At first, the raindrops were only the size of grains of rice, drifting down in thin threads.
Seeing this, everyone quickened their pace. They pulled up the hoods of their waterproof jackets and tightened the drawstrings around the brims, protecting their vulnerable heads.
“Boom!”
Another peal of thunder exploded in the distant sky.
The thunder sounded like a rciless signal to attack. Soon after it rolled away, the rain intensified. Bean-sized drops pierced through gaps in the canopy and ca crashing down onto people’s heads and faces. The impact was cold and painful. Before long, Everly’s eyelashes were soaked by the dense curtain of rain, and her vision beca a blurry haze.
The sky grew darker and darker.
Thick clouds blocked out the sunlight, and the vast forest was shrouded in heavy rain and mist. Although it was only one o’clock in the afternoon, the woods were already as dim as dusk.
The wind was strengthening as well.
The raging gale howled through the mountain ravines, producing eerie sounds that resembled the cries of ghosts.
The sturdy trees swayed wildly under its force, and the humans sheltering among them fared no better. The cold wind clung to them like a persistent parasite. The mont it found an opening, it slipped through every gap in collars, sleeves, and pant legs, creeping beneath their clothing in thin streams and strands. It stole away their precious body heat, letting the chill seep deep into their bones.
“C-c-click… c-click…”
As she struggled through the forest against the wind and rain, Everly heard more than one person nearby chattering their teeth from the cold.
“Just hold on a little longer… Everyone, keep hold of the person beside you. Whatever you do, don’t get separated.”
Up ahead, Teacher Harriet’s voice drifted back in broken fragnts through the storm.
But there was no choice except to endure.
With rain this heavy, setting up camp on the spot was impossible. Without a campfire to dry their soaked clothes, they could freeze to death.
They had to find shelter.
They had to reach a refuge.
The rain had saturated the ground beneath their feet, turning the soil slick and muddy. The path beca harder and harder to traverse, while the downward slope grew increasingly steep.
Behind Everly, soone had already lost their footing because of the poor visibility. The fall triggered a chain reaction of startled cries from the people around them.
Everly didn’t let herself get distracted.
She reached out and grabbed hold of Misha beside her. With her other hand, she wiped the rainwater from her eyes and peered through the heavy curtain of rain, straining to see down the slope.
The surroundings were simply too dark. Combined with the rain hanging in the air like a vast gray drape, visibility was severely limited. Through the dense black-gray silhouettes of the trees, Everly could only just make out what seed to be a sowhat rectangular dark shape at the bottom of the hillside.
What is that? Could it be the shelter the teacher ntioned?
Just as she blinked furiously, trying to get a better look, a dazzling flash of white light split the darkness apart, bringing a brief mont of illumination to everyone in the forest.
A short while after the flash ca the distant rumble of thunder.
But that fleeting instant of light was enough.
Everly saw clearly that the shape below the slope was a small rectangular wooden cabin with a pointed roof, no larger than twenty square ters.
“I see a house!”
“I think I see it too… Is that the shelter?”
“It has to be. It looks exactly like the shelters we passed earlier.”
Excited voices rose from the students around her.
Students and teachers alike had been thoroughly battered by the storm. After being drenched by the relentless rain, the sight of a building made them want nothing more than to rush inside imdiately.
Amid the lively commotion, only Everly stood apart.
Sweat beaded on her forehead. Her lips were pressed into a tight line. Her eyelids twitched. There wasn’t the slightest trace of a smile on her face.
Danger… That place is dangerous!
The feeling of unease grew like a wild vine. It sprouted from her chest and climbed up her spine, its supple branches transforming into giant hands that wrapped tightly around her throat. Her throat burned. Breathing beca difficult.
No. We can’t go there…
Her sixth sense was screaming at her.
That cabin was dangerous.
If they went there, sothing terrible would happen.
They could not go.
“Woof! Woof! Woof!”
Buddy began barking as well.
The dog’s cries were sharp and urgent—the first ti in a long while it had sounded this alard—as it desperately warned its owner of the danger that might await them ahead.
