If only they had stayed at the hostel that night and played games as usual, they wouldn't be stuck in this predicament.
Those were the thoughts of the three boys as they strolled through a dense forest. Each of them wore a headlamp, yet even that wasn't enough to help them find their way back home after being lost for the past few hours.
The damp smell of wet leaves clung to their noses, and the soft rustling of bushes around them slowly grew into an unsettling reminder that they were not alone.
One of them, Zion, the one with the cliché nerd appearance, fixed his glasses and complained in a lowered tone, as if scared his voice would attract the beasts lurking in the area.
"If I'm not wrong, this should be the third time we've circled back to this same place?" he whispered, his voice almost trembling as he pointed his headlamp at a tall tree with a peculiar claw marking on its bark.
The other two directed their lamps to the marking with grave looks on their faces.
"Shut the fuck up, Zion," one of them barked.
Tall with a buzz cut that gave him the sharp appearance of a typical delinquent, Marlon was known for his short temper.
"You were the one who suggested this trip in the first place, four eyes. I swear if you complain one more time, I will beat your ass," he continued, stepping closer as he confronted Zion.
Desmond, the only one who seemed normal in the group, ignored the activities of his friends and instead focused on the engraving.
Truth be told, he had also grown tired of his friends' gradual complaints, but above all, he was more concerned about exiting the forest as soon as possible.
"Tomorrow is visiting day, mother would be very saddened if I don't see her."
And thus, he had to make sure they exited as soon as possible.
"If you two don't stop fighting, we might become like those carcasses we saw earlier."
With a sharp tone, he reprimanded them.
"Tell that to Marlon," Zion let out.
"You still have the guts to speak?" Marlon asked, infuriated.
Desmond had to step between the two to prevent further altercation. He already had a headache from their noise.
"You can beat him all you want if we manage to find our way back to the campus. For now, leaving this place is the priority."
And luckily, talking sense into them worked.
The three of them continued walking, this time Desmond led the path.
He picked up a sharp stone and used it to mark their directions on every tree they walked past in order not to repeat the same route, as that had been what they'd been experiencing since they confirmed themselves lost.
With this, he hoped they would at least escape the clawed tree.
But he was wrong.
"We're here again," Zion cried out, fear evident in his voice this time.
Even Marlon was not hot-headed this time around as he became worried. Nothing about their journey so far seemed ordinary.
Desmond went ahead to scan the area for the trees he had marked and, to his greatest surprise, they were present—meaning the marked tree wasn't a different one as he had hoped.
"This is strange," he said.
"We've taken different directions from this tree so far, but each route seems to lead us here," he continued, scanning the area.
The sky was still dark, the half-moon crescent light still shone with the same intensity as it shone a few hours ago.
For some reason, he even suspected time hadn't changed.
But he didn't voice it out. It was illogical.
But still, before his friends could be swallowed by worries once again, he suggested they take and mark another route.
While he did not believe his own method would work, it was worth the try.
And so they continued.
A different route.
After some time, they ended up again at the same tree.
But they did not stop to bicker words this time and continued.
They took different routes, and after taking the eighth one and returning to the same place once more, they came to the conclusion that they were magically fucked.
"This is not possible. We stepped out at around ten p.m., and we should have spent enough time inside this godforsaken forest for at least eight hours, and yet there has been no change in the moon, even the stars are still the same. What the heck could be happening?"
Marlon complained with a frustrated expression on his face.
"It seems I wasn't the only one who had noticed that," Desmond responded.
Zion remained quiet.
He was afraid if he replied, he would be swallowed by his friends as he was the one who had suggested the unnecessary midnight adventure in the first place.
The reason? He did not share it with his friends.
Because the college they attended was strict when it came to technology, none of them had phones and thus there were none with them at the moment to check the time.
For this reason, noting just what time of the day it was was impossible.
"DAMN IT!"
Marlon finally lost it and took long strides toward Zion, grabbing him by the collar.
"It was all your fault!" he shouted.
"You made us leave the hostel and for what reason?"
Zion kept his head down, his fingers trembling as they clutched Marlon's wrist.
"My mom died…" he whispered.
Marlon froze.
The forest suddenly felt silent. Even the wind stopped brushing the leaves.
"Your… mom?" Marlon repeated, his voice losing all its anger.
Zion nodded weakly, his lips shaking as if the words hurt just to say them.
"I didn't… I didn't know what to do. The room felt like it was crushing me. I just… needed to breathe."
Desmond listened; now the whole night walk made more sense.
He felt pity, as he was someone who had a lovely mother just like his friend. The news of her death would definitely break him.
Honestly, he wondered how Zion was able to remain unbroken with such a blow.
Nonetheless, before he could console him, he spotted something strange appear on the claw-marked tree.
"Guys..."
He called out to the two of them as he took a step closer to observe the small ball of black misty mass that had appeared.
"What the heck is even that?" Marlon asked, confused.
Zion also turned to observe it, fixing the glasses over his moistened eyes.
The three of them were only a few meters away from the tree, and so they had a clear view of the bizarre object.
Under their gaze, it happened so abruptly.
The fist-sized mass suddenly erupted, multiplying in size at an alarming rate, swelling outward like a wave.
Their alarm rang.
Their eyes widened, their bodies tensed as the three of them attempted to escape whatever the strange eruption was, but even though they noted the unexpected danger, their reflexes were too slow to flee the area of impact.
And in a split second—
They were all swallowed by the black mass that consumed the entire forest.
And in the same split second it appeared, it vanished… alongside the three friends, who were nowhere to be seen.