時とともに失われた記憶

Chapter 8: Secrets in the shadows.

TW: Death.

The air feels different now. Heavier, colder. After finding the campsite, it's like the forest has shifted again, as if it's leading us somewhere—or warning us to stay away. But we can't stop. Not now. P.C., E.J., and I press forward, though none of us speak. There's a strange feeling in the pit of my stomach, a sense of dread that I can't shake.

The wind rustles through the trees, carrying with it a faint smell—something sharp and metallic. It makes my skin crawl, but I keep moving, my feet dragging over the uneven ground. The light is fading fast, and soon the forest will be drenched in darkness. We need to find shelter, but something deep inside me knows that we're about to stumble upon something far worse.

"What's that smell?" E.J. asks, wrinkling his nose.

"I don't know," P.C. replies, his voice tense. "But we should be careful."

We walk in silence for a few more minutes until the trees begin to thin out. Then, just ahead, something catches my eye—a shape, lying on the ground. My heart skips a beat, and a cold sweat breaks out across my forehead. I freeze, staring at the strange lump of fabric and flesh in the distance.

"No..." I whisper under my breath.

P.C. grabs my arm. "What is it?"

I don't answer. Instead, I take a few shaky steps forward, and as I get closer, my worst fears are realized. The shapes on the ground aren't just debris or fallen branches.

They're bodies.

My parents' bodies.

I can't breathe. My entire world tilts on its axis, and I feel my legs give out beneath me as I fall to the ground. They're there—my mom and dad—lying motionless in the dirt, their faces twisted in pain, their bodies ravaged by time and decay.

"No... no, no, no," I mutter, my voice cracking as I crawl toward them. "This can't be real..."

But it is. They're here, just as lost as we were. But they didn't survive. They never made it out.

P.C. and E.J. are frozen, too shocked to move. P.C.'s face is pale, his eyes wide with disbelief, while E.J. covers his mouth, stifling a sob. None of us know what to do.

"How... how did they end up here?" P.C. finally asks, his voice barely above a whisper.

"I don't know," I reply, my hands trembling as I reach out toward them. I stop short, unable to touch their cold, lifeless bodies.

E.J. is shaking now, tears streaming down his face. "They—they were looking for us, weren't they? They were trying to find us..."

"They must've gotten lost too," I say, my voice hollow. "Just like we did."

But something doesn't feel right. As I look closer at their bodies, something catches my eye—something out of place. There, tucked inside my father's torn jacket pocket, is a bundle of papers. I reach for them with trembling hands, pulling them free from the fabric. The pages are worn and dirty, but I can still make out the words scrawled across them.

"What's that?" P.C. asks, stepping closer.

"I don't know..." I murmur as I unfold the papers, my eyes scanning the faded text. My heart pounds in my chest as I read the words—words that send chills down my spine.

They're letters. Letters from our parents. But they weren't meant for us. They were addressed to someone else—someone we never even knew existed.

"We've done what you asked. The children are lost, and we're running out of time. The forest... it's alive. It knows we're here. If we don't finish what we started, it will never let us leave."

I stop reading, my hands shaking so badly I almost drop the papers. What is this? What were they talking about?

"What is it?" E.J. asks, his voice trembling. "What does it say?"

I hesitate, not sure if I should tell him. But there's no point in hiding it now. "It's from Mom and Dad. They—they were working with someone. Someone who wanted us lost."

P.C.'s eyes narrow. "What? That doesn't make any sense. Why would they do that?"

"I don't know..." I flip through the rest of the pages, but the more I read, the worse it gets. There are mentions of experiments, strange rituals, and something about the forest being alive—like it's a living, breathing entity. It sounds insane, but after everything we've been through, I'm not so sure anymore.

"They knew," I say, my voice shaking with disbelief. "They knew this would happen. They planned it."

E.J. looks horrified, his face pale. "No... no, they wouldn't do that to us. They loved us."

"I don't know what to believe anymore," P.C. mutters, his hands clenched into fists. "But we can't stay here. We need to get out of this forest."

"But how?" I ask, my voice trembling. "If they couldn't escape, how can we?"

P.C. doesn't answer. None of us have the answer.

The truth weighs heavy on my chest, crushing me under its unbearable weight. Our parents—our own parents—had been part of something dark, something that went beyond just getting lost. They had secrets, secrets we were never supposed to find.

But now that we know... what does that mean for us?

The wind picks up, howling through the trees, and the shadows seem to shift around us. The forest feels more menacing than ever, like it's watching, waiting. And I can't shake the feeling that whatever our parents were involved in, it's not over.

Not yet.