I didn't sleep.
Even after the box disappeared.
Yes—disappeared.
I placed it on my nightstand before brushing my teeth.
By the time I turned back around, it was gone.
No sound.
No draft.
No open window.
Just an empty surface, and a whisper in my ears that sounded like:
> "Your turn."
---
At sunrise, the others slowly crawled into the common room.
Zane carried his camera like a shield.
Lena looked like she hadn't slept either.
Mason acted like everything was fine.
> "Nice breeze last night, huh?" he joked.
No one laughed.
Then Harper spoke. Quiet. Distant.
> "Someone carved something into the wall."
She pointed.
Above the fireplace, in jagged black lettering—
ROUND ONE BEGINS TONIGHT.
---
> "What the hell is this?" Jules asked, backing up.
> "Is this you?" Tyrell snapped at Mason.
Mason raised his hands.
> "Don't look at me. I was with Zane all night editing footage."
Zane nodded but didn't look convinced.
> "Maybe this is a prank?" Lena offered.
> "Like Riley used to pull."
Jules flinched at his name.
---
No one mentioned the box.
No one dared.
---
FLASHBACK – 7 YEARS AGO
Camp Granger Woods.
July 3rd, 10:21 p.m.
I remember the smell of moss.
The heavy heat in the air.
And the flickering of Mason's flashlight as we all gathered around Riley.
He stood by the base of the twisted tree we used to call "The Crooked One."
Tall, bark split in half, sap leaking like blood.
Riley held his hands out like a magician.
> "Let's make a new game," he said, grinning.
> "One we'll never forget."
---
The game was simple:
Hide and seek.
One seeker.
Everyone else hides.
But it had a new rule—"The Deal."
Whoever was caught last had to go into the woods alone.
For one hour.
With no flashlight.
Only a candle.
And they had to carve the spiral into the dirt when they got there.
"Offer a piece of your name," Riley had said, laughing.
"Then come back with a story."
We thought he was being poetic.
But it was Riley's turn to hide that night.
And we never saw him again.
---
Back to the present.
The fireplace crackled behind us.
The carved message above it still fresh. Still bleeding sap from the letters.
Jules spoke first.
> "We shouldn't have come back."
> "It's too late," Harper whispered.
I turned to her.
> "What do you mean?"
> "We're already part of it again."
---
Tyrell sat up suddenly.
> "There's another message," he said.
He pointed to the wood panel beside the kitchen.
Carved below it:
"TELL THE TRUTH ABOUT WHAT HAPPENED."
---
Silence.
Until Mason stepped forward.
> "Fine. I'll start."
He took a deep breath, looked at all of us.
Then:
> "We made Riley go too far."
> "We dared him to hide in the Hollow."
Harper shivered.
> "The Hollow isn't part of the campgrounds."
> "Exactly. We knew that. We thought it was funny. He went anyway."
> "And he never came back."
---
Zane was shaking his head.
> "No. That's not what happened. Riley was already acting weird. He wanted to disappear."
> "He chose to vanish."
Jules stood. Her voice cracked.
> "That's not true."
> "He was scared before he ran. He told me he saw something in the woods."
> "He said it called his name."
I looked at the floor.
Because I remembered what he told me, too.
The last thing.
Right before he ran off into the trees.
---
> "If it picks me," Riley had said, "don't follow."
---
Now, seven years later, someone wanted the truth.
All of it.
Because the game hadn't ended.
It had just been paused.
And we had all been living on borrowed time.
---
At exactly 7:00 p.m., the power went out.
No phones.
No signal.
No backup generator.
Just darkness.
Crackling wood.
And the sound of wind rising like a scream.
---
Then we heard it.
From outside.
A bell.
One long chime.
Like a triangle being struck in the distance.
And then a voice:
> "Ready or not…"
Childlike.
Breathy.
Not Riley's.
Something older.
> "…Round one begins."