Hearing the dog’s barking, Everly’s emotions beca even more turbulent. Her fingers unconsciously tightened around Misha’s hand.
“Mm…” Misha winced in pain and let out a quiet cry.
The sound imdiately brought Everly back to her senses. She turned her head and t Misha’s gaze, which was filled with both surprise and concern.
The rain was simply too heavy.
Even with her waterproof jacket on, Misha’s body continued to tremble in the wind and rain.
In truth, Everly wasn’t in much better shape herself.
No matter how tightly they secured their collars and cuffs, the relentless rain always found a way through. Water seeped into the inner layers of their clothing, soaking their bodies. Their once agile and strong limbs now felt as though they had been subrged in icy water, gradually becoming stiff and numb from the cold.
As ti passed, even the breath leaving their throats seed to carry a trace of chill.
The storm clouds overhead blotted out the sky, black as if they had been soaked in ink. Even soone with no knowledge of teorology could tell at a glance that this cold rain would continue for a long ti.
In their current condition, and in such a hostile environnt, if they failed to find shelter and build a fire to warm themselves, even the strongest person would not last much longer before collapsing from hypothermia.
Everly’s eyes drifted once more toward the outline of the cabin.
It had a roof.
It could keep out the rain.
It could provide a dry, windless space where a campfire could finally be lit.
And in this area, there was only one such place.
The shelter just ahead.
…So should we go?
Her steps slowed and then stopped for a mont.
Beside her, Misha seed to sense sothing. She stopped as well and cast Everly a questioning glance.
“Don’t stop, keep moving!”
“Just hang in there a little longer. We’ll reach the shelter soon.”
Their brief pause blocked the path behind them.
The others hadn’t noticed anything unusual about Everly. They simply assud that the two girls were exhausted and struggling to continue. As they detoured around them, they offered words of encouragent one after another.
Their kindness only made Everly’s dilemma more difficult.
Her instincts were warning her that the cabin ahead was dangerous.
But the cold rain, the darkness, and the threat of hypothermia were equally real.
One path led toward a danger she couldn’t identify.
The other led toward a danger she understood all too well.
Bringing up the rear was their instructor, Ted. Seeing that Everly and Misha were still standing in place, he strode over and asked whether they needed support.
“No, we’re fine. We still have the strength to walk.”
Everly lifted her pale face and forced a difficult smile.
Ted visibly relaxed. His voice trembled slightly from the cold.
“That’s good… Th-the teacher will stay with you. Let’s keep going together a little longer.”
Everly nodded.
The mont she lowered her head, however, the expression on her face turned extrely grim.
I miscalculated.
This ti, the warning from her instincts had co too late. She had already ventured too deep into the forest. Now that the danger stood plainly before her, she had no choice but to step directly into it.
The only fortunate thing was that she had brought enough ans of self-defense.
As she walked, she stretched her fingers and lightly touched the wooden bracelet on her right wrist through her sleeve.
It was a branch capable of summoning the Sacred Tree’s true form—Everly’s final trump card.
In a wilderness like this, the Sacred Tree’s power could be used to its fullest extent. If she found herself in a desperate situation, she could throw out the branch and use it to protect herself.
That was the real reason she had dared to choose the lesser of two evils and seek refuge in the cabin.
…
When Everly entered the cabin, she saw a male student walking out carrying a black, misshapen object.
He was pinching it delicately with a tissue wrapped around his fingertips.
As they passed each other, a thick wave of putrid stench drifted over.
The sll was so foul that Everly nearly gagged.
“What is that?”
“A raven corpse,” replied a curly-haired boy from her group when he overheard the question. “No idea how long it’s been dead. All the flesh has rotted away. The whole cabin reeks because of it.”
Only after he pointed it out did Everly realize that the small cabin was perated by a truly disgusting odor.
It was like soone had mixed rotten at, decaying vegetable scraps, and swill together, then left the ss fernting at the bottom of a garbage bin for a week.
The heavy stench seed to drill straight into her head.
Her eyes watered involuntarily, and the veins at her temples throbbed in protest.
