"What?"
Charlie and the others quickly moved closer to Ava so they could see the message clearly.
The glow of her phone lit up their faces.
Right on the screen were the words:
Come her
Sent 7 minutes ago by Stacy.
Darren stared at it.
"Come her…" Charlie said slowly. "What does that even mean?"
"Dude… it's 'come here.' Are you stupid?" James replied, sounding annoyed.
Charlie gave James a look.
Neither Charlie nor Darren liked him very much. James had always been rude at school. He hung around Jason's group, and that group was nothing but trouble.
Darren looked back at the message again.
The words sat there on the screen, simple and short.
But something about them made the uneasy feeling in his chest grow stronger.
"Okay… should I go?" Ava said. "Maybe she's lost? Or maybe food poisoning… or she got hurt?"
"Go," Darren replied. "We can't rule anything out. What if she's actually in… danger?"
"Danger? Probably not," James said with a shrug. "Lost or hurt? Sure."
"I'm going," Jenna said suddenly.
She had already started walking toward the direction Stacy had gone.
James followed right behind her without saying another word. Ava hurried after them.
Darren hesitated for a second.
Okay… even James is going. I should go too.
He looked at Charlie.
"Um… should we go?" Charlie asked.
Darren nodded.
Without another word, he started after the others. Charlie sighed and followed.
"Stacy!" Jenna called out loudly into the trees.
"Stacy!" James shouted even louder.
"Stacy?" Ava called, her voice echoing softly between the trunks.
They moved deeper into the forest in the direction Stacy had gone earlier, their flashlights sweeping across the trees and bushes.
But there was no response.
Only the cold wind moved through the thick forest under the cloudy night sky.
The branches creaked softly.
Leaves rustled somewhere in the darkness.
They kept walking.
Farther and farther away from the trail.
Minutes passed.
Still nothing.
Ava held up her phone as she walked.
"I texted her earlier," she said quietly. "I wrote, Where are you? I'm coming."
She stared at the screen.
The message was still loading.
No internet.
"Ugh…" Ava muttered. "Where did Stacy even get a signal from?"
Darren glanced around the forest.
Everything looked the same in the darkness.
"Where could she even go?" he said quietly.
Charlie shrugged.
"Is there even a bathroom around here?" he said. "I mean… sorry to say this, but I just peed in the bushes earlier."
He glanced around.
"I don't see a single bathroom."
"Wait…" Jenna said suddenly.
She stopped walking.
"There is a bathroom."
Everyone looked at her.
"I know where it is," she continued slowly. "I doubt she'd use it… but if we can't find her here, it's worth checking."
Without waiting, Jenna quickly changed direction and started walking deeper into the woods.
"Wait—Jenna, hold on," Ava said.
The rest of them hurried after her.
Flashlights cut through the darkness as they pushed forward. Branches brushed against their legs and jackets.
They walked quickly now.
Not long after, the trees opened slightly.
Darren lifted his flashlight.
A few small huts stood in front of them.
Near them was a tiny wooden structure, barely standing. A broken wardrobe leaned against one of the huts.
Everything looked old.
Abandoned.
Moss crawled across the walls. The wood looked dark and damp.
"Wait… what is this place?" Darren asked quietly.
"An old campsite," Jenna replied. "We found it earlier today."
She looked around the clearing.
"The owner died, so it was abandoned. It's small and pretty old… no one really stays here anymore."
The place sat near the stream, probably only a hundred meters from where they had set up their own tents.
Jenna turned back toward the group.
"Darren and Charlie, check the bathroom," she said. "The rest of us will check the huts."
"Okay…" Darren replied.
Something about the whole situation felt wrong.
Not finding Stacy.
The strange message.
But Darren forced himself to stay calm.
He wasn't scared.
Just worried.
"Come on, Charlie," Darren said.
They walked toward the small bathroom building.
It was made of old wood and rusted metal. Moss clung to the walls, and thick spider webs stretched across the corners.
The closer they got, the more abandoned it looked.
Darren reached for the light switch inside.
Click.
Click.
Nothing.
"Yeah… no electricity," Darren muttered.
He pushed the door open.
"Let's check inside."
The smell hit immediately as Darren stepped in.
The floor was damp and slippery.
A cracked mirror hung on the wall to the right.
On the left side were five bathroom stalls.
Darren walked over and kicked the first stall door open.
Thud.
Empty.
The second.
Thud.
Empty.
The third.
Thud.
Still nothing.
"Nope," Darren said. "No one."
"Okay… maybe she's somewhere else," Charlie said. "I don't think she—"
He suddenly stopped.
Charlie froze.
In the cracked mirror, with Darren's flashlight reflecting behind him, he saw something.
A shape.
Standing only a few feet away.
It was dark—almost completely black. Human-shaped… but wrong somehow.
It didn't move.
But Charlie could feel it looking at him.
His heart jumped.
He quickly turned toward where the shape should have been.
Nothing.
The bathroom was empty.
Charlie slowly turned back to the mirror.
The shape was gone.
Did I imagine that?
What was that?
He stared at the mirror for another moment.
But there was nothing there now.
"There's no one in here," Darren said from the front.
"Guys! Guys!"
Jenna's voice suddenly shouted from outside.
Darren and Charlie rushed out of the bathroom.
Jenna was sitting on the ground.
In her hand, she was holding a phone.
"It's Stacy's," Jenna said quietly.
She flipped the phone over.
The case had the name "Stacy" written on it with a small heart sticker.
There was no mistaking it.
It was hers.
"Come on, check," James said from behind them. His voice sounded different now—tense.
"Is this the phone Stacy used to send that message?"
"Wait… guys," Ava said suddenly.
Her flashlight pointed toward something a few feet away.
A watch.
Its screen was cracked.
That alone wasn't strange for an abandoned place.
But something else was.
A dark stain covered part of it.
"There's blood on it?" Charlie said quietly from a distance. "Is that new?"
"I… I don't know," Ava said.
For a moment, no one spoke.
Then suddenly—
A scream tore through the forest.
High-pitched.
Sharp.
It didn't sound human.
But it didn't sound like an animal either.
The sound echoed through the trees before fading back into the darkness.
Everyone froze.
Darren slowly turned toward the direction it had come from.
"Guys…"
His voice was low.
"Did you hear that?"