I should have never come here.
956 Words
After four long hours on the road, we finally arrived at our ultimate destination: the Dark Forest.
The medium-sized bus came to a slow halt, and it was only then that I realized something unexpected—the bus driver was actually one of the participants on this trip.
The man was an imposing figure, standing at nearly two meters tall, with broad shoulders and a muscular build. He stepped toward me with an enthusiastic grin and introduced himself, “Hey, I’m Mike. I’ve heard quite a bit about you from Hannah.”
His eyes, however, were not focused on my face. Instead, they roamed unabashedly over my chest and hips, his gaze heavy and invasive.
Uncomfortable, I instinctively took a step back, hoping to hide behind Hannah. To my surprise, she gave me a hard shove on the back. Caught off guard, I stumbled forward and fell directly into Mike's arms.
“Whoa there,” Mike laughed, his muscular arms immediately wrapping around my slender waist. “Didn’t expect you to throw yourself at me like that.”
I felt his large hand start to roam over my waist, the heat of his palm burning through my thin shirt. My face flushed scarlet from the sudden, unwelcome contact.
“Let go of me, you jerk!” I struggled, pushing against his chest with both hands.
But Mike only laughed louder and tightened his grip around me. “Oh, come on now, sweetheart. You practically jumped into my arms. I’m just being polite and not pushing you away.”
“Let me go! "I don't want to do this anymore—I want to go home!” My voice was shaking with panic, and I could feel my eyes starting to burn with tears.
Behind me, I heard someone stepping forward. For a brief moment, I thought it was Hannah coming to my rescue—after all, we had grown up together. But to my dismay, the voice that rang out wasn’t hers.
“Let her go, you creep!”
It was Emily. The girl I had only met this morning, —and yet she was the only one standing up for me.
“Aw, come on,” Mike chuckled, still refusing to loosen his grip. “You really think you can just waltz in here, throw yourself at me, and then pretend to be all innocent?”
“Let me go! I mean it!” My voice cracked as I struggled harder, desperation setting in.
Mike just laughed louder, his hot breath grazing my ear. “Go home? Sweetheart, do you know how far we’ve come? What are you gonna do—walk all the way back?”
That's when I heard it—laughter. Not just from Mike, but from the entire group. Even Hannah, my childhood best friend, stood among them, laughing hysterically, as though this was the funniest joke she’d ever heard.
The sound of their laughter echoed in the eerie silence of the forest, startling a few crows perched in the trees. With loud, jarring cries, the crows took off, circling us once as if mocking me before disappearing into the depths of the Dark Forest.
The Dark Forest—that's what the locals had come to call it. Covering over five hundred thousand hectares of untouched wilderness, it had once been an ordinary forest where researchers, botanists, and adventurers frequently visited.
But everything changed after one night in August twenty years ago.
On that particular night, several night owls in town reported seeing an unnerving phenomenon—a blood-red moon hanging low in the sky. Mere hours after the strange moon appeared, a team of ten researchers entered the forest for a routine exploration. They never came back.
Since one of the missing people was a world-renowned botanist, the authorities launched an immediate rescue mission. A team of professional search-and-rescue personnel entered the forest.
They, too, vanished without a trace.
More teams were sent. More families hired private search parties. Friends and loved ones clung to the desperate hope that someone—anyone—would return with answers.
But the forest swallowed them all.
As days turned into weeks, more and more curious individuals, thrill-seekers, and internet skeptics flocked to the forest, determined to debunk what they believed was a fabricated urban legend. Some even livestreamed themselves walking into the forest.
Yet without exception, the moment they crossed the threshold, their livestreams cut off abruptly. Not a single person made it back out alive.
Within a week, the number of people who entered the forest exceeded a hundred.
None returned.
The authorities eventually erected barricades around the perimeter, forbidding anyone from entering. But that didn’t stop the stories from spreading like wildfire—nor did it stop people from trying their luck.
As the years passed, the Dark Forest gradually returned to normal. People forgot the pain of the past and began venturing into the woods again. Every explorer who entered came out safely, and soon, many started to believe that the old disappearances had been nothing more than rumors.
But then, on the same night twenty years later—August 8th—the blood moon reappeared. The next day, a group of tourists set off on an expedition into the forest. Every single one of them vanished without a trace.
Suddenly, people remembered the disappearances from two decades ago.
The local police wasted no time broadcasting urgent warnings on TV, repeating them nonstop.
And now, here we are—standing at the edge of the Dark Forest, right next to the sign that reads:
"ENTRY INTO THE DARK FOREST IS STRICTLY FORBIDDEN."
And for the first time, a sinking dread settled in my stomach.
I should have never come here.
- Writer