“Ugh—bleh… It stinks so much! Does anyone have a shovel? Hurry and dig up the soil around the corpse too! The fluids from the rotting body must have seeped into the ground and contaminated the dirt with that sll!”
“And leave the door and windows open for now! We need to air the place out!”
“We can’t! The wind outside is too strong. If we leave the door open, the fire will be blown out!”
After a frantic period of rushing about, a small campfire was finally lit inside the cabin.
In the flickering firelight, everyone was finally able to get a clear look at the shelter’s interior.
It was an exceptionally crude wooden cabin.
There was no electricity and no flooring. The entire structure consisted of four wooden walls and a flat ceiling. The logs forming the walls still retained their rough bark. The dark-brown surfaces were covered with countless scratches and grooves, giving them a coarse, uneven texture. Whether these marks were part of so special construction technique or sothing else, no one could tell.
Three sides of the cabin were solid walls.
Only the wall containing the entrance had two glass windows.
After enduring years of wind and weather, the glass had beco riddled with spiderweb-like cracks. Both the inside and outside surfaces were filthy, buried beneath a thick layer of gri.
The cabin itself was almost completely empty.
There was no furniture and no personal belongings.
Only along the wall to the right lay a scattered pile of split firewood. The campfire now burning in the center of the room was fueled by those logs.
After surveying the cabin, Everly lowered her gaze to the ground beneath her feet.
The cabin had been built with remarkable carelessness.
There were no floorboards or tiles. The floor was nothing more than uneven packed earth. Fortunately, it sat slightly higher than the surrounding ground outside, so there was no imdiate risk of flooding.
After trekking through the storm for so long, everyone’s clothes and shoes were soaked. Rainwater had been carried indoors along with them. The dark, hardened earth floor was quickly churned into mud under countless footsteps.
The entire cabin was now filled with the mingled slls of rot and wet soil.
As Everly followed the flow of people farther inside, she noticed sothing strange beneath her shoes.
The sensation underfoot felt oddly unusual.
She lifted one foot and glanced down in the dim firelight.
As the sole rose from the ground, thin transparent strands stretched between her shoe and the muddy floor.
Soft.
Wet.
Sticky.
It felt as though she had stepped on a piece of freshly chewed gum.
The sensation was revolting.
What exactly is that…?
She scraped the sole of her shoe against the firm ground, trying to rub the strange substance off. Still uneasy, she stepped around the cabin, testing other spots on the floor.
Fortunately, apart from the clump stuck to her own shoe—which had already mixed with dust and beco unidentifiable—the rest of the ground seed like normal packed earth.
Otherwise, she would have seriously suspected they had wandered into so creature’s mouth or digestive tract…
Teacher Ted was the last to enter the cabin.
Once inside, ignoring the students’ groans of protest, he reached out and shut the door. To prevent it from being blown open by the wind, he even slid the latch into place.
“Hey, Teacher! Open it a bit longer! It slls awful in here!” a boy wailed.
“Enough complaining,” Ted replied. “It’s bad, sure, but it’s better than getting sick from the cold wind outside.”
He brushed off the complaints and, in the firelight, quickly counted the group.
Two teachers, five girls, six boys—everyone was present. No one was missing.
“Alright, since everyone’s here,” he said, “hurry up and change out of your wet clothes. Keep your body temperature up so you don’t catch a cold.”
Teacher Harriet clapped her hands, signaling the students to follow her instructions.
Outside, it was still raining, and only a small pile of firewood inside the cabin could be burned. They had to conserve fuel.
The fire was too small to warm everyone at once.
Following the teacher’s instructions, the students split into two groups by gender. The girls went first, gathering around the fire to change and warm themselves, while the boys turned away and waited patiently.
Their waterproof jackets had kept most of the rain out, so although they were soaked on the outside, only a small amount of moisture had seeped through. The inner layers were made of quick-drying fabric, so once the outer coats were removed and they stood by the fire, the remaining moisture from sweat and rain quickly began to evaporate.
Knowing others were waiting, the girls changed quickly. The faint rustling of fabric continued for a while before gradually fading as one by one they dried off by the fire, letting out relieved sighs and pulling their jackets back on.
After the girls, it was the boys’ turn to change.
