shreds. Yet he still simply stared and took it all in.

It all slowly advanced like an inevitable death toward his single trembling figure, they dragged every single body towards Liam as the color finally fell out of his face. Liam was forced to face what all others failed at.

He felt he had gone through too much. Liam closed his eyes and accepted what fate had given to him as their movements and soft moans took the stage, reaching out with what appeared to be dead gray hands.

They were grabbing and scratching at what little flesh he still had. Liam, barely even a thought left of what he was anymore, felt it take place, then like all of the others it ended for Liam.

He just became a thing and then nothing more, disappearing to join them into the trees, joining the procession of the damned. Later, when the searches started, they found no trace.

No ripped tents. No belongings scattered carelessly around.

Nothing remained except the faint campfire, still smoking softly. The forest remained an unyielding wall of green, silent and full, its secret guarded forever.