The doctor quickly went to Juliet's tent to call her. Since it was late at night, she was in a deep sleep. Startled by the doctor's voice, Juliet woke up in shock.
"Juliet, Rose is ready to tell what happened. But not to me. She said she will only tell you," the doctor said.
"To me?" Juliet was slightly taken aback.
"Yes, only to you," the doctor confirmed. Without delay, he brought Juliet to Rose's side. After seating her next to Rose, he went to inform the others who were by the shore.
Within five minutes, everyone except Max and Joseph had gathered in front of the doctor's tent. Max was just a little child, so her mother hadn't woken her. As for Joseph, calling him was pointless everyone there knew it. So no one bothered.
"If you have something to say, tell me. I am ready to listen," Juliet said to Rose.
"I don't know if any of you will believe what I'm about to say. But… I'll tell Juliet. Whether the rest of you should know or not, that's for you to decide."
With that, she began to speak of the terrifying experience she had endured. Juliet leaned closer, straining to catch every word.
"Like everyone else, I had finished my dinner yesterday and gone back to my tent to sleep. After all, sleep is essential for a person. I tried… but I simply couldn't fall asleep.
There's something about me you should know drawing has always been my greatest joy. Whenever sleep eludes me, I take up my pencil. The trouble is, once I start drawing, I lose all sense of time.
By the time I set my pencil down and looked at my finished sketch, it was already close to midnight. My eyelids were finally growing heavy. But here's my strange curse unless I complete at least one drawing a day, I cannot sleep at all."
"Perhaps that was the reason I couldn't sleep when I first lay down. Just as I was beginning to drift off, a sound jolted me awake.
It came from deep inside the forest a girl's scream.
I rushed in that direction, wondering if it might be one of our own. The moonlight and my torch guided my steps at first. But once I entered the forest, the moonlight disappeared, leaving me with only the beam of my torch to rely on.
A strange fear began to take hold of me. I quickly turned back toward the shore.
Then, once again, I heard the girl's scream from inside the forest. But this time, it wasn't just a scream. 'Save me…' the girl's voice pleaded.
Without another thought, I ran toward the sound.
What I saw there stunned me a small building stood in the middle of the forest. I was certain there had never been any structure there before. Yet now, it loomed before my eyes.
The girl's cries had fallen silent. Instead, beside the building, there was a small bathroom. From inside it, the sound of running water could be heard, as though someone had left the shower on.
For a moment, I wondered if I was dreaming. How could there be a building in the middle of the forest and a bathroom right next to it?
Gathering every ounce of courage, I moved closer to the bathroom. With each step, the sound of the water grew louder and louder."
"I opened the bathroom door, trembling with fear. The girl wasn't inside but the shower was still running.
Summoning what courage I had, I stepped in. I reached for the tap to turn it off, but the water didn't stop. I twisted it harder, tried again and again, but nothing changed.
Suddenly, the shower burst open, spraying water with violent force. Not just from the shower—water began to gush out from the very walls.
Panic seized me, and I bolted out of there, running as fast as I could.
I was almost near the shore when I stumbled over something and fell. My torch flew from my hand and landed some distance away.
That's when I saw it wet footprints on the sand, walking toward the shore. As I stared, the prints began to fade, one by one.
I tried to get up, but something had tangled around my leg, holding me down. I told myself it was only my imagination.
And then something fell onto my face from above.
I caught its smell. The stench of rotting flesh, thick and foul, mixed with the scent of blood.
Terrified, I slowly lifted my eyes upward to see what it was…"
"What I saw… was a grotesque figure clinging to a tree branch. To be honest, it looked far more hideous than a werewolf." She paused, drawing in a long, trembling breath.
"It was the deformed body of a woman her hair completely gone, her skin raw, twisted. She was entirely naked. And then, in an instant, she leapt down on me.
The moment she landed, she began to attack. She ripped out my hair strand by strand. She burned both my hands with something I couldn't see. With her razor-sharp claws, she tore into my flesh, cutting and ripping me apart. She yanked out every single toenail from my feet. She was remaking me reshaping my body into something as hideous as hers.
The pain was unbearable. All I wanted in that moment… was death.
And then, suddenly, the weight pressing on my body vanished. The bind around my leg also came loose.
Half-dead, I managed to get up. But I couldn't walk. I began to scream and cry. And that… that's when you all found me."
As the last words left her lips, Juliet's eyes brimmed with tears, the horror of it sinking into her heart. She quickly grabbed the bottle of water beside her and took a deep sip, trying to steady herself.
"I believe every word you said. Don't strain yourself anymore try to sleep."
Juliet gave Rose a gentle smile, then stepped outside to where the others were waiting.
The rest of them were eager, almost desperate, to know what Rose had revealed. The moment Juliet appeared, they gathered around her. Calmly, she recounted everything Rose had described.
Above them, the moon hung in the sky, half veiled in shadow. The weight of Rose's story pressed on their minds, forcing each of them into uneasy thought.
"I just can't believe she was attacked by a ghost. My reason refuses to accept that," said Alice, the teacher, firmly voicing her doubt.
Daniel's reply came swiftly. "Then what about all the other things that have happened here before? Do those fit into reason? Like it or not, we have no choice but to believe her. It certainly wasn't a werewolf. If it had been, she wouldn't be alive right now.
That… that bald, wounded, naked creature it tried to remake Rose into its own image. And then it vanished. Ghost, demon, whatever it was we must destroy it. If we don't, someone else here will suffer the same fate."
As Daniel spoke, Mary Fernandez trembled, fear tightening around her heart.
"If only the rescue team had found us by now… Every moment I spend here, the fear only grows stronger. We barely escaped one disaster with our combined effort, and now an even greater danger has come for us.
I can't accept what's happening here, yet I can't deny it either—it's unfolding right before my eyes. I'm going back to the tent. My daughter is there, alone."
Saying this, Mary turned and walked away toward her child. The moonlight guided her path, casting a pale glow on the way back to her tent.
Meanwhile, Daniel, Francis, Juliet, and Robert headed toward the place Rose had spoken of to confirm whether such a building really existed. None of those who had walked that way earlier in the day had seen any building or bathroom there.
On their way, they found Rose's torch lying beneath a tree. Daniel picked it up, and they pressed forward. But the spot was empty just as they feared. No sign of any structure, no bathroom, nothing at all. Only tall, ancient trees stood around them, silent and unmoving.
They didn't linger. Soon, they turned back toward the shore.
"The trap you set won't be enough to bring this thing down," Daniel muttered.
Francis's expression darkened; the remark clearly didn't sit well with him. His face betrayed the irritation he kept inside. Without a word, he drew a deep drag from the last ember of his cigarette, exhaled the smoke hard into the night air, then flicked the burnt stub away with his finger. Moving ahead of the others, Francis walked on in silence.
To be continued.....