𝕗ｏ𝓊ℝ ғⓇ𝔦ⒺⓃ𝓭𝕊

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" It was a dark and stormy night. As strokes of slender lightning cleaved through the starry canvas and roars of angry thunders shook every dry leaf, four friends - Taylor, Roy, Jessica, and Hailey drove into the deepest, darkest extents of the forbidden forest for their camping hike.

Why forbidden one might wonder. Well, the reason lies in the illustration.

Huge canopies diverging to massive extents kept the air dark and humid even on the brightest summer mornings. The loam underneath was always wet and cold, enough to curl one's fragile toes. Inanimate sounds flared up every once in a while, agitating the tranquility of the timberland. Innocent souls were appalled at going anywhere near.

Chills would run down one's spine at the mere thought of stepping inside. But unaware of all that, the four friends laughed and sang their way into the clutches of the unearthly night.

"How much longer will it take to reach the place?" asked Hailey with a voice full of eagerness that rippled against the eerie, moonless night. The excitement in her smile splashed colors of light over the shady sight.

"30 more minutes max" answered Taylor, the driver, sparing a glance at the GPS before looking back at the road. Beside him sat Jessica, his lovely soon-to-be bride. With one hand on the steering wheel, he reached and held Jessica's hand with the other, the latter blushed beneath her lover's touch. A satisfactory grin appeared on her lips as a warm sensation sparkled against her skin. And adding to the moment, the speakers blasted a playlist of their favorite romantic mix.

On the other hand and completely distanced from the three sat Roy, lost in his own absurd thoughts. From the beginning, he was against this inconvenient excavation but was still forced into it by his friends. He was the only one among the four who believed in the existence of a supernatural universe and that the forest had some connection with that very universe. So he remained skeptical. No matter how much he tried, he was unable to brush off the paranoia that had been feeding on him since the car took off from Taylor's garage. But nobody paid him a heed.

They should have.

Roy's bleak instincts started to come to fruition when something unanticipated happened.

"What the fuck, dude!" Hailey scoffed as soon as the automobile came to a staggered halt in the middle of nowhere.

"What happened babe?" asked a worried-looking Jessica, her gaze strolling over the face of an unfazed Taylor who was busy shuffling up the gears.

"Don't worry guys. There must be some jam in the engine. Hang on, I'll go fix it..." with that the boy jumped out of the vehicle and into the dark scope.

Four teenagers, hiking in an unknown periphery, under a sinister night. What could go wrong, right?

Stacking the lead up on a rod, Taylor started to examine the engine, yet minutes passed with no solution. The pulsating excitement that stifled the car just a few minutes ago was replaced with an agonizing affliction and a splash of uncertainty wiped away the expectant smiles. Horror had begun to slowly seep into the air, the musical ambiance long seized.

To make things worse, the headlights started to flicker until they reached a state of deep slumber leaving the friends amid a pitch-black new moon.

BANG

A loud noise reverberated against the silent wind startling the three inside the car. Looking around they realized that the bonnet lid had fallen thus creating the abrupt clatter. However, everything else seemed calm and empty. A little too empty.

Where is Taylor....?

A petrified Jessica hurried down the car, wailing and whimpering as she searched for her fiance with frantic shuffles. Shortly after, Hailey and Roy came down mirroring Jessica's actions in searching for their friend. It seemed as if the night had just engulfed the man whole, seizing his mere existence.

But then, the scout came to a halt when a terrified screech escaped Hailey's mouth. Within seconds Roy and Jessica were beside her, and tracing her gaze with their own they found a thick stream of blood flowing out from underneath their car.

With trembling limbs and a quavering heart, Roy bent down to take a glance. And at that very instant a chilling sensation ran down his spine rendering him paralyzed.

A dead Taylor lay underneath the car with his head turned around 180 degrees...

"Fuck Y/N, you almost gave me a heart attack" Rose bounces up from her seat with one hand pressing against her chest, soothing her panting heart, and the other wiping the petrified sweats off her forehead. Beside her is her brother Jimin who has a face that tells he just heard the most horrifying story ever. And opposite to the two is your own brother who is barely holding on to his laughter.

"What? You asked for a scary story" You fake a disappointment while trying hard to hold back a crackle of your own. The pale faces of your friends don't fail to amuse you and a victory smirk surfaces on your lips. After all, it is a horror storytelling contest, how can you not win?

"Yes, a scary story, not a frightening one that would keep me from sleeping for days!"

"Not cool Y/N.....you freaked us out!" Jimin whines like a little kid, sitting next to his sister and hugging his folded sleeping bag close to his chest. You did make your story a little too daunting by the way you were narrating it but the expression on the Park siblings' faces is worth it.

"Come on guys, what's the point of having a scary story contest if you don't wanna be scared?" Jackson, your big brother, supports you as always.

The four of you are gathered in your house for a slumber party. It's your senior year in high school and like in any other teen drama, you guys are adamant about enjoying it to the fullest. Jackson is one year older than you and is already in college while the Park twins are in the same grade as you.

Since childhood, you have had this undying fascination for the supernatural world. Although being born to a pair of extremely successful doctors made you quite skeptical about the existence of such a dimension but the fictions created regarding the same never fail to intrigue you. Somewhere deep within, you desire inhumane souls to be real and to be around you, even though you know they aren't.

A world with lycans and vamps and witches will be so cool, won't it?

The intense connection you feel towards these non-existent creatures is unexplainable yet you never feel the urge to deny it. After all, in today's world, with so many books and movies about the extraterrestrials, it's quite common for a teenager to fantasize about such things.

"Guys.... let's just do something else....I really wanna get rid of this creepy mood" The two males nod to Rose's proposition and Jackson gets up to turn on the TV. A set of Harry Potter movies is already resting by the counter for you had previously planned on binge-watching the entire series once more.

"Wait, I'll get the popcorn" saying so, you spring up from the couch ready to depart to the kitchen when suddenly an unpleasant, almost scary, sound fills up the hall paired with a vibration inside your pocket.

"What the hell man, even your ringtone is creepy!" without saying anything you just pass a wink towards Jimin before walking away to answer the call.

"Hey Mom, what's up?"

You place the gizmo against your ear waiting for your mother's voice to reach you but all you hear is a messed up and broken sentence. You lower down your phone to check it, only to find a single bar on the top right corner. So you place it back on and speak up.

"Wait Mom, the network inside is crazy, I'll just go out in the garden..."

Hurried steps lead you to the green expanse and you are finally able to hear your mom checking up on you. The conversation goes on for a few minutes with her assuring the short span of their work trip and revisiting the list of ground rules.

After bidding your mom goodbye you disconnect the call and turn around only to bump against a hard chest. You believe it is Jackson waiting to hear from Mom but as you look up, an unfamiliar face greets you.

"Hello....what are you doing in my garden?.....do I know you?"

The figure, which clearly belongs to a man, stands quietly in front of you, totally unbothered by your inquiry. His body is wrapped in a black oversized hoodie and a pair of black joggers. Long messy bangs cover his entire forehead while a black cotton mask shields his lower face.

However, his eyes are visible to you and the color they hold in them is a certain shade of black that you've never seen in anybody's eyes before. Those orbs seem to be as dark as the bottom of the sea and even though you want to reprimand him for his intrusion, you somehow find yourself losing in some sort of a trance.

The eye contact between you both intensifies before an uncanny dilation makes itself visible in his dark orbs. You want to break free and look away but for some weird reason, you can't. You can't blink, you can't speak, you can't breathe. All you can do is stare, blankly. You remain stuck in the trance until dizziness gets to you, knocking you out in the arms of the mysterious stranger. 

└──» To be continued ✎ 。