This all felt like a script. Like something they'd planned, staged, and acted out. It would've made a hell of an episode or even a three-parter, but this shit was serious. No one was recording. They were lost in the woods with strangers and Dean was possibly breaking one of their cardinal rules of business—something completely unlike him.

"I don't know what to do," Arlo mumbled, looking at Chris as he lowered himself into one of the folding chairs next to the fire.

"I wanna talk to these girls," Chris said, striding over to the tent Dean had disappeared into. "Hey, Dean."

"Later, Man," Dean replied from inside the nylon shelter. "Just get some rest."

Annie's giggle followed. "Or not!" she added.

Chris balled his hands into fists. If they were gonna be difficult, maybe he could get some information out of the other girl. His gaze shifted to the other tent. There was still a light on inside. Still a bit of movement. He purposely bumped Arlo on his way towards Sara's tent, startling him.

"You okay?" he asked under his breath as he paused.

Arlo shifted uncomfortably. "Yeah. Guess I was dozing," he replied, rubbing his eyes. It was a little alarming how quickly he'd apparently slipped unconscious as soon as he'd allowed himself to sit down again. Maybe it was the stress catching up with his body.

He watched Chris stalk over to Sara's tent and cast him a nervous glance before leaning in close to the zipped-up flap. "Hey, Sara?"

"Yeah?" came Sara's voice, which sounded as clear as if she were standing right next to him. Which probably meant she'd been able to hear pretty much everything going on.

"Uhm... We're still pretty awake," he lied, meeting Arlo's apprehensive gaze for a minute. "Wanna hang out for a bit? We were thinking of walking over to the circle. Ya know, with our clothes on, since someone-" He raised his voice for emphasis. "Seems to want some alone time."

Arlo's leg was bouncing as he watched from across the campfire, waiting to see how the seemingly milder of their two "fans" would react. Even that claim was something he was starting to question. Maybe they weren't big fans. Maybe the girls had only watched just enough to recognize him and Chris, Dean was never shown on camera, and for some reason had wanted to sound like they were more into them than they were... Maybe it was his ego talking, but the girls just didn't seem as enthused over them as fans usually were when they ran into them.

After the slow draw of the zipper, Sara crawled out and dusted off her jeans. "Okay, sure. Why not," she said, standing then tucking some of her hair behind her ear.

Chris looked over at Arlo, tipping his head for his best friend to follow, after he motioned for Sara to lead the way.

"So," Chris said after they'd walked a couple of feet and he'd stuffed his free hand in his pocket. "I don't mean to sound creepy or anything, but like... Are you and your friend not concerned about being alone out here, just the two of you?"

"Yeah," Arlo joined in, immediately catching where Chris was leading with his question. "I mean I know we wouldn't do anything to hurt anyone, but it honestly doesn't sound very smart to invite strange guys to stay at your camp."

"Hey, I'm not that strange," Chris said, but his joke was distinctly lacking in its usual energy. "You, on the other hand..."

"I'm just saying, if I found out my sister and her friend ran into some guys in the woods and invited them to chill for any reason I would go ape-shit."

"That's so sexist. Women can be dangerous too, you know," Sara cracked a small smile at the two of them as they walked, but it seemed forced, just before she'd turned her face away from the reach of their flashlights. It could have just been that she was tired or considering what they'd said, but it was definitely far different from her friend's forward and carefree attitude. "I follow my gut. And trust me, you guys don't give off the creeper vibe," Sara explained. "Honestly expected you three to leave. You seemed pretty spooked earlier."

"Well... That had been the plan," Chris said.

"Clearly we got turned around somehow," Arlo grumbled.

Once again, as soon as they stepped into the circle, the change in atmosphere was immediate—like crossing into water that had gotten dramatically deeper. The air around them felt colder, and the lack of near-enough trees gave the beams of their flashlights nothing to find within the impenetrable blackness around them.

"So, have you seen a lot of our videos?" Arlo asked, turning briefly just to satisfy the need to see that faint, orange glow from the campfire.

"I've seen a few," Sara said, her attention on the ground as she scuffed up some dirt with her sneaker. "I like your newer stuff, it's got better resolution. Your latest one in the sanatorium was my favorite so far."

"Sanatorium?" Chris's brows furrowed and he turned towards Arlo. "Did we do a sanatorium this season?"

Arlo mirrored his confusion, his chest tightening as a chill crept down his spine. But before he could respond, Sara did.

"Yeah, it went up yesterday. It's kind of the reason Annie wanted to come out here in the first place. She loves all that weird kind of stuff... I mean I do too, but..." Sara trailed off.

Both of the boys were speechless and the color had drained from their faces, though it would've been nearly impossible to tell in the dark. The video Sara was talking about had went live nearly eight months ago. And on top of that, if Sara had watched it "yesterday" then she and Annie couldn't have been out here any longer than they'd been.

"You're sure it was the sanatorium? The Waverly Hills Sanitorium?" Chris asked.

"Mhm." Sara nodded. "You had Ryan with you in that episode."

Chris and Arlo again exchanged brief, but loaded glances. If they'd detected any amount of disingenuousness in either her tone, body language, or face, they could've easily called bullshit... If what she'd said had come from the other girl, Annie, they could've called bullshit... It seemed in line with her kinda off-sense of humor, anyway. Maybe she'd even put Sara up to it—like the dancing naked in the rain at night thing.

