By sunrise, dread blanketed the air. Mark was gone. His bed hadn't been slept in. His flashlight was missing. His bag remained untouched.
Mr. Hawthorne stood before the class in the lodge's common room. "He probably wandered off and lost his way," he said, trying to sound calm, but his voice trembled. "We'll organize a search team immediately."
But just as they prepared to leave, several villagers approached. Old, wary, and dressed in the same colors as the misty forest behind them.
"You must not go looking for him," one man said.
Mr. Hawthorne frowned. "And why not?"
The villagers exchanged glances before a gray-haired woman stepped forward. Her eyes, milky with age, still held sharpness. "The forest doesn't return what it takes. You search, and you risk more than one missing child."
Mr. Hawthorne waved a hand dismissively. "We can't just sit and do nothing."
"You think it hasn't happened before?" the woman said darkly. "Your Mark… he stirred something. And now, it watches again."
Despite the warnings, Mr. Hawthorne led a search party. They scoured the nearby woods till dusk with no trace of Mark. The teacher announced that if Mark didn't return by morning, he'd contact the authorities.
That night, Lucas sat by the window, Mark's sketchbook in hand. A cold wind whispered through the cracks of the window frame. He hesitated, then flipped to the last page, something Mark had told him days ago returned like an echo:
"If I vanish... check the last page. Don't show anyone else. Just you."
Lucas read the scribbled words again.
"If I disappear… it's because I found it. If I'm still human, help me. If not… run."
A chill crawled up his spine.
Flashback: Two Days Before
Mark and Lucas sat outside the lodge, sketching the tree line. Mark wasn't drawing nature, he was drawing the cabin, though he hadn't seen it yet.
"You ever get that feeling something's pulling you?" Mark had asked.
Lucas chuckled. "No. That sounds like sleep paralysis or something."
"I dream of it. Every night since we arrived. A dark shape. A door. Whispers calling my name."
Lucas frowned. "That's not normal."
Mark had leaned in, lowering his voice. "My grandmother was born in this village. She used to talk about a house hidden in the woods. A place that takes people. But she called it a veil said it doesn't just trap you… it rewrites you."
Lucas shook his head. "So why are you so eager to find it?"
Mark looked up at the trees, eyes shining with something like… obsession.
"Because I think it's calling me. And maybe… just maybe… I'm the one meant to go in."
End of Flashback
Now, with the book in his hand and silence pressing from all sides, Lucas whispered to himself:
"You idiot. You chose to go."
He turned to Anna, sitting nearby. "We need to find him."
Anna blinked. "What?"
Lucas showed her the page. Her eyes widened as she read.
"What the hell, Lucas? Why didn't you tell anyone about this?"
"He told me not to. And look he might still be alive."
Reluctantly, Anna agreed. They snuck out into the woods under moonlight.
They walked until the trees thinned and then froze.
Mark.
He was walking slowly beneath the moon, his movements strange and dreamlike.
"Mark!" Lucas called.
No reply.
"Mark, please!" Anna shouted. "We've been looking everywhere!"
He didn't turn. Didn't even flinch. Just walked like something invisible led him.
Lucas and Anna followed.
The path twisted until it opened up.
The cabin.
It stood waiting, shadowed and wrong.
Mark walked in.
Anna stopped. "No. Lucas, please. This is what he was talking about. This is where he wanted to go."
Lucas looked at her, shaken. "He's still our friend."
"And if he's not human anymore?" Anna whispered.
Lucas stepped forward.
"You're scared of everything," he muttered.
She trembled, eyes locked on the cabin's crooked doorway.
Then… a voice.
Soft. Inhuman.
Calling her name.
She followed.
And the door shut behind them.