Mia watched her friends with a detached curiosity, the laughter and chatter mingling with the wind. Sarah, with her vibrant energy, led the way inside, followed by Jake, who balanced a cooler with ease. Ethan and Lily joked about ghost stories, while Ryan brought up the rear, an old journal in hand.
"Found this in the attic," Ryan announced, waving the journal. "Let’s see what spooky tales it holds," Lily teased, her eyes twinkling with mischief.
Jake flipped through the journal, pausing on a page that read: *"If you find this, run. They won’t let you leave."* His voice echoed eerily in the quiet room. Laughter erupted, Ethan dismissing it as a prank. Yet, Mia felt a shiver, a coldness settling in her bones.
"Maybe it’s a warning," she muttered, but her words were lost in the camaraderie of friends.
Sarah screamed when they found Ryan hanging from a tree, the words *"One down"* etched into the bark. Fear gripped them, the gravity of the situation crashing down. "We need to leave," Jake insisted, but the car refused to start, their phones lifeless.
Ethan paced, frustration and panic seeping into his voice, "We’re trapped here!"
Sarah's scream pierced the air as shadows danced maliciously. The lights flickered, plunging them into chaos. When they returned, Sarah was gone, her body found in the basement, with *"Two down"* scratched into the wall.
Mia clutched her head, memories flitting through—her friends' laughter, her own detachment. A sense of dread settled in her stomach.
Lily murmured, "Stay close. We can’t lose each other," but when Mia awoke, Jake was gone, his frozen form outside, the cabin door marked *"Four down"*.
Lily panicked, shadowy tendrils enveloping her as Mia watched, powerless. *"Five down"* appeared once more, a cruel tally of their doom.
A voice, deep and resonant, intoned, "You were never one of them." Memories surged—fragments of her friends, their warmth, her distance. Mia saw herself not as a victim, but the orchestrator of this tragic symphony.
As the sun rose, the cabin fell silent once more, waiting patiently for new souls to ensnare in its dark embrace.