It was possible, probably even likely, that the shadows smothering Sara's frame had hidden something they'd missed, but she didn't sound like she was lying. She sounded like she honestly believed what she was telling them.

So, either she was a fantastic actress that had been playing a character this whole time, and was simply fucking with them... or she was telling the truth as she knew it... And the latter was scary as shit.

"Have you and Annie, like, felt any different since you got here?" Chris probed, watching Arlo as he again checked for the camp to keep himself oriented.

"I don't know... Things have been a little weird. I just don't want Annie to think I'm scared or anything, but I keep feeling like something's... off. Ya know?"

Chris widened his eyes slightly at Arlo, who gave him a knowing look in return. "Yeah. I mean... This place definitely seems like it can screw with your head," Chris said.

Arlo turned the flashlight in his hand. "How long are you two planning to camp for?" He had a point in asking the question, especially after what she'd said about the sanatorium episode, but he hated the sound of it the moment the query had left his mouth.

For some reason, he couldn't help but think about how ominous, dark, or even taunting some of their questions could come across. 'How long are you planning to be out here?' became, '...How long would it be before anyone reported you missing?' Like some psycho questioning how long he had before cops or search parties began combing the maze of bent trees for the pair of girls.

Arlo tried to physically shake off the oppressively uncomfortable air that clung to his spine. Why had that thought even occurred to him? He was already fucking scared. He didn't need to creep himself out more by thinking of possible horror-esque scenarios. He already felt like he was in a nightmare.

"Just the weekend."

Chris stopped, pointing his flashlight at her torso to better see her face without blinding her—not that there was much of anything out here to see. "And how many days have you been here already?" he wondered, casting Arlo a side-long glance.

"A night. Oh! Wait, no. Two." Sara paused to think a little harder as she tucked another strand of hair that had fallen loose back behind her ear.

"I uhh-" Chris rubbed his arms. "I don't wanna alarm you or anything, but... I think you've got your days a little mixed up."

Her brows knitted together as she directed her attention back to the barren earth and crossed her arms a little tighter. The silence between them grew tense as the boys waited pensively for her to respond.

"...Sara?"

"No, I'm sure we came out here Friday. It took us longer to finish packing because we were watching the new episode at my house." She sounded like she was telling herself more than them now. "And today is Saturday, we're going home tomorrow."

"I really think you should check your phone. Do you have a signal out here?" Arlo asked, resisting the urge to needlessly pull out his own phone. He didn't wanna drain the battery.

"Yeah, where's your phone at?" Chris encouraged. He wanted to get to the bottom of this. "Has anyone tried to reach you?"

"I left it in the car."

Chris let the slightest bit of relief trickle into his mind, despite his concern about when exactly the girls had gotten to the forest. It meant Arlo might have been right. There was another parking lot. That would explain why they hadn't seen another car.

"Wait—no. I should have it right-" Sara's hand was halfway to her hip when she paused and her brows knitted together. "No, that's not right... I..." Sara suddenly spun and looked around—panic finally seized her features. "I don't remember..."

Chris and Arlo cringed almost in perfect unison.

"Oh shit! Fuck!" She clutched her head, hysteria rising in her words. "I can't remember!"

"Shh! Shh. Uhh—it's okay," Arlo said, reaching out with one hand to awkwardly pat her upper arm.

His gaze moved to Chris, and he could practically feel his best friend's plea for help. Reluctantly, Chris stepped closer. "Maybe you did leave it in your car. We can just go check, right?" He suggested. "Not even a thing. No need to panic." Even as he spoke, Chris didn't wanna acknowledge that every little hair on the nape of his neck, across his arms, and possibly even on his legs, was standing on end.

Sara took a deep breath and exhaled slowly as she shook out her hands, but tears were already starting to glisten in the corner of her eyes. "Right, right..." Her words quivered as she struggled to calm herself. "I'm just freaking myself out..." she said before taking a deep breath and closing her eyes while pressing her palms to her forehead.

After a few more minutes, Sara shook her head. "We're just scaring ourselves. It's dark and this forest has a lot of creepy stories tied to it. Let's not get lost on top of everything else. We'll just wait for morning. It's got to be like midnight or close already."

Chris squinted into the dark. "Yo, did the campfire go out?" he asked, alarm raising the pitch of his words. "I don't see it."

"No. It's right there," Arlo replied, pointing his flashlight in the correct direction.

Chris stared for a moment. He was sure that it should've been the other direction based on the way they were facing. There was no way they'd moved enough for him to have gotten so disoriented so quickly, right?

"Oh..." Chris finally grumbled, leading the way towards the glow. He hadn't remembered walking this far, and the familiar realization made his stomach twist. They were still in the circle, at least. So that was something.

"Wait," Arlo said, pitching forward as he strained to see something off to their right.

"What?" Chris said a little too loudly to not sound scared.

Arlo looked in front of them, then to the right again. "Is that someone else's campfire?"

"I don't think there's anyone else camping out here," Sara said.

There was definitely an orange glow, flickering a little ways back into the tree line—roughly the same distance as theirs.

"Honestly, I think that one might be ours," Chris said. It seemed more accurate to his sense of direction, not that that hadn't been fucked within this damned forest.

"No, dude," Arlo said firmly. "I've been keeping my eye on ours."