That scream—
Darren's heart sank.
"Wait—" Charlie said quickly. "You guys heard that, right? What was that?"
"A scream?" Ava asked, her eyes lifting toward the dark canopy.
The sound came again.
Still distant. Still warped with reverb.
But closer.
"Okay… maybe we should go," Charlie said, his voice unsteady. "Guys, what is that? That— that doesn't sound like anything I've ever heard."
For someone who'd always laughed off legends and internet myths, Charlie looked shaken now. Stacy's phone lying in the dirt. The police hat. And the shape he'd seen—thought he'd seen—in the bathroom mirror.
Fear finally caught up to him.
It caught up to all of them.
"Okay," James said, forcing a laugh that didn't quite work. "It's probably just an animal, right? A bear. A wolf. Maybe—uh—a mountain lion?"
"No," Jenna said quietly.
The scream tore through the woods again—higher this time. Louder. Wrong in a way that made Darren's skin crawl.
It wasn't just echoing.
It was approaching.
Crack.
A sharp, splintering sound snapped through the trees, close enough to make everyone flinch.
A second later, the forest exploded with motion.
Birds burst from the treetops in a frantic wave—dark shapes tearing through the air, wings beating wildly as they scattered in every direction. Darren's breath caught.
Something had scared them.
Darren didn't need to think about it. Something about the scream—and the way the birds fled—twisted deep in his chest, cold and instinctive.
"A bear?" Charlie snapped. "James, you think that is a bear?"
"We need to go," Jenna said firmly.
Darren nodded immediately. So did Charlie.
James hesitated—but then the sound came again.
Closer.
That decided it.
They ran.
Not toward the sound.
Away from it.
Branches whipped at them. Roots snagged their boots. Breath tore from their lungs.
"Guys… guys…" Charlie said hoarsely.
After running flat out for what felt like forever, his legs finally gave out.
He was the first to stop.
Charlie stumbled toward a nearby tree, bracing one hand against the trunk before sliding down to the ground. His chest burned as he fought for air. A second later, Ava slowed, then staggered to a halt. Jenna bent forward with her hands on her knees. Even Darren felt his legs trembling beneath him.
They couldn't run anymore.
"We can't—" Charlie gasped. "We can't keep running like this."
"I agree," Ava said, breathless. She straightened slowly, wiping sweat from her brow. "But… what was that? The scream. The birds. That—" She shook her head. "That wasn't normal."
No one answered.
They were all still trying to breathe.
The forest loomed around them, dark and dense, swallowing sound the moment it was made. After a long moment, James pushed himself upright with an angry sigh.
"Ah, great," he snapped. "Just great." He ran a hand through his hair. "Now we've lost every single clue about where Stacy could be."
He glanced around, frustration sharp in his voice. "Or where we even are. We don't know anything anymore."
"Can we check our phones?" Jenna asked quickly, grasping for hope. "GPS? Internet? Anything?"
Darren pulled his phone from his pocket and checked the screen.
Nothing.
No bars. No signal. No loading icon.
"There's no signal," he said quietly.
Charlie's expression shifted, whatever fragile hope he'd been holding onto finally breaking. He looked away, jaw tight.
Jenna pulled Stacy's phone from her pocket. She hadn't even realized she was still holding it.
The case was unmistakable.
"This is hers," she murmured.
She pressed the power button.
The screen flickered.
White light flashed, then glitched violently—lines jittering across the display before it went dark again. Jenna frowned, shaking the phone, tapping the screen, pressing the buttons harder.
"Come on…" she muttered. "Ugh."
"Wait—" Ava said suddenly. "Guys?"
She turned slowly.
"Guys!"
Not far from them, among the trees, a deer stood watching.
It was close. Far too close for how quietly it had appeared.
Its coat was pale brown, almost gray in the low light, its body half-hidden behind a thin line of brush. It wasn't grazing. Wasn't moving.
It was just standing there.
Looking at them.
"Oh—wow," Charlie breathed, some of the tension easing from his shoulders. "Guess the forest isn't completely dead, huh?"
A small, relieved smile tugged at his mouth.
Darren felt himself relax just a little and stepped closer beside him.
Jenna lifted a hand and gave an awkward wave. "Hey there."
The deer didn't flinch.
Didn't lower its head.
Didn't blink.
It just kept staring.
Seconds passed.
"…Okay," Charlie said slowly. "That's kinda weird." He shifted his weight. "It won't stop looking."
James sighed and stepped forward. "Oh, come on."
He clapped his hands loudly.
Clap.
The sound cracked through the trees.
The deer didn't react.
"Hey—hey!" James said, irritation creeping into his voice.
The animal's dark eyes stayed locked on them, unblinking. Its head tilted slightly, as if it were listening.
It never once looked at James.
The forest around them remained silent.
Too silent.
Darren felt that tight, crawling feeling return—low in his stomach, cold and unmistakable.
"Maybe we should keep moving," he said.
The deer still didn't move.
For just a moment, Darren had the uneasy sense that its attention had narrowed—that the space between them felt smaller than it should have.
Then, without warning, the deer turned.
It slipped silently into the trees.
No crashing branches. No hurried footsteps.
Just… gone.
Charlie exhaled a breath he hadn't realized he was holding. "Huh," he said weakly. "Guess we scared it off."
Darren didn't answer.
Something about the way it had left—so smooth, so quiet—stuck with him.
"Okay," Jenna said after a moment. "We have to do something, right?"
Ava nodded. "Maybe there's another campers. Or a trail. Or—" she hesitated, voice tightening, "—somewhere we can stay for the night."
Jenna slipped Stacy's phone back into her pocket and looked ahead.
The ground in front of them sloped upward, rising gradually into thicker trees and shadow. The forest seemed denser there, the air heavier somehow, as if it were pulling them in.
Jenna swallowed. "Maybe we keep going this way," she said. "Higher ground. Maybe it leads somewhere."
No one liked it.
But no one argued.