Although the boys had no particular concern about being seen, out of courtesy they all stepped back from the fire circle. The girls, in turn, quietly turned away without needing to be told, facing the walls or the windows to create a larger private space for them.
Rustle, rustle… rustle, rustle…
The boys began removing their clothes as well.
In the firelight, their elongated shadows stretched and twisted across the wooden walls, ceiling, and window fras. As the flas flickered, the silhouettes on the walls jumped and swayed, trembling like distorted creatures born from the darkness.
Everly waited, continuing to think about what kind of danger might be tied to this cabin.
So far, it still looked like a fairly ordinary forest shelter. A bit run-down, a bit filthy, but nothing particularly strange had appeared…
“Aaah—!”
A sudden, terrified scream cut through her thoughts.
Everly spun around sharply toward the source of the sound.
Through the pale bodies gathered near the fire, she saw one of the girls standing with her back to everyone. Her body was arched defensively backward, hands clutching her head as she scread.
“What happened?!”
“Martina, what’s wrong? What did you see?”
The teacher and several students rushed over to support her, asking what was going on.
Martina trembled violently, her face full of fear, and pointed toward the window with a shaking finger.
“T-there’s sothing…”
Everyone followed her gaze toward the nearby window.
To let air circulate, the windows had been opened outward, their tal hooks catching on the edges of the fras to prevent them from swinging in the wind and rain.
The dim, overcast light cast a blurred filter over everything.
Looking out through the open window, all that could be seen was the relentless rain falling without end.
At the far edge of sight stood a silent forest—gray-white tree trunks rising one after another in the darkness, like motionless bones thrusting straight up into the sky.
“In weather like this, what could possibly be out there?”
Everyone was startled by Martina’s words.
“Can you describe what it looked like?” Teacher Harriet gently soothed her, asking in a calm voice.
Martina curled up in the teacher’s arms, trembling as she spoke.
“It… it was a shadow. When I looked up, it was right outside the window. A dark mass… I couldn’t see its face. Its hair was hanging down, and it was moving in the air like octopus tentacles…”
“What? Hair like octopus tentacles? You must’ve seen wrong,” one of the boys muttered as he leaned in.
Teacher Harriet shot him a sharp, warning glance.
“Boys, hurry up and finish changing,” she said.
She stepped closer to the window and carefully scanned outside. Then she released Martina, walked over to her backpack, and pulled out a handgun.
“I’ll go check it out. Stay inside the cabin and don’t move around.”
Horror Movie Survival Rule #11: never split up or go alone.
“Teacher!” Everly couldn’t help but speak up as she saw her preparing to leave alone. “It’s too dangerous for you to go by yourself. You should take soone with you.”
Teacher Harriet glanced at her, then gave a slight nod through the crowd.
“It’s fine. I know what I’m doing. I won’t go far.”
She then turned to the other teacher inside.
“Ted, watch the students while I’m gone.”
“Got it.”
After securing everything, Teacher Harriet put on her waterproof hood, removed the door latch, and stepped out of the cabin with a flashlight in one hand and a gun in the other.
Outside, the rain was still pouring, and the forest was dark and unclear.
She stayed close to the cabin, moving cautiously.
Through the flickering beam of the flashlight outside, they could faintly see her circling the cabin twice.
Then she stopped for a mont—right outside the very window where Martina had seen the shadow.
Everly held her breath, staring nervously at the lights outside.
Only when the tightly shut door was knocked on and the soaked professor finally squeezed through the gap unhard did she slowly relax.
“How was it?” Ted asked as he took the handgun and flashlight from Harriet, his tone filled with concern.
The other students also gathered around, watching her with a mix of curiosity and fear.
Blackwood Trail was located inside Black National Forest Park. Because it was rarely visited and highly protected, the forest was rich with wildlife. While hiking, it was common to see red foxes, white-tailed deer, and moose.
Although the trail area did not normally overlap with black bear territory, bears would occasionally wander out of their range due to hunger or mating season. There had even been an unfortunate case where a hiker was attacked on the trail—by the ti they were found, only a pile of broken bones remained.
