She had been reviewing the old case files from The Missing Family Caroline’s family until dawn. The photographs were faded, the paper yellowed at the edges, but the fear etched into every report still felt fresh. The family had vanished without damage to their home, without signs of robbery, without a single scream heard by neighbors. Just gone. As if erased.Mary had read a line in the old report that unsettled her deeply “Witnesses claim to have seen lights in the woods the night before the disappearance blue, pulsing lights.” That same night, she drifted into sleep at her desk.The dream started quietly She found herself walking along a narrow, mist filled corridor. The ground was soft, wet with dew, smelling faintly of iron. She could hear dripping steady, rhythmic, like water falling into a metal basin.Then she saw them Six figures standing ahead of her shadowed, unmoving. She couldn’t see their faces, only long silhouettes stretching unnaturally across the fog.One stepped forw

The forest didn’t merely grow darker as they continued it grew alive. Every branch looked like an arm twisted in a silent scream. Every shadow pulsed like a living thing. Mary’s boots sank deeper into the damp path as she walked, each step feeling heavier than the last, as if the earth clung to her feet, trying to drag her down.The others followed closely, but the air between them carried fear so thick it felt edible. The silence was unnatural, choking, as if the forest itself demanded their undivided attention.The girl’s body had been left behind. Not abandoned, but impossible to carry Bishop Andoh insisted touching her again would be “an invitation.” No one questioned him. No one had the strength to.The sign she left remained burned into Mary’s mind ENTER IF YOU DAREThe road ahead narrowed into a tight corridor of trees whose branches arched inward, forming a tunnel that swallowed the last bit of light. Their van now sat behind them like a forgotten relic, its headlights flickerin

The deeper they drove, the more the world behind them seemed to fade Mary sat in the front passenger on the ground eyes fixed on the narrowing road. The forest no longer looked like a forest. It looked… wrong. The trees bent toward their path like giant skeletal hands reaching out of the earth. The branches curled inward, braided together overhead, sealing them in a dim, tunnel like path The air thickened Phones lost service Radios only whispered static And everyone aboard felt it that tightening in the chest, that instinct that screamed turn back but none of them said a word The girl’s warning He knows you’re coming hung heavily in the space between them.Officer peter , usually the loudest among the group, sat trembling silently with his flashlight clutched under his chin. His leg bounced in nonstop panic Bishop Andoh whispered prayers under his breath, but even those felt swallowed by the darkness pressing against a rock near by, Everyone lurched forward “What now?!” Officer peter

Mary couldn’t scream The darkness swallowed every sound, every breath, every thought There was no up or down, No walls, No floor Just blackness thick, heavy, alive.Something cold pressed against her cheek A hand Long Sharp The creature’s voice vibrated inside her skull “YOU WERE ALWAYS MINE LONG BEFORE YOU STEPPED INTO THIS PLACE.”Mary forced her mind to focus Fight.“Get… away… from me,” she gasped The creature’s six eyes glowed faintly, drifting closer through the void“YOU CANNOT RUN, YOU CANNOT HIDE, YOU WILL SEE WHAT THE OTHERS SAW.”Then A surge of light A violent flash white and burning blast through the darkness The creature hissed and recoiled Mary fell backward, landing hard on stone The world snapped back into place.The ritual chamber The torches The pit And Bishop Andoh Standing above her on the broken attic floor, holding his cross high as it glowed white hot “Mary! Do NOT let it touch you again! Get up!” She scrambled to her feet, chest burning The creature rose to full h

Mary fell The world spun black, gray, black again air rushing past her ears in a violent roar. She couldn’t even scream. She only felt the weightlessness, the helplessness, the stomach dropping certainty that this was how she died.Mary fell beside her, arms flailing, eyes wide with terror.“MARY!” she cried ,Mary reached for her Their fingertips brushed Then the ground slammed into them.A shock ripped through Mary’s spine, All the air blasted out of her lungs.She rolled across cold, uneven stone, finally coming to a stop against something hard a boulder or a broken pillar Her vision blurred Her ears rang Mary lay several feet away, groaning. Mary forced herself to breathe In, Out, In,Out Alive Barely She crawled toward mary “You okay?” Mary wheezed. Mary clutched her ribs but nodded. “I… I think so. Where are we?” Mary raised her flickering lighter.The flame barely illuminated a few feet ahead, but she could sense the vastness The cold, echoing emptiness.They were in a massive under