"Why was I sparred?" Jace began to ask himself. For a blind second he opened his eyes to look at the dead ghouls. One of them was injured so bad that it didn't take long for it to die. "Whose out there!?" Jace cries out looking around. "Why did you save me!?"
The more he asked the more he was so confused. Jace decided to look at the murder scene that was at his feet more or less. But when he tried to turn on a flashlight, none of them were working. His only solution was to remake the fire he had made to kickstart his "investigation".
Paw prints were all over the ground, some of the ghouls but others were very... wolf-like. Jace grabbed his camera to snap a picture of the first sign of evidence that there was a wolf inhabiting the forest. Overjoyed with this evidence was enough to make him forget about a way of going home to his wife.
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He didn't have string, he didn't have a trail to go back on, and he had no working phone. This mission turned out that it was impossible and highly risky. Which everyone from the bar, the town, including his wife continued to worry him about and yet he still did this and managed to get himself trapped in the forest.
"Ambition."
What seemed like morning to Jace was when he put out his fire from the pit and continued to walk around the forest. It was until he found some nylon string tied to a tree was when he had hope. "I'm saved!" He shouted as he followed the string. The string made him turn quite a lot but he managed to get out of the forest and into the sunset rays glooming in on the sky.
"I'm free!" He continued to shout as he took the 3 day hike journey back home to the town. Exhausted, worn out, and overly passionate about his picture got him home. Ambition is what drove the man home. He stopped at the bar to tell the bartender, "Look! Wolf tracks! There's a wolf in that forest!" But all the pictures were discredited and announced that it was faked.
Anger drove Jace slightly insane, but his wife believed him. She wanted to go with him into the forest but he did not want her life in danger. Instead, he would take his friends Marco and Gabriel. Two photographers that are claimed to take action shots of animals in their habitats. A picture of the wolf that saved Jace's life would mean money for the three men. Jace when to the convenient store to pick up batteries for his flashlights he was able to bring back from his last trip.
His friends told him to sleep for a day but Jace insisted that they go now and he'll sleep on the car ride. They took a vote and Jace lost at a two to three defeat. As the men went to Jace's house to sleep, Jace had a horrible illusion of the ghouls. Were they warning him never to come back? That can't be. He survived from the ghouls thanks to the wolf, or so he claims.
That night, Eliza was with her husband and tried to spark conversation that would get him to change his mind about going to the forest again. "Love." She started. "Some weird man at the bar continued to look at me like I was.. single." Jace looked at this woman and all he could mutter was, "Why the hell were you at a bar, Eliza?" She didn't give him an answer. She saw him all banged up when he got home and she thought he was going to die in that forest. "Were you about to cheat on me Eliza!?" He asked angrily as now his temper was through the roof.
She didn't answer him but her words were enough to get him out of bed and downstairs with his friends. He slept in a sleeping bag with his friends on the couches sleeping the night away, "I will get that picture." He muttered before going to sleep.
It was the big day for the photographers and the forest survivor. The friends were confused why Jace would not say goodbye to his wife but when he explained in the car ride what his wife told him they knew a divorce was bound to happen.
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The car drive there was much more narrow than Jace remembered but that was only because he was not the one driving, Gabriel was. The only question he asked him was, "what route are you taking? I don't remember going this way myself." Gabriel explained that this route is how you properly enter the forest so you don't lose your car and Jace had explained on another route he went on made him go through a crazy car crash.
The road went from concrete to dirt in seconds and Jace started to get anxious about where they were off to. Marco told Jace about what they packed for this trip. Lots of flashlights and batteries and cameras. Essential items for this trip which was like what Jace brought on his solo adventure.
"How much longer?" He asked the driver of the car. Gabriel was stunned and the car stopped immediately. Both Marco and Gabriel were stunned by the sight of the forest but Jace wasn't phased about the forest anymore.
Gabriel parked the car and unloaded the trunk with all the equipment they need for this mission. All Marco could ask was, "you survived from this?" Jace nodded his head and sighed deeply. Gabriel looked at his friends and with his final words of their safety, he said "let's find this wolf."
The three friends took their first steps into the forest and said goodbye to the sun for the very last time since they will not be seeing it for now. Looks like the forest will claim it's next victims.
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