(⚠️CW: blood, mild gore, graphic depictions of violence. Viewer discretion is advised.⚠️)
Tuesday, November 30th, 200█.
Four trudged through the soft moss that was the forest floor, the wind barely reaching the lanyard wrapped around their neck. They'd always found the greens of the trees to best translate into photos, but had never really gone this far in, in fear of getting lost.
Each step seemed to crunch a new leaf as they traveled further into the forest, disposable camera swinging from their neck slightly with each movement. The rustling of the yellowed leaves was the only sound that accompanied their own. They would think it was deserted if it wasn't for the occasional broken bottle they came across.
As the sun crept into early afternoon in the sky, Four located a clearing, mossy and full of crushed leaves, just like the rest of the woods around them. The only things that made it any different from other spots was the lack of trees, the flattened ground, and the dead, rotting log that was just off center in relativity to the whole clearing.
It also looked more inhabited than the rest, all the leaves already looking stepped on or broken. Pointing their camera up to the sky, the trees seemed to bend into each other as they went further up, making a little circle where they all met at the top for sun to shine into the clearing. The sun, however, wasn't centered in the sky, making it not really worth witnessing, but that didn't really matter to Four, as they snapped a picture regardless.
As they brought their digital camera back down to view the picture, Four heard the snapping of twigs behind them. They'd think it was normal for the forest, because animal couldn't be quiet 100 percent of the time, but they hadn't heard anything but their own footsteps and the wind for over ten minutes.
It couldn't be a prey animal, Four hypothesized, as they would be quieter in their steps. For the same reasoning, it couldn't be a predator either. So if it wasn't either of those, it must be another person.
Four sighed in relief, even as the steps grew ever closer to the clearing, because very few numbers could actually scare them as much as getting attacked by an animal. They sat back on the rotting log, flipping through the camera roll, as they had taken a few photos while traveling.
As the rustling came into the clearing, Four found that it was not one, but three people; all three of them being their neighbors. Unfortunately for them, Four's neighbors were in that category of numbers that sent more chills down their spine than getting their face ripped off by wolves.
The three of them snickered as one, known to Four as Delta, had a ziploc bag full of something that was probably illegal, not noticing Four until they were right in front of each other. The four of them just stared at each other, before Pi, who had the unfortunate role of being Four's next door neighbor, came to the front.
"Well, if it isn't the little baby," they announced to nobody but the endless expanse of trees around them. "Playing with your camera again, are we?"
Four stayed silent, letting their head hang low and avoid eye contact. They knew that words wouldn't work with them. They'd tried to protest once, and had to be sent to the hospital.
Pi never took any response well, not matter what it was. "Lost for words, huh?" they sneered, leaning to be almost the same height as Four, though looking down at them very slightly, just so Four knew who was really in charge now. "Well then, why don't we take a looksie?"
Pi snapped and at once, their lackey Theta yanked on Four's lanyard, jerking them up from the log. Very slightly leaning back now, Four shook in fear at every moment as their lanyard threaten to disconnect and send them falling back.
YOU ARE READING
Written in the Stars
Science Fiction"If you love someone, let them go." A motto Four had always despised. After being abandoned twenty years ago to be subjected to the mercy of people who didn't care for them, they'd learned that that motto was a lie, a sham, a way to get them to shut...
