The splintering...

Morning brought no relief. The oppressive weight of the forest hadn’t lifted; if anything, it felt worse. The air was thick with dread, every breath heavy and labored. Mira, still shaken from the shadow she’d seen, played back her camera footage from the night before. Her hands trembled as she hit pause.

The screen showed what she feared: a dark figure standing in the corner, its limbs too long, its head tilted unnaturally. But it wasn’t just in the corner. In frame after frame, the figure seemed closer, moving without moving, until the final shot showed it looming just behind her.

“No way,” Ethan said, staring over her shoulder. “That’s—no. That’s just a trick of the light.”

“Explain how a shadow has eyes!” Mira snapped, pointing at two faint, glowing orbs in the last frame.

Ethan didn’t answer.

Priya was kneeling by the well again, furiously sketching the spiraling carvings into her notebook. She looked pale, her dark eyes sunken with exhaustion.

“These markings…” she murmured, almost to herself. “They’re changing. I swear they’re moving.”

Liam snorted. “Markings don’t move, Priya. You’re sleep-deprived.”

“I know what I saw!” she shot back, her voice trembling. “The symbols—some of them are fading. It’s like whatever’s in here is getting stronger.”

Sophia, ever the rational one, was pacing near the edge of the village, her arms crossed. “We need to leave. Now. Whatever’s happening here isn’t normal, and it’s not worth staying to find out.”

“There’s no path back,” Liam muttered. “I’ve checked every direction. It’s like the forest swallowed us.”

“Then we make a path,” Sophia said firmly. “We have machetes, we can—”

The ground beneath them trembled. A low, guttural sound echoed through the village, reverberating in their chests. It wasn’t quite a growl, nor a moan—it was something deeper, more ancient, and it seemed to come from everywhere at once.

“Did anyone else feel that?” Mira whispered, her voice barely audible.

Before anyone could answer, the air grew colder, and the whispers returned. This time, they weren’t distant.

"Go back… too late… stay with us."

“Who’s there?!” Liam shouted, spinning in a circle with his knife raised.

There was no reply. But then they heard it—footsteps, soft and shuffling, coming from one of the ruined houses.

“Ethan, with me,” Liam ordered, heading toward the sound.

“Are you crazy?” Mira hissed. “What if it’s—”

“We need to know what we’re dealing with,” Liam interrupted.

Reluctantly, Ethan followed. Mira, Priya, and Sophia stayed behind, their eyes darting nervously toward the forest, which seemed to loom closer with every passing minute.

Liam and Ethan entered the house, their flashlights cutting through the darkness. The interior was empty, just a collection of broken furniture and charred beams. But the footsteps continued, now coming from above them.

“There’s no second floor left,” Ethan said, his voice unsteady.

They turned their flashlights upward—and froze. A figure clung to the ceiling, its limbs twisted and too long, its face a featureless void. Slowly, it turned its head toward them.

“Run,” Liam whispered.

The figure dropped, landing silently on all fours. Liam grabbed Ethan’s arm and yanked him toward the door, but the shadow moved faster, its form stretching unnaturally as it pursued them.

They burst out of the house, shouting incoherently. The others barely had time to react before the shadow skittered to a halt at the doorway, its shape blurring and writhing as if it couldn’t cross the threshold.

“What is that?!” Sophia screamed.

The shadow let out a guttural noise, a sound that wasn’t a growl or a roar but something entirely alien. It retreated back into the darkness of the house, leaving the group shaking and breathless.

“We’re not safe here,” Liam said, his voice trembling for the first time.

“No kidding,” Mira muttered.

“We need a plan,” Priya said, clutching her notebook. “Whatever’s happening here, it’s tied to the well. We need to figure out what these symbols mean.”

“Figure it out fast,” Sophia said, scanning the treeline. “Because I don’t think that thing is the only one.”

As the group huddled together, the whispers grew louder, circling them like predators closing in. And somewhere in the distance, the childlike laughter returned, echoing through the ruins like a mocking promise of what was to come.

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