PROLOGUE- LOST

The whole building where lighted by flames with screams of children being consumed inside. Suddenly he was awakened by the nightmare, seeing nothing but darkness around him with the screams still echoing in his ears. It took a few minutes for Sean to regain consciousness. Once calm enough he noticed he was still inside his bus, he sighs in relief looking out the window of the moving vehicle and sighting a young boy with pale skin staring at him meters away by the roadside. After Sean watched the familiar face of the young lad who after, vanishes into thin air. Sean felt something odd about the other as if something bad happened to him recently, yet why is he here now? Sean shakes the thought off his head, telling himself it would be no good trying to find out why he is suddenly appearing to him.

Meanwhile, at the front, a female kept on taking pics of everything going on while talking on the phone to another colleague on the way to their destination. The woman was wearing a black blouse along with a pair of grey pants, a black trench coat hanging over one shoulder, and a pair of brown shoes with a little lace. Her hair was slightly messy due to her constant movement.

“Do you mind taking pictures, you are kind of disturbing me" a fat man sitting beside her shrugs in disgust, making her stop whatever she was doing.

”Oh! I'm sorry, I didn't think anyone was around" she apologizes quickly before continuing with her selfies.

“Wait are you Jennifer?” the man says while eyeing her ID sticking out of her bag.

“Yes, how did you know?" she asks while smiling at him.

“Just lucky guess” the man chuckles awkwardly and turns his eyes back to his phone screen.

Jennifer rolls her eyes knowing the truth behind his statement.

“I'm Eric” he introduces himself and extends his arm towards her, hoping to make a connection. However, she ignores his hand and keeps on taking photos, “Ok...nice to meet you too I guess. No shaking hands”

Eric sighs deeply while putting his arm back down.

He looks back at Jennifer and sees that she is busy texting someone or calling someone.

“Who are you texting, what are you doing?”

“Hm? Oh, it's nothing important, just updating my friends and stuff,” she responds nonchalantly before putting her phone away, finally noticing Eric sitting next to her.

“Nice to meet you” he tries again offering his hand once more, “I hope we get along great”.

Still no answer, only a small smile on her lips, she seems not interested in him whatsoever.

On the second roll, a man sat there while he snores slowly. Hugging his bag tightly, trying to get warmth from its warm embrace, he feels cold despite the heater being turned on to its maximum capacity. This has become a regular occurrence for him ever since this morning.

Meanwhile, the Driver kept his eyes on the ride while he rode the bus in the middle of the quiet Vacated road. The silence was broken when his two passengers started to argue about which song was better.

‘Why can't they have peace around here?!' he inwardly groans and continues to drive through the night to his destination.

The two passengers kept on arguing loudly, getting on everyone else’s nerves, and making them annoyed. Some looked at them angrily while others were trying to hide from them or avoid them, while others tried to focus on their conversations, ignoring them completely.

“Do you mind? you are annoying the others, shut up already” he yells impatiently while looking at them with a glare.

The two strangers look at him confused and then notice the glaring driver in the rearview mirror and immediately shut up.

Suddenly the bus collided with an unseen stronghold, making everyone inside scream in panic. Some people have pushed away from their seats, hitting their heads against the window while others fell onto the floor due to the sudden impact.

“Damn it” the driver curses. “what was that?" he asked himself while getting down from the bus to check what he collided with.

“Are you ok?" a woman with long black hair and blue eyes asks the passenger while helping him off the floor. As she helps the man, she notices the strange markings and marks covering his body. They look like scars although some are quite big, and some are very small, almost invisible.

“Thank you," the man says with a smile while picking up his bag.

Jennifer alighted from the bus along with the other passengers, as she kept raising her phone to the air and taking photos of what she saw.

“What are you doing?” a tall muscular man, wearing a red sweatshirt that reads, “Tyrannosaurus Rex,” asks annoyed.

“I'm taking shots of this amazing view, what do you think I am doing?" Jennifer laughs at the response.

“Can't you put the phone aside, we are stuck in the middle of nowhere and you keep taking pics?”

“No” she smirks while putting her camera back in her backpack. “Besides, this will be perfect for my story later, so don't worry”.

In his opinion, the whole situation was rather ridiculous. First, the bus crashed, and then, Jennifer's behavior was completely weird.

Eric tried pulling out his backpack from the bus, while before his exit out of the bus.

Sean rested his back on a tree while he watched the entire passengers panic to the driver's yelling and demanding to look for a solution.

“Hello" Eric came to stand with Sean

while he observed the scene in front of them. “I’m Eric"

“Sean” Sean replied with a slight nod while watching the bus driver.

They stood there for about 10 minutes in total silence until Eric spoke out again.

“You served in the army?” he asked while noticing Sean who instead focused on the crowd having their conversation.

“Yeah, I trained with the SAS, the Special Forces” Sean replied while focusing on the commotion going on in front of them.

