Chapter 5: The Forest of Nightmares

Kai's POV

School was over, but the weight of everything that had happened still pressed down on us. We had just vandalized the school bathroom under the app's command, and while we’d managed to complete the task, it didn’t feel like a victory. The laughter and pranks were long gone, replaced by a gnawing fear that we were only beginning to understand.

We trudged to the bus stop together, the usual chatter missing. Tae, Marianne, Rubin, Mark, and I stood in silence, each lost in our own thoughts. The sun was setting, painting the sky in hues of orange and red, but even that beautiful sight felt ominous.

As we waited, an empty bus rolled up in front of us. It was unusual—no number, no destination on the front display. Just a plain, white bus with tinted windows.

"Is this even a public bus?" Mark asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Who cares," Rubin sighed, clearly exhausted. "Let's just get home. I need to sleep this nightmare off."

We boarded the bus, the doors closing behind us with a loud hiss. Inside, it was eerily silent. There were no other passengers, no driver in sight, and no familiar city sounds. The seats were old and worn, creaking as we sat down.

Marianne glanced around uneasily. "Guys, this doesn’t feel right."

"Nothing feels right anymore," I muttered, leaning my head against the window. I was too tired to argue, too tired to care. But the moment I closed my eyes, everything went black.

...****************...

I woke up to the sound of rustling leaves, the smell of damp earth filling my nostrils. My eyes snapped open, and I shot up, realizing I was no longer on the bus. I was lying on the cold, wet ground, surrounded by tall, twisted trees that seemed to stretch endlessly into the sky. The sun was gone; a thick mist clung to the air, making it hard to see more than a few feet in any direction.

My heart raced as I scrambled to my feet, looking around wildly. "Tae? Marianne? Rubin? Mark?" I called out, my voice echoing through the eerie silence.

No answer.

Panic clawed at my chest. Where were they? Where was I?

My phone buzzed in my pocket, and I snatched it out, hoping for some sort of answer. The screen lit up with a notification from the game.

> "Welcome to Level 3, players. You’re no longer together. Find your friends before time runs out."

I cursed under my breath. The game had separated us, dumped us in this godforsaken forest. And if this was level 3, I didn’t want to know what level 4 had in store.

As I started walking, shouting my friends’ names, my phone buzzed again. I glanced down at the screen, my stomach turning at the new message.

> "Complete the tasks, or someone in your family will die. You have one hour."

My breath hitched. The game wasn’t just threatening us now—it was threatening our families. I swallowed hard, my fingers trembling as I opened the list of tasks.

The first one made my blood run cold.

> "Task 1: Cut off a finger and bury it. Proof required."

"No way," I whispered, shaking my head. This was insane. It had to be a joke. There was no way the game actually expected us to do this. But then I remembered Mia, lying in the hospital, hurt because we didn’t follow orders.

I heard a scream in the distance. It sounded like Marianne.

"Marianne!" I shouted, running in the direction of her voice. But before I could go far, another notification popped up on my screen.

> "Task 2: Find a severed animal head and wear it for five minutes. Failure to comply will result in a family member's death."

My stomach churned, and bile rose in my throat. What kind of sick, twisted game was this? I kept moving, desperate to find my friends. My phone dinged again, but I didn’t want to look.

...****************...

Elsewhere in the forest, Marianne was shaking, tears streaming down her face as she stared at her phone. Her task was different, but no less horrifying.

> "Task: Burn a deep cut into your own arm and send a photo as proof."

She couldn’t do it. Her hands trembled, holding a small, sharp rock she’d found on the ground. Her breathing was ragged, panicked. "No, no, no," she kept repeating.

She glanced around, hoping to see someone, anyone. "Kai! Tae! Rubin! Mark!" she screamed, but only her own voice echoed back.

...****************...

Rubin was stumbling through the underbrush, trying to keep his breathing steady. His task was to skin a small animal. He had found a rabbit, its eyes wide and lifeless, lying on the ground as if it had been placed there on purpose. He gagged, the thought of what he had to do making him feel sick.

"I can't do this. I can't," he whispered, dropping to his knees. His phone dinged again, urging him to hurry up, the timer ticking down mercilessly.

> "Time is running out, player. Every second you waste brings your family closer to death."

...****************...

Tae was pacing in a small clearing, his task list open on his phone. His first task was to drink a vile-looking liquid from a rusty old cup he’d found in the dirt. He picked it up, the smell hitting him instantly, making him gag. It looked like a mixture of mud and something rotting.

He hesitated, staring at the cup, his hands shaking so badly that the liquid sloshed over the edges. "This is insane. I can’t do this."

But he knew what was at stake. He took a deep breath, pinched his nose, and drank, coughing and sputtering as the foul liquid burned down his throat.

...****************...

Mark, meanwhile, was sprinting through the forest, calling out for anyone. He ignored his phone’s buzzing, unwilling to look at his task list. He was too scared to face whatever the game had in store for him. But he couldn’t ignore it forever. As he slowed down to catch his breath, he finally checked his phone.

> "Task: Break your own leg and send proof."

Mark’s face went pale. "You’ve got to be kidding me," he muttered. He looked around, searching for any sign of his friends, but the forest was empty.

Suddenly, all our phones buzzed at the same time. We each received a notification with a new message.

> "Half the time has passed. Fail to complete your tasks, and your loved ones will face the consequences. Decide now."

...****************...

I heard another scream in the distance, this time sounding like Rubin. I ran towards the sound, my heart pounding in my chest. I didn’t know what I would find, but I had to try. I had to find my friends.

I crashed through the trees, calling out their names. "Tae! Marianne! Mark! Rubin! Where are you guys?"

The forest seemed to close in around me, the mist growing thicker, colder. My phone dinged again, but I ignored it, focusing on the faint sound of voices up ahead.

And then, out of the fog, I saw them. Marianne, Rubin, Mark, and Tae, stumbling towards me from different directions, looking as terrified as I felt.

"We found each other," Marianne breathed out in relief, tears in her eyes.

"But at what cost?" I muttered, staring down at my phone, the timer ticking down. Five minutes left.

We had a choice to make, and it was the worst one of our lives. Complete the tasks and lose a piece of ourselves or refuse and risk losing the people we loved.

"Are we really going to do this?" Rubin asked, his voice shaking.

I swallowed hard, looking at the faces of my friends, my family in this twisted game. "We have to. If we don’t, it’s not just us who suffer. It’s everyone we care about."

And with that, we braced ourselves for the unspeakable, each of us stepping forward to play the game’s next level, our souls sinking deeper into the darkness.

***Download NovelToon to enjoy a better reading experience!***