Darren locked his phone and slipped it into his pocket, his pulse hammering.
This wasn't just a monster.
And this wasn't just happening now.
"Guys… what should we do?" Ava asked quietly.
Darren didn't hesitate. "We take this to the police. They'll believe it."
Charlie nodded and pulled out his phone, swallowing hard as he took a picture of the five human skulls scattered on the ground. "If they don't believe us about the monster," he said, "they'll believe this."
Darren nodded. Everyone did.
Everyone except Jenna.
She hadn't said a word since she'd picked up the gold necklace.
She was sitting on the cave floor now, knees pulled to her chest, clutching it tightly in her fist. Her shoulders shook as quiet sobs broke through, tears slipping down her face.
"Jenna?" Darren said softly, stepping closer.
She didn't look up.
"It's about your sister," Darren said gently. "Isn't it?"
Jenna nodded.
"The skulls…" she whispered. "Five human skulls." Her voice cracked. "There's no way she made it out."
"Hey," Darren said quickly. "We don't know that. None of them are identified yet. It might not be her."
Jenna shook her head. "I know. I just—" She drew in a shaky breath. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry for bringing you all here. I shouldn't have done this."
"No," Darren said firmly. "This isn't your fault. Your sister went missing. Anyone would've done the same thing."
He hesitated, then added, "But… can you tell us what happened that day? Anything. It might matter."
Jenna wiped her cheeks with the back of her hand and nodded.
"We were driving," she said quietly. "Just the two of us. I picked her up from a friend's house. It was supposed to be a normal ride home."
She let out a small, humorless laugh. "Near the Appalachians. That's where we live, right? West Virginia."
Her voice dropped.
"But something was off about her. She was quiet. Distracted. She kept staring out the window, into the trees."
"I thought it was about our grandma," Jenna continued. "She died three days before. I figured Emma was just grieving."
She swallowed.
"But then she told me something else."
Jenna tightened her grip on the necklace.
"She said there was a way to bring Grandma back. Like she'd never left."
Everyone went silent.
"I told her that wasn't possible," Jenna said. "That she was just upset. That she didn't understand how the world worked."
Her voice trembled. "But she wouldn't let it go. We started fighting."
She closed her eyes.
"And then… she told me to pull over."
"I didn't," Jenna whispered. "I thought she'd calm down."
Instead, Emma unlocked the door.
Opened it.
And jumped out while the car was still moving.
Jenna's breath hitched. "I slammed on the brakes and ran after her, but—" She shook her head. "She disappeared into the woods. Just… gone."
Silence filled the cave again.
Darren felt his chest tighten.
Emma hadn't just wandered into the forest.
She'd gone looking for something.
And suddenly, Darren understood why the forest felt like it had been waiting.
Charlie broke the silence. "So why did you invite us?" he asked. "Out of everyone. And… why lie about it?"
Ava hesitated, then sighed. "We tried asking Jason first," she admitted. "But once he heard about what happened, he backed out. Completely."
She glanced around the cave before continuing. "And honestly? We didn't like the idea of going into the woods alone. Just us. Especially at night."
Jenna nodded faintly.
"Our parents wouldn't support it either," Ava said. "They told us to leave it to the police. Said we were being reckless."
Her voice softened. "But as Jenna's best friends… Stacy and I couldn't just sit there and do nothing."
She swallowed.
"That was before any of this," Ava added quietly. "Before we knew there were… monsters in the woods."
No one responded right away.
The cave felt heavier somehow — like the truth itself had weight.
Darren exhaled slowly. No one had meant for this to happen. But intentions didn't change reality.
And now, someone was dead.
"Hey," Darren said gently. "It's okay. Alright?"
He exhaled slowly. "We can't sit here worrying about the past. What's done is done."
His voice steadied. "We made choices. We live with them. And right now, the only thing that matters is getting out of here alive."
He looked at Jenna. "You're the one who led us here," he said. "So what do you say?"
