Chapter 8 - The game begins

Akshay Reddy had always chased the thrill. The rush of near-death experiences, the sharp edge of danger—it was intoxicating. Maybe that's why he spent his childhood consuming action, mystery, and horror, learning every trope, every pattern. Maybe that's why, when he first heard about these woods, his first thought wasn't danger but adventure.

And maybe that's why he was here now, in the middle of nowhere, regretting every single life choice that led to this moment.

He had played his cards well—manipulating both his cousin Blaint and his father into letting him join this mission. It'll be fun, he'd told himself. A real-life horror setting? A chance to outwit death?

Yeah. Real fun.

Because now, as the air thickened with something unseen, as the trees breathed around them, as a thing was whispering from the shadows, Akshay realized something.

Every horror story followed a pattern.

The reckless ones always died first. The rational or lucky ones made it further but eventually fell. The smart ones? Either they figured out how to survive, or they were taken out for knowing too much.

Right now, he had a sick feeling that they were about to test just how accurate those rules were.

And he was suddenly very interested in which category he belonged to.

The First Mistake

When the voice first spoke—soft, playful, wrong—Akshay had tried to brush it off. He joked with Isabella, blabbered nonsense to keep his nerves in check, subtly nudging the others toward awareness. He had even spent the past week making them binge-watch horror films and read survival guides. Adapt to the madness, he told them. Don't be the first to die.

It worked too well.

Because now, instead of reacting like normal people, his teammates were teasing the entity. Joe egged Jared on. Jennie critiqued the clichés. Even Brianna started debating horror tropes out loud, like they were in a bad reality show.

Akshay glanced at Jared, who stood frozen, looking very much like his soul had already left his body. Unlike the others, Akshay knew a very important fact about Jared:

Jared was petrified of ghosts.

All his bravado? Just a pathetic attempt at looking tough. And now, Jared looked like he was about to crumble.

Akshay almost felt sorry for him. Almost.

But then The officer—the broad-shouldered officer who had spent the entire mission looking as if something go wrong—opened his mouth.

"WHERE ARE THEY?! WHERE HAVE YOU TAKEN THEM?!"

Akshay felt his stomach drop.

The moment that officer's voice rang out, the atmosphere changed.

The forest listened.

The air grew heavy, like a suffocating hand pressed against their throats. The trees stood taller, looming like silent sentinels. The ground pulsed beneath their feet—like something underneath was breathing.

Waiting.

The other officer, probably the pervious one's partner, stepped forward.

"STOP! WE'RE WITH THE POLICE! SHOW YOURSELF IMMEDIATELY!"

Akshay exchanged a quick glance with Isabella. He knew. This was it.

The first mistake.

The first death.

That officer Never Saw It Coming

"Enough of this nonsense!" Daniel barked, stepping forward, weapon raised.

"STOP!"

"DANIEL. DON'T—"

Akshay and Captain Brooks both shouted at the same time.

Too late.

The laughter came again—not human, not real, a mockery of sound. It rippled through the trees, warping the air around them. It wasn't coming from one place. It was coming from everywhere.

And then—

Daniel was gone.

No scream. No struggle.

One second, he was standing there, all arrogance and bravado. The next?

Erased.

Not taken. Not dragged away.

Just gone.

The silence that followed wasn't the silence of death.

It was the silence of something waiting to feast.

Someone—Joe? Jared? Akshay couldn't tell—gasped sharply.

And then he felt it.

This wasn't a prank/movie. This wasn't a hallucination. This was real.

And they were reaching towards losing their lives.

Captain Brooks exhaled, slow and measured, his fingers twitching near his holster.

"Daniel?" he called, his voice too calm. Too steady.

No answer.

The reporters stood frozen, cameras still rolling, their faces pale under the flickering flashlight beams and some other researchers and doctor started whimpering being scared.

Then the voice returned, dripping with amusement.

"Oh, that was fast! I barely even played with him. Humans are so... breakable."

Something cold crawled up Akshay's spine.

He shifted closer to Isabella, who remained rigid, unreadable. But he could see it—the tiny twitch in her fingers, the way her eyes flickered to the treetops.

She was calculating.

Good. Because Akshay had a feeling that if they wanted to survive this, they'd need every brain cell working at full capacity.

And then—

The trees moved.

Not swaying. Not bending.

Moving.

Like giant skeletal fingers shifting in unseen hands, they rearranged themselves. The path they had taken? Gone.

The canopy overhead thickened, snuffing out every last trace of sunlight. The only light left came from their flashlights—thin, flickering beams barely piercing through the growing fog.

And then—

Panic.

A scream tore through the night.

A gunshot.

Another scream—this time, from the shooter.

Then? Chaos.

Someone shoved into Akshay's shoulder. He barely had time to register what was happening before—

Everyone ran.

The Forest Plays Its Game

Akshay sprinted.

No thought. No hesitation. Just run.

He heard footsteps—too many, too scattered. The forest was separating them.

No, not separating.

Herding.

Something flickered in his periphery—Joe, and Regan his Teammate sprinting in the opposite direction. His other teammates scattering into the shadows.

A blur of red—Isabella.

And then—

Darkness swallowed them whole.

Akshay didn't stop. Couldn't. Branches tore at his arms, roots threatened to trip him, but he kept moving.

Until—

A voice.

Familiar.

"Jared?"

Akshay turned sharply.

A figure stood in the clearing ahead, barely visible through the mist.

Same jacket. Same stance. Same tilt of the head.

Something was off.

Jared wasn't moving.

Just… standing.

"Jared, what the hell are you doing? We have to go!"

Nothing.

The hairs on the back of Akshay's neck stood on end.

He took a step forward. Something inside him screamed don't.

And then—

Jared's head turned.

The wrong way.

Too far.

Bones didn't bend like that.

And then, in the dead silence, a whisper—

"Tag. You're it."

Something cold wrapped around Akshay's wrist.

And then he was falling.

Falling fast.