„She must have gone back to the house while you guys were still walking around. She must've called someone already, because we're not there. She has to be at the house!" I repeat angrily, stomping my way through the forest, with Daisy and Norah following me worriedly.

„Chloe, please, slow down. I'm sure Syria is alright, okay?" Daisy tries cautiously to calm me. But I ignore her attempt and keep walking in a fast pace and telling myself comforting theories to not let my mind wander to worse case scenarios.

„Chloe, you're going the wrong way." Norah says carefully this time. I stop and look at her. She's got a fearful expression on her face. So I must have a really scary stare on my own. Waiting for her to tell me the right way, she doesn't respond so I decide to talk.

„Where?!" I snap.

Norah weakly jumps before pointing to a different direction than the one I was heading to. So I keep walking, not feeling a tiny bit bad about the way I'm treating them.

After a few seconds of walking the direction that Norah pointed to, I notice a small visible path without the usual branches. I continue walking until I start seeing light in the distance, signaling that we're reaching the forest edge. A few steps later, I'm out on the fields. I look around and I find the abandoned house in distance. I also realize that it's in a whole other perspective than the last time I saw it before entering the forest, meaning that the path I just walked and the „path" I made when I ran into the forest were almost in opposite directions. Meaning this forest is fucking big and dizzying. Meaning it will be hard to find the other two girls. Well, that's just fantastic.

I hear noises behind me and I'm reminded that I had Daisy and Norah following me. Both reach the edge, too, before standing next to me and gathering their breath.

„So, what now?" asks Daisy.

I look around once more. Syria is nowhere in sight.

„We go back to the house, and we look in there," I simply reply before taking the first steps towards the house. I hear somebody sigh behind me before I hear their footsteps following me again. I understand that they must be annoyed by my bitchy attitude. I do. But they weren't the ones locked in a cabin for hours with no food or water. I am seriously hungry, thirsty, confused and in physical pain. And I have to pee!

I try to push this thought to the back of my head, until I reach the house. As I'm standing on the front porch I realize that Daisy and Norah are still some feet away, meaning I had to wait until Daisy, who had the key to the van, would arrive. After waiting for a few minutes I ask her for the van key and she hands it to me. I head to the back of the van, quickly find what I need and walk to the back of the house to find a spot to pee. Yeah, I don't care if anyone sees me in a distance. Also, it's not like there's anyone around, anyways.

In the process of pulling my pants down, I feel my phone falling on the grass. I totally forgot about it. What if someone tried to contact me? As I pick it up and press the power button I realize that it's dead. No wonder I forgot about it.

Once I'm done, I walk around the house towards the van, put the wipes back in the van and head inside of the house, where Daisy and Norah should be. As I enter I see Norah coming out of the living room.

„Daisy's upstairs. I've already looked around the rooms down here," she informs me. I nod, heading towards the staircase, only to be faced with Daisy, who's coming back down.

„Nothing up here either."

I sigh. I have no plan what to do next. Or where to look for next. I look at both girls and they seem as confused and frustrated as me at this point. Did Adrianna really do this to both of them? What if they are tied up somewhere around the forest, just like she did with me? Or what if she did worse? I shudder, at the thought of something really bad happening to them.

„Chloe?"

I must've zoned out cause I keep hearing my name and I only really react to it on the third or fourth call. I look up at Daisy who's been calling me.

„What?"

„Can you hear that, too?" she whispers, trying to make me hear whatever she heard.

They stay silent with focused looks on their faces, to try to make out what they're hearing. At first I don't hear anything but then I hear this shouting voice as if it's miles away.

„It comes from there," Norah turns to the direction of the kitchen, showing us where she thinks that voice might come from. Then she takes a few steps towards the kitchen and we follow her. The voice gets, indeed, louder and easier to decipher. And I think I know who it might belong to.

„Is that Syria?!" Norah verbalizes what my mind was realizing.

„Yes, I think it is," I reply before looking around to try to find out where it comes from. Turning my head towards the locked door, the only door that we couldn't open in this house, it becomes clear that the voice comes from inside there. The other girls seem to notice the same and grow as confused as me.

"How the hell..." I begin to say while I take a few steps towards the door before pulling the doorknob down. Locked.

"...did she get in there?" Norah finishes my sentence.

I press the side of my head against the door to try to hear what she's saying. I still can't really understand it but there is one more thing I hear. It's like she's knocking heavily on another door. This doesn't make any sense. I turn to Daisy and Norah and make a gesture to tell them to come hear it for themselves, before stepping away from the door. Both girls press their ears against the door at the same time. After a few seconds Daisy's facial expression changes, meaning she noticed the new noise, too.

"Is she locked behind another door that's behind this one?" she asks unsurely.

"I think so," Norah and I answer in unison.

Then, without a warning, Norah turns towards the door, places her hands around her mouth and starts to call for Syria loudly, making me and Daisy jump due to the unexpected sound.

"SYRIA, ARE YOU IN THERE?"

She keeps quiet for a few seconds to try to hear any response, but seems to not get any. So she calls her again, this time even louder. So loud that I even have to cover my ears. Did I mention that Norah has a strong voice?

This time she seems to get a response. Syria stopped knocking and shouting like before, only now she shouted once, short and in a questioning tone. And I'm pretty sure she said "Guys?".

"YES,WE'RE HERE!" Norah keeps shouting loudly.

Syria seems to shout an answer but I can't make out what she says. Neither do the other girls.

"JUST WAIT, WE'RE COMING TO GET YOU!" After Norah replies to Syria, she turns to us with a worried look.

"How are we going to get her out of there?" she asks.

„Good question," I reply.

„There MUST be some kind of key around here," Daisy says looking around in expectation of finding a key that belongs to this door. So that's what Norah and I do. We step away from the door to go look for a key.

