𝙷𝚒𝚛𝚊𝚎𝚝𝚑 {𝓒𝓲𝓮𝓵 𝔁 𝓡𝓮𝓪𝓭𝓮𝓻}

Chapter 1|FORSAKEN

   "I SHOULD BE CLOSE NOW." The night air chilled your knuckles, minding your camera, you pressed the palm of your hand against the rough and prickly surface of a fallen tree, mind on how, more than anything, you wished to believe in something more and solve this mystery once and for all. When you look up, there are small waterfalls that run down a lake on the hills of the thicket. The trees were as deep and dense as the Atlantic Ocean.

Tonight you were guided by curiosity and a thirst for adventure.

"It took forever and a half to get here but at least the forest looks nice." You keep your camera at eye level, taking in the sights.

The evergreen forest looked eerie and empty with the starry night sky in your viewfinder - far, far away from the dark skies owned by the luminous city where stars are shrouded by the smokey fumes of every running vehicle.

Frail leaves and brittle sticks are shattered by your quickening steps and heavy breaths. Your only light on this dark and nonexistent path was a flashlight that swung around as insanely as those of a club. There was no path for you create it with the help of Google Maps.

Where were you off to, alone with a backpack, flashlight, and recording camera to keep you company on this cold spring night? Farther than far away from home? Well-

When a programmed, monotone voice spoke loudly from inside your pants pocket, it startled you so much that you stumbled and tripped over your own two feet. You save your camera first, sacrificing your face. Landing with a yelp of explicatives followed by a thud, your arms and hand scrape against the rocky earth, flashlight flying from your hand and bouncing off the floor roughly with a click.

Until now the only noise was your strangled breaths and footsteps, speaking to your camera. The light had gone out to leave you faceplanted onto the insect-infested ground. In the middle of nowhere. In complete darkness.

You groan, nose stuffed into the dirt and grass that reminded you of both petrichor and a freshly cut lawn.

"Yeah, yeah. Laugh it up." You grunt, already hearing the laughs from your friends you were supposed to meet up with.

Clenching a fist full of grass in slight annoyance, you pull yourself up and dust your clothing feeling a sharp pain in your knee and a burning one on your palms.

"Well, I'm pretty sure I scraped my hands and arms but I'm just gonna ignore it for now." You say, instead flashing the camera light to the ground to find your flashlight. "Anyways, this forest feels off. Maybe it's because of the number of sacrifices, cultists, and reported activity around."

This was a secluded forest and a 5-hour and 45-minute drive, after all.

After searching the ground like Velma searches for her glasses, your light is back in your hands.

'Hope it's not broken!

Luckily for you though, all it needed was a smack to its side before it flickered on once more.

"Atta boy! Now I think it's about time I-" The flashlight fell with a thud.

Having decided to look up, your (e/c) irises were met with a tall building looking worse for wear.

Immediately, you move your camera to focus on the sight. With your pain forgotten, you speak, "Finally, finally, after running for 37 minutes without rest, we made it!" Panning the camera around, "but, wait..."

The moon is high when you realize you're standing before the crumbling, charred remains of what was once a bright white church at midnight. Alone. With a flashlight in hand, you illuminate the dense woods around you to no avail. Turning the light back onto the tall building which looks worse for wear. Windows as filthy and coated with grime as the walls that kept its sinful secrets trapped for all eternity. Front doors decayed from what you could see as souls were said to drift about past the highest point of the church.