Jenna wiped her eyes and nodded.
"Let's go," she said.
She pushed herself to her feet, using whatever strength she had left.
"Let's go," Darren said quietly.
They didn't argue.
"Do we run," Charlie whispered, "or do we walk?"
Jenna didn't hesitate. "Whatever gets us out of this place the fastest."
The police station. Early morning.
"Yes," Jenna said quickly. "Of course. We can show you the proof."
She turned toward Charlie. "You took pictures."
The officer glanced at him. "Alright," he said. "Let's see them."
Charlie pulled out his phone with shaking hands. "Yeah. They're right here."
He unlocked it, opened his gallery—
Then froze.
"Wait," he said. His voice cracked. "Where… where is it?"
He scrolled faster. One image. Then another. His breathing sped up.
"I—I swear I took like five pictures," he said. "I remember it."
The last photo on his phone was from earlier that afternoon — the camp, their tents half-set up. No cave. No skulls. Nothing else.
"That's not right," Charlie whispered.
"It's okay," Jenna said quickly, turning to Darren. "Darren has it. He took a picture of the monster."
Darren already had his phone out.
His fingers felt numb as he unlocked it and opened his gallery.
Nothing.
The image was gone.
Not just missing — erased. No trace of it anywhere.
He checked again.
Then the recycle bin.
Empty.
Darren's stomach dropped.
"How?" he whispered.
Charlie stared at him. "Darren… the proof."
Darren swallowed hard. "It's gone."
The room went quiet.
One of the officers exchanged a look with the other — not mocking, not angry — just uncertain.
Jenna took a step forward, panic creeping back into her voice. "No. No, that's not possible. It was there."
Darren looked up slowly. "Something… something did this."
The younger officer frowned. Phones don't just delete themselves.
Jenna suddenly tugged at her jeans, pulling the fabric up to reveal a fresh cut along her leg. Dried blood streaked the skin.
"This is proof," she said desperately. "I got this running through the woods."
The officers nodded slowly.
They believed that part.
"You were in the forest," the older officer said carefully. "That much is clear."
"But we're not lying," Jenna said, her voice breaking. "We can show you. Stacy's body. The cave. The skulls. They're all real."
She shook her head. "We didn't run all the way here because we were high."
Silence stretched.
Finally, the older officer closed his notebook.
"Alright," he said. "You said you can take us there?"
Jenna nodded immediately. "Yes."
"We'll check it," he said. "Right now."
Appalachian Mountains — morning.
The trail.
They followed the path back toward where they'd camped the night before.
Morning light filtered weakly through the trees, pale and gray, doing little to warm the forest. Everything looked different in daylight — less threatening at a glance, almost ordinary — but the silence hadn't changed.
Boots pressed into damp earth. Radios crackled softly. The police dog moved ahead, nose low, alert.
Suddenly, the dog stopped.
It lowered its head, sniffing the trail intently, then pulled slightly toward the side.
"Hold up," the handler said.
Something lay on the ground just off the path.
A watch.
One of the officers crouched and picked it up carefully. The glass face was cracked. Along the strap were darkened stains.
"There's dried blood," he said.
The group went quiet.
The officer glanced back at them. "You recognize it?"
Jenna nodded slowly. "Yeah… we saw it yesterday. On this trail. We thought someone might've lost it."
The chief studied the watch for a moment, then looked toward the forest ahead.
"Hmm."
Darren didn't hear the rest.
He was staring at the watch.
Not because they'd seen it before — but because something about where it lay felt wrong. Too exact. Too familiar.
His chest tightened.
The dream.
Running through the woods. Tripping. Slamming into a tree. The jolt in his arm. Something slipping loose from his wrist.
He hadn't been himself in that dream.
It was like he'd been watching through someone else's eyes.
Darren slowly lifted his gaze to the trees above the trail.
That tree.
A chill ran through him.
No way, he thought.
Is that the tree I bumped into?
How could he dream about this?
How could it feel so real?