Martina had said she saw a shadow. Given the height of the window, a normal wild animal shouldn’t have been visible in that way, so so of the students speculated that it might have been a black bear.
That theory had only increased everyone’s panic. They were desperate to know whether there was really a bear outside.
Harriet exhaled a cloud of white breath, stepped closer to the fire, and took off her outer waterproof jacket. While drying off her body with a towel, she said calmly,
“I didn’t see anything moving outside.”
As soon as she said that, a faint murmur of relief rose from the group.
“Th-then… I must have been mistaken…” Martina’s cheeks flushed red with embarrassnt as she felt the weight of everyone’s gaze.
“No,” Harriet said, shaking her damp bangs aside with a sigh. “I don’t think you were mistaken. Even though I didn’t see anything alive… I found footprints under the window.”
“Footprints?”
“Yes, footprints… teardrop-shaped, narrow at one end and rounded at the other. The narrower end curved slightly inward. Each print was larger than my palm, deeply sunk into the soil. Does anyone know what kind of animal makes tracks like that?”
“Even-toed ungulates, maybe deer or sheep.”
“If it’s bigger than the teacher’s palm, it should be a moose.”
Most of them had learned basic outdoor animal tracks before, so they imdiately started offering guesses.
Soone even took it a step further:
“Adult moose shoulder height can exceed 1.6 ters. If it really was a moose, it might even be able to stand like a human and look straight into the window.”
“That actually makes sense.”
“Oh, so it was just a moose? You scared …”
With that conclusion, the students relaxed—and then, strangely enough, felt a bit disappointed.
Compared to harmless herbivores, both the “black bear” possibility and Martina’s “octopus-tentacle-haired shadow” sounded far more exciting. If they could take even one or two photos, it would be a story worth exaggerating for years.
What a pity.
But Everly didn’t feel any pity at all.
In fact, she would have preferred that the thing outside truly was just a moose.
The blond girl blended into the restless crowd, her blue eyes fixed without blinking as she carefully observed Teacher Harriet’s expression.
Even though the imdiate danger seed to have been resolved, the teacher still looked tense—brows tightly furrowed, lips pressed down, as if weighed down by so lingering unease.
If it were really just a moose, there was no reason for her to look like that.
Everly’s instincts told her clearly: Harriet had found sothing that disturbed her.
So, as the group gradually settled down—snacking, chatting, and playing gas around the fire—Everly seized a mont and quietly moved beside Harriet.
In a low voice, she asked whether the teacher was hiding sothing.
“You’re very perceptive, Everly.”
Harriet’s sharp eyes studied the girl for a mont before she let out a sigh.
“Since you’ve already noticed it, there’s no harm in telling you. I indeed didn’t see any living creature outside, and I did find animal-like footprints near the window. But there’s one thing I didn’t say.”
“The footprints appeared out of nowhere.”
“What do you an…?” Everly asked.
“It was raining heavily outside. The forest is completely muddy right now. If the creature that left those tracks was really a moose, then there should have been a continuous trail leading up to the window and away from it.”
But Harriet had only seen two footprints.
They were placed symtrically—one on the left, one on the right—deeply imprinted into the mud outside the window.
There was no sign of where they ca from, and no trace of where they went.
At the edges of the prints, bent blades of grass could still be seen, their breaks fresh, oozing green sap.
It was clear those footprints had just been made.
But what kind of moose could step into mud without leaving a trail… and what kind of deer only walks on two legs?
Such a creature simply did not exist.
“I also think this cabin is strange,” Everly lowered her voice.
“Every other shelter we’ve encountered had ergency food supplies, first aid kits, and satellite communication devices. But here, there’s nothing at all…”
“Teacher, is this really a shelter? Or did we accidentally enter sowhere else?”
Harriet froze for a mont, then fell into thought before slowly shaking her head.
Right now, thinking about that was aningless.
As long as the rain outside continued, they were trapped here. Going out recklessly would only lead to death.
“Let’s wait until the rain stops,” she said slowly, as if explaining to the students—or perhaps convincing herself.
“Once it stops, we’ll leave this place imdiately.”
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