The edge of Hollow Pines looked like freedom.
Sunlight filtered through the trees in pale golden streams. Birds sang somewhere far away. The air smelled of wet earth, clean and real. For the first time in days, I thought I could breathe.
I staggered forward, legs trembling, lungs burning. Every step felt surreal — like I was waking from a nightmare.
But Hollow Pines doesn't let you wake. Not completely.
---
The forest watched.
I knew it. Every instinct screamed it. Even as I stepped into the open, the mist curling around the tree line, I could feel its gaze on me. The Watchers were patient. Eternal. They didn't need to chase. They waited. They tested. They collected.
And somewhere inside, I knew: leaving was just another challenge. Another trap.
---
I stumbled into a narrow path leading out of the trees. The sunlight grew brighter, warmer, filling me with a hope I hadn't felt in days. I almost laughed — a sound of relief, of victory.
Then I heard it.
A voice. Soft, faint, impossibly close.
"Ethan…"
I froze. Heart hammering. My breath caught. The voice was familiar. Rachel. Or her face, at least. Pale, twisted, smiling impossibly wide.
I wanted to run toward her. I wanted to call her name. I wanted to believe she was real.
But the journal's warning screamed in my mind: Face them. Do not follow. They are lies.
I swallowed my longing, forced my legs to move forward, and ignored the call.
---
The path narrowed. Trees closed in again, but the sunlight still spilled over the edge. I thought I was safe. I thought I was free.
Then the forest shifted.
Branches snapped, roots writhed like snakes, shadows stretched unnaturally. I stumbled. A hand — pale, clawed, familiar — grabbed my ankle. I kicked, screamed, dragged myself free.
I ran.
---
The Watchers appeared. Not all of them, but enough. Faces flickering between human and monster. Limbs bent in ways they shouldn't bend. Eyes glowing red.
"You cannot escape," they hissed, voices overlapping. "You are ours. You belong. Play…"
I shouted back, voice raw: "I am me! I am me!"
One stepped forward — Kyle's face, distorted, half-human, half-shadow. He reached for me. I swung a branch, barely connecting, but it passed through him. Not solid. Not real. Just an echo, a lure.
I kept running.
---
The light ahead grew stronger. The mist thinned. The forest fought less, as if it knew it couldn't stop me entirely now.
I stumbled out of the trees and onto the edge of a clearing. And there it was.
The road. A real road. Asphalt, painted lines, metal signs.
I ran onto it, collapsing, gasping, tears streaming down my face. Freedom. Real freedom.
---
Or so I thought.
I glanced back. Hollow Pines loomed behind the tree line, silent now. No figures. No whispers. No shifting shadows. Just the forest, waiting. Patient. Eternal.
A car approached on the road. Headlights piercing the evening. I waved, shouting. Relief washed over me. Someone had come. Someone real.
The car slowed, stopped. I stumbled toward it.
The driver's door opened.
And inside… a figure. Pale. Grinning impossibly wide. Eyes black as void. Hair stringy and wet.
Rachel.
"Ethan…" she whispered. Her voice soft, melodic, familiar. "You can't leave."
I froze. My legs wouldn't move. My heart pounded.
She reached out a hand. And the forest shifted behind her. The road disappeared. Asphalt became roots, trees, shadows. Hollow Pines had extended itself beyond its boundary.
I screamed, stumbling back.
"Play with us," she hissed. The grin stretched impossibly wide. "Forever."
I turned and ran. The road vanished. The car, the lights, the world outside the forest — all illusions. Hollow Pines had claimed me again.
I ran, deeper into the trees, heart hammering, lungs burning. The whispers rose, overlapping, chanting, mocking. Every shadow, every branch, every rustle of leaves became a watcher.
I screamed my own name. I am me! I am me!
But the forest didn't care. Hollow Pines never lets go.
---
The last thing I remember before the shadows swallowed me completely was her smile. Rachel's. Or not Rachel.
The Watchers surrounded me, patient, eternal, hunger in their hollow eyes.
And I understood, finally.
Escape isn't possible. Not really.
The forest only waits.
And eventually… it claims you.