Fear Island

The Accident

"Let’s take the shallow path to the lake,"

Tari whispered to her little sister, Aisha.

Aisha didn't answer. She was trembling so hard that Tari could feel the girl's teeth chattering against her shoulder. Tari adjusted her grip, hoisting Aisha higher onto her back. She stepped cautiously, her shoes crunching softly on the dead leaves.

The forest was a tomb. The only sounds were the distant, mournful howls of something unknown and the rhythmic, piercing buzz of cicadas.

The moonlight cut through the canopy like a sharp blade, but it was a cruel light. It didn't bring comfort; it only turned the twisting branches and gnarled roots into looming, skeletal figures that seemed to reach for them from the dark.

They had lost their mother when the world turned upside down. Now, the lakeside was their only hope—the one place their father had always told them to go if they ever got lost.

"Did you see it, sis?"

Aisha’s voice was a tiny, jagged breath in Tari's ear.

"It was huge ,and strong. Like Uncle Sammy’s Rottweiler, but bigger . I think it was a werewolf."

Tari’s heart hammered against her ribs like a trapped bird. She tried to swallow the lump of terror in her throat.

"Do not say such things, Aisha. It was just a deer, or maybe one of Santa’s reindeers that lost its way."

Tari lied. She knew it wasn't a deer. Deers didn't have eyes that burned with a sick, yellow hunger. Deers didn't roar with a sound that felt like grinding metal. That thing hadn't hit their car by accident. The attack was intentional, an anomaly straight from a horror movie.

"But Christmas was months ago sis, and Santa doesn't come by the forest," Aisha whimpered.

"Is Mom going to be okay? I saw her tumble with the car. It went down so far, Tari. Down into the black."

Tari gripped Aisha’s legs tighter, her own hands shaking.

"Shh, quiet down. Mom is fine , she must've gotten off before the truck hit the bottom. We’ll find her at the lake and get out of here. I promise."

"Is it coming for us too? The angry thing that broke our car?"

Tari almost snapped. She wondered where Aisha’s eight-year-old brain got these horrific ideas, then remembered the stack of monster comics hidden under the girl's bed, no surprise. Tari opened her mouth to give a sharp, annoying answer to shut her up, but the words died in her throat.

She froze.

Her body moved with a sudden, primal reflex. She lunged to the side, pressing herself into the hollow of a massive, rotting tree. She barely breathed.

Something was moving through the brush. It was heavy. Its steps were slow, precise, and calculated. It wasn't wandering; it was stalking. Tari’s breath became labored. She craned her neck just an inch, peering out from the shadows to see the horror that was about to claim them.

Krrrk!

A twig snapped. Tari’s heart jumped into her throat.

A massive, seven-foot shape emerged into a patch of moonlight.

A grizzly bear. But it looked wrong—scarred, mangled, and possessed by a strange, twitching energy. It sniffed the air, its wet nose wrinkling as it searched for a scent. Tari stilled, her entire body turning to ice. She prayed Aisha wouldn't scream.

Their vacation had become a nightmare.

Just hours ago, they were celebrating the end of the school term. Their mother had promised a trip to their grandparents in the North. Tari had argued for the highway, but her mother insisted on the forest path—a shortcut she claimed would be peaceful.

"The city is too noisy,and all that traffic" her mother had said with a smile.

They used to take these paths with their father, back when the family was whole. They had a cabin in the mountains where they hunted and fished. But when their father left, the charm died with his departure. Now, the cabin was likely a skeleton of wood invaded by moss and termites.

They were supposed to stop at Uncle Bob’s house on the outskirts of town, but a fallen tree had blocked the main road. Lightning, their mother had guessed. She had turned the truck onto a narrow, dense, less frequented trail that wasn't on any map.

That was when the Unknown struck.

At first, it was just a shadow. Then came the violence. Something hit the truck with the force of a wrecking ball, smashing the bumper and shattering the windshield into a thousand shards of glass. They had thought it must've been a disgruntled deer or caribou that was disturbed by the noise of the truck . But in the glow of the headlights, Tari had seen it: hairy, massive, with eyes like twin torches.

With one powerful heave from a muscled arm, the creature had flipped their truck. The vehicle somersaulted, screaming as metal tore against rock, before rolling down into the maw of the valley. Tari had managed to drag Aisha out just as the car began to slide, but their mother... their mother had stayed behind, pinned in the driver's seat.

"It’s a bear," Aisha whispered suddenly.

Tari jumped, a small whimper escaping her lips. She was ghost white, lost in the memory of the crash. She looked out. The bear was moving away, its heavy bulk disappearing into the trees. It seemed the pungent, bitter sap dripping from the old tree they were hiding in had masked their scent.

Tari didn't wait. She adjusted Aisha on her back and began to move, her pace faster now, almost a jog.

"I can smell the lake, sis! Look, the falls!" Aisha pointed excitedly.

Through the trees, the sound of rushing water grew louder. The moonlight reflected off a spray of mist where the river met a rocky cliff, forming a silver waterfall. Tari felt a spark of hope. This was where their father used to get cell service. Maybe their mother had climbed out. Maybe she was waiting there.

"You can't smell water, silly," Tari teased, though her voice cracked with relief " Where did you learn that from?"

"I learned it on National Geographic!" Aisha countered, clinging tight.

Tari imagined their mother’s face—the warmth of her hug, the smell of her perfume. She fought through a thicket of dry shrubs, pushing toward the clearing of the lake. They were only yards away.

Then, the world vanished.

Tari’s foot didn't slip. The ground simply ceased to exist. The earth gave way beneath her ,and caved in.

It wasn't a manhole or quicksand. It was a trap—a perfectly camouflaged pit hidden by a lattice of thin branches and dirt.

Tari’s scream was cut short as gravity snatched them. Aisha slid from her back as they plummeted into a dark, vertical throat in the earth. Tari reached out, her fingernails clawing at the dirt, but there was nothing to hold onto.

They fell together, their screams echoing off the damp, narrow walls of the hole. Above them, the circle of moonlight grew smaller and smaller until it was just a tiny, mocking star.

Then, there was only darkness. Tari tried to reach out to Aisha amidst the darkness ,who supposedly was falling many feet below her. As they kept falling,She could hear the sound of something breathing at the bottom of the endless pit.