Aidan leaned forward, drawn in, his pulse quickening as he read. He needed to know more.
The moment we stepped in… and turned back—nothing. Our entrance, gone. Gone. Replaced by towering trees that weren't there before. Watching me. Watching us. I swear I felt their gaze.
No, it wasn't just a feeling—it was a certainty. The earth beneath me cracked like dried bone, stripped of life, of colour, of warmth. Starved. This place doesn't just reject life—it devours the memory of it.
The air… cold, yes, but not in any way I've known before. It pressed against my skin, against my mind. Heavy. Wet with silence. I could feel it, like a blanket smothering me from all sides. And the whispers, always the whispers—softer now, but still unrelenting.
There were five of us, counting me. Five. I'd been told if you have a well-equipped team of rank-two beings, you might—just might—survive this cursed forest. I wanted to hire a rank-three being. The best of the best, to ensure we'd make it out. But—but—I lacked the capital. So I settled for this.
Sera. Only woman among us. The others—men. Stronger than me. All of them. I wasn't even a full Rank One. I knew better—I did—but knowing wasn't enough. I needed answers. I needed to see it for myself. Damn fool.
With each step I took, I felt it—the whisper. It wasn't just in my ears. It was in my chest, in my bones, like something trying to pull me into its depths. When I stepped closer to a tree, its branches… they seemed to reach for me. Regal. Elegant, almost. Too... deliberate. It wasn't just wind. It wasn't just nature. I felt it—it felt alive.
It was waiting for me. Waiting for all of us.
And as the seconds passed, I realized something far worse than the trees—or the whispers—was lurking just beyond sight. The others were beginning to notice too. Sera, especially. Her eyes darted around, and I saw the cracks in her composure—the first cracks.
The forest was wearing on us already. The weight of it was starting to twist our thoughts.
But they didn't know. They didn't know what I already suspected: that we were not supposed to leave. Not whole. Not alive. Something here… something ancient had already decided our fate. And just like that, day one passed.
I used our resting time to calculate the day's period.
Day two, we fought a rank-two beast. It was not something found outside—native to the Dark Forest. In those moments, I saw Sera's behaviour shift. It wasn't like the beasts we see outside the forest.
During the fight, I noticed something strange about Sera. Her eyes kept darting, her grip on her weapon unsteady. Every few steps, she'd stop—frozen, face pale as if she were listening to something—something none of us could hear.
At times, she'd respond to questions no one asked. Her lips moved, forming replies to invisible voices. The others grew tense, but we pushed forward. We thought the pressure was getting to her. It wasn't.
She started to blank out more frequently. Once, she halted mid-step and stared into the void, claiming she saw them. When we asked what she meant, she simply whispered, "They're not in the trees… they are the trees."
No one knew—hell, not even I—but the real horror of the Dark Forest, its true face, hadn't even revealed itself yet.
Day three, we were collecting samples. That was the mission. We kept Sera under close watch—she hadn't slept, and something in her had shifted. We thought we were being careful.
We weren't.
It happened suddenly.
Sera stood. Her movement's jerky. Mechanical. Then, with a sickening crack, she twisted her neck all the way to her back—bones groaning, but her head didn't fall. She started giggling, her grin spreading unnaturally across her lips. She flared her arms as she slowly stepped back towards the tree.
The team was too shocked—frozen in horror.
She giggled.
Her mouth stretched into a too-wide smile as she began tearing herself apart. Limbs unfastened, joints popping loose with each movement—but she never stopped giggling. Before the others could stop her—
She walked toward one of the trees.
And then… she simply stood there for a moment and crawled onto the tree.
There was a popular rule when entering the Dark Forest: do not touch the tree from the front. But she was climbing it, her front facing the team while her back faced the tree—in an unnatural way—even after she had torn her own arm off.
She never screamed.
She never cried.
She just kept giggling, even when it no longer sounded like giggling.
She didn't stop. God—she didn't stop. Piece by piece, she undid herself. Like it wasn't even pain to her. Just… giggling, her eyes showing joy. Until nothing was left but silence. The forest had her. Took her.
We hurriedly left that place, not wanting to stay even for a moment. But if only it were that easy.
Aidan felt a shiver run down his spine as he read it. He couldn't help but stand for a moment. For a moment, he felt a vision—an image of a woman passing through his mind.
"Damn it," he muttered. He clenched his fist as he looked at the book from above, unable to understand how such a horrifying place could even exist.
A chill crawled up his spine, sharp and sudden. His hands paused mid-turn, the page half-folded as his breath hitched. He rose from his seat without realizing it.
For a brief, flickering instant—a vision. A woman hanging on a tree passed through his mind.
Her face—blurred, unfamiliar, yet close—passed through like smoke in the wind.
"Damn it," he muttered again under his breath.
He stood up from the chair, his jaw tightened. Fingers clenched into fists as he stared down at the book, now feeling heavier than it had any right to be.
What kind of place was this?
What kind of nightmare had someone survived long enough to write about?
How could a forest like that even exist?
And why was it calling him? He wasn't even near it. Then just… why?
Aidan didn't want to go near it. Not even a step. Every part of him screamed to close the book, to burn it if he had to.
And yet… he sat down with a heavy huff.
He needed to know more.
Even if it meant dragging himself to read this book—page by page.