Since the kitchen is rather empty, our search in this room is quickly done and unsuccessful. So we head to the living room, where we opt to search the different drawers of the big bookshelf.

„Here's a key!" Daisy shouts.

Norah and I, both walk up to her to look at the new found key.

„Bingo!" says Norah. I take the key and walk back to the kitchen to try it on. But the key doesn't turn. I try a few more times but no success.

„Okay, not so Bingo," Norah says in a disappointed tone.

„Keep searching," I command before heading back to the living room to open the rest of the drawers. But none of us finds anything. Looking around I decide to go look over the fireplace, next to the framed photographs and the candles. But there's nothing. Daisy opted to look inside the grandfather clock, but doesn't find any key either. Meanwhile, Norah is on the floor, looking under the bookshelf, under the table and under the couches. After a while, she looks up and shakes her head. Where could this stupid key possibly be?!

„What about 'over' the bookshelf?" Norah wonders as she gets up to her feet and uses her hands to wipe away the dust from her jeans. I look up at the suggested searching place.

„It's high, we'll at least need a small ladder. Or..."

I turn around to face the coffee table. Then I grab each side before pulling it closer to the bookshelf. It's pretty heavy and I have to be careful to not let the framed picture and the porcelain vase fall over, so I ask both girls for help. Norah and Daisy walk over to the other side to slowly push the table towards me. We finally manage to get it next to the bookshelf before I carefully place the picture and the vase on the other end of the table, so that I can climb on the end next to the bookshelf.

Carefully, I place one foot on the table, checking if it's strong enough to carry my weight. To support my balance, I hold onto the shelf, before placing my second foot on the table. It seems to sustain my weight just fine, so I stand up straight until my face meets the top of the bookshelf. However, I still can't properly see what's on top of the bookshelf so I place my hands next to my face, on the bookshelf and I pull myself up while going  on my tiptoes. When I'm finally able to see something, I'm disappointed.  All I see is dust and little pieces of wallpaper.

„Wow, here's nothing either," I inform the two girls, starting to become annoyed. They both sigh.

I begin to make my way back down, but in the process of jumping off of the coffee table, I forget the vase standing next to my foot and as I hit the ground, the porcelain vase falls off of the table, too, shattering into pieces as it hits the ground.

„SHIT!" I exclaim.

„Great job, Chloe!" Norah comments, being the smart ass that she is.

I look down at the shattered porcelain, seeing the mess that I made. But then, among all the tiny white and blue porcelain pieces, I detect something darker and shiny. I kneel down to examine the distinct object and as soon as I draw the porcelain piece that was covering the rest of the object to the side, I notice what it is.

„Guess who just found a key?" I tell Norah with a triumphant smile after picking up the shiny key from in-between the porcelain and standing up straight again to hold the key in front of her face.

„Who says this is THE key?" she asks, trying to provoke me.

„No one," I say casually. „But I've got a feeling that this is the one we're looking for."

Norah looks at me skeptically before taking the key of my grip and heading back to the kitchen.
Daisy and I follow her. And indeed, once Norah inserts the key in the lock and tries to turn it, it unlocks the door.

"Have something to tell me?" It's my turn to make her angry. She just smiles ironically before pulling the door open.

We're faced with a dark stairway space to a basement.

"SYRIA?" Norah shouts again.

"Norah! I'm here!" we manage to hear Syria shout.

Immediately, Norah starts walking down the steps, Daisy and I following behind. Once we arrive at the end of the stairs, we can barely see where we are. It's way too dark and we can't find any light switch near us.

"Norah, is your phone still working?" I hear Daisy's voice next to me. Then I hear Norah pulling her phone out of her pocket and pressing the HOME button only to see the screen light up. She goes to the torch option and turns it on. Now we're able to see most of the basement. But before we can actually see what it looks like, we hear Syria again.

"Guys?" She shouts and we hear her clearer.

We walk to the direction of the sound until we're in front of a big old wardrobe. Confused, we look at each other, before Daisy decides to open the wardrobe door. Clothes hanging on a rail. That's what we see.

"Syria, where are you?" I ask loudly.

"Oh my god, Chloe? I'm right here!" Oh, right, I totally forgot that the last time she saw me, was when I was going into the woods. She probably thought I went missing, too. How ironically.

Anyways, the sound of her voice still comes from inside this wardrobe. Or maybe behind? I step forward and push the clothes aside, making the back of the wardrobe visible. And there's indeed a large wooden plank that's out of its place. So I try to grab it and put this aside, too.

There it is. The door Syria's been knocking on. A secret door. Now how did she get there, in the first place?

"Guys?" we hear her, reminding us that we came here to get her out.

The door is locked with two slide locks, which luckily aren't locked with any padlocks. I step forward and easily unlock them before pulling the door handle down. The door flies open and before I can really look at her, she wraps her arms around me, almost making me fall backwards.

"Oh thank god, I thought she killed you!" I hear Syria's muffled voice next to my ear. Wait, what?

"Wait, you saw Adrianna?" I ask, letting go of her.

"Yes, after you had the stupid idea of running into the spooky forest, I eventually decided to follow you and then when I found you, you were lying on the floor, and Adrianna was standing next to you with a big branch. I really thought..." she stops talking, probably recollecting the image of my possibly dead body.

"Hey, I'm here. I'm alive, babe." I say before hugging her again. But as I embrace her, I feel her wincing so I pull back.

"Are you okay?" I ask her worriedly.

But before she can say anything, I hear Daisy exclaiming next to me.

"Oh my god, is that blood on your shirt?!"

After her exclamation, I look down and I see it. A big red stain on Syria's shirt. Worried, I look up at her face and she presses her eyes and her lips together, almost as if she's trying not to cry. And then she nods.