“You fought in Afghanistan?” Eric continued asking

“Yes, I did, and I’ve also been deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan” Sean explained briefly, not wanting to discuss anything about the war.

“I see...well —” Wanting to talk, Eric noticed the post meters away. A sign board was dusty and covered in scratches, but showed the name of the place. “What's this supposed to mean?” he pointed to the words “welcome to SCARVILLE?”

Jennifer joined him at the signboard, “Guys...instead of arguing we could go to the closest town. We can find a mechanic probably, there should be a bus terminal close by”

“And what about our things? Shouldn't we leave them behind?” a middle-aged couple asked while pointing toward the bags left by the bus door.

“We will come back for them, I promise you” Jennifer assures them.

“But it's pretty far, it says 200km away, isn't it? That could take us hours. How do we know this town is even still there? ” another voice added worriedly.

“Please guys, just trust me...we'll be fine. And besides, if we decide to stay here maybe we end up being a meal to the wild animals out here" Jennifer suggests.

“Ok, let's all try pushing the bus towards the town” another passenger suggests, and soon everybody was carrying the bags and pushing the bus towards the town.

After minutes of pushing the vehicle, they ceased pushing.

“What now?” a passenger yelled with full exhaustion

“The road is blocked,” the driver said from behind the steering wheel, checking the surroundings with his eye.

Jennifer went over to the front of the bus to look at the obstacle. A huge rock had appeared blocking the way.

“Looks like we are gonna spend the night here” she comments while turning her attention back to the rest of the passengers.

The bus driver starts to curse under his breath.

Meanwhile, Sean stood while also looking at the obstacle. He turns his head to sight a passenger lighting up his cigarette after taking one last drag.

“Hey, do you wanna smoke?” he offered his hand

But Sean's consciousness had gone far, in ages started to flash right before his eyes. Images of children being burnt alive flashed before him. Screams filled the air. Blood dripped from the bodies, painting the ground red. The images became so vivid that Sean suddenly felt something hit his chest, bringing him back to reality.

“Fuck!” someone cursed while dropping the cigarette. “Are you okay?”

Fully aware of his surrounding, Sean's gaze was fixed on the cigarette holder. It didn't seem possible, but somehow he managed to pull the cigarette out of it without dropping it. His breathing started to calm down, his heart slowed down, his mind cleared, and the memories faded into thin air. Looking up from the cigarette, he found himself surrounded by concerned strangers.

“Guys...look at this" Eric's voice could be heard coming from far ahead as he points at the position of the rock which wasn't there anymore. “The rock is gone”

Everyone looks forward, and sure enough, it disappeared, the rock just vanished like it never happened. Everyone was amazed, speechless, shocked, and excited all at the same time. The group quickly walked over to inspect the area where the rock was standing.

“How is that even possible?” one guy exclaimed, “And are you guys seeing that?” he pointed revealing the entrance into the strange town.

“Well that is SCARVILLE," Eric says out

“How do you know?” another asked

The whole group managed to walk through the entrance into the town of scarville without bumping into anyone. The town looked old, almost abandoned, but strangely well-maintained. They looked around, admiring the buildings in front of them. One building had a sign which showed it was a motel.

“That seems to be a hotel” the driver commented.

Suddenly the aun had already risen above the town of scarville, shining down on everything, including the road they were currently walking.

“What's wrong with my phone? the connection here is poor ” she complained complaining while reaching into her pocket for her cell phone. Once she found it, she stared at the screen, not finding a signal.

Once getting to the step of the hotel, Sean felt a slightly heavy breeze blow his cloth. He looked to his right to find a small child staring at him from afar with blood on the cloth she wore. Blood dripped from her nose.

“Hey are you okay?" a voice distracted Collin's attention from the kid as he focused his attention on the voice owner.

“What's wrong, bro?" Eric asked him

“Nothing, just looking at the —” Sean turned his head to see the child has vanished “—girl”

“What girl?” Eric asked confused

“Look. She is gone” Sean said as he pointed to her empty spot

“What?” Eric turned back and examined the area closely

“She disappeared” Sean repeated but whispering this time around.

“There Is nobody there bro? maybe the journey might have stressed you out” Eric says while entering the hotel, “Come in and take a rest"

Sean watched the door close behind eric's voice before he turns his head to find the little girl there again. This time she had half of her skin burned off and a large hole on the other side of her face. She had worms crawling all over her body, she was bleeding everywhere and her clothes were ruined.

“Hey are you gonna keep standing there?" the driver shouted while he unloads the luggage from the bus onto the parking lot

“Yeah” Sean muttered while walking inside the hotel

He followed the man behind him. As they walked into the lobby, he saw the whole place desserts except for the passengers who were all booking their rooms, some taking their luggage to their various rooms.

Sean ignores the noise looking to his right to find the wall frame of an image of a naked man crucified as fire consumed him. He felt a chill creep up his spine and shivers running along his body.