Every step hurts. Every day we walk mindlessly, our only hope is magically finding an escape in this forest. It feels like several days have gone by since we first ran in here, but why has no one come to rescue us? I can't stand it anymore. I'm loosing myself slowly but surely. I'm going insane. I've already reached the point of no return. My stomach twisted again, tight and sharp, like something inside me was trying to knot itself into survival, crying in pain. I want to get out and eat, eat, eat, EAT! Stuck in here in this bullshit forest eating nothing but bugs! How can a forest have no animals! It must be that bastard monster! That greedy fucker! If I can get out of here I swear I will kill it!

  Ahead of me, Vera walked without looking back. She hadn't spoken in hours. Not since morning. Her steps were steady, but there was something rigid about them, like she was walking away from us even though we were moving in the same direction

  Adrian stayed closer to the middle, glancing between us like he could physically hold the group together just by positioning himself there. He stumbled once over a root half-buried in the dirt, catching himself quickly

  "I'm good," he muttered before either of us could say anything

  I hadn't planned to ask

  I cant say anything. I won't. I'm scared I might give myself away. I can't be so sure that Adrian is completely convinced that I didn't kill Lukas. Vera, why did she have to say that. Everything could have gone exactly as I wanted if she didn't open that mouth of hers! I can deal with one person against me but if everyone treats me like a threat then I'm in trouble. There is only three of us left now Vera, Adrian and myself. I know that the monster hunts one person at a time, but to whom it chooses to kill in the end for me is still a complete mystery. I also have recognised that it stops hunting us after it kills one of us

  Good

  That means at the very most I have two days to find a way to escape

  Thoughts like these slid into my head so smoothly it barely felt like my own. I hated how natural it felt. Hated that part of me didn't recoil from it anymore. I hate it. I hate it. I hate it. I hate it. Using my friends as tools so that I can live a bit longer. But what else can I do? I have no options

  Survival was never suppose to be pretty anyway

  Vera walks with the group, but stays wary of Soren. She doesn't look at him anymore. Not directly. Not the way she used to like when they were still a group, still something whole. Now when she glances back, it's quick and sharp, like checking the distance between herself and a cliff edge

  He walks differently

  The air around him is different

  It's not what he did that replays in her mind over and over, Lukas' body jerking forward, Soren's foot catching just slightly too deliberate, but how quickly he recovered. How steady his voice became afterward. How easily he slipped back into planning and calculating

  Too easily

  People don't steady that fast after watching someone die like that

  She keeps telling herself she could be wrong. That panic makes people see patterns where there are none. The forest is wrong. The monster is wrong. Hunger makes the mind twist

  But she remembers the look on Soren's face when he thought no one was watching

  Not fear

  Not grief

  Not regret

  Joy

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  Like he was high on that feeling

  Now she walks ahead on purpose. She won't run behind him again. If the monster comes, she refuses to put her back in his line of survival. 'I know that Soren and Adrian were talking about something when I left them alone, but that brief look they gave me when I came back... That bastard said something to Adrian didn't he!

  She watches them sometimes when they think she isn't paying attention. The slight nod Adrian gives him. The way Soren speaks evenly, never defensive anymore, just tired and reasonable. Controlled

  It feels rehearsed

  I need to be more careful and get Adrian on my side

  Adrian stumbled again over a gnarled root, the forest closing in around him with shadowed trees and whispering leaves. His mind spun, torn between Soren's confident assertions and Vera's sharp warnings. Every step felt heavier, every rustle of branches like a whisper accusing him of choosing wrong. Who could he trust? The words of each of them collided in his head, twisting into doubt and panic. His chest tightened, his hands trembling, as if the very forest were pressing in, demanding an answer he couldn't find. He wanted to shout, to scream

  'Soren wouldn't do that, it has to be right what he said about Vera that monster is making her see things. But what if it isn't....'

  Scary, too scary

  'My best friend who I have known since we were kids could not go as far as to kill another, right? He does seem different though. But who wouldn't be seeing most of our friends being torn to pieces. Yeah that must be it! Vera is just seeing things and Soren is right, so ill trust his words'

  Doubt still clouds Adrian's mind but what makes him lean towards Soren is nothing but the bond he and Soren shares. It's not that he doesn't believe Vera but that he doesn't want to. He can't associate his closest friend with something so despicable as that of a murderer. Not any murderer, but someone who killed their close mutual friend. He's already lost too many people in this forest, that is why he chooses to believe Soren. For believing Vera means that he has lost his closest friend. It would mean that his closest friend is the same as that monster

  A murderer

  The sun had almost vanished behind the twisted treetops, and night crept in like a slow, suffocating weight. Shadows pooled between the roots, the leaves whispering in the faint wind. Every sound, my own breath, a branch snapping underfoot felt amplified, as if the forest were holding its breath, waiting

  Vera fell back a few steps and stopped, glaring at me. Her voice was sharp, bitter, "Your disgusting Soren! You're treating us like chess pieces! Like we're just numbers in your little plan to survive! I saw! I know what you did and here you walk along with us and act like nothing ever happened, you monster!"

  I felt my jaw tighten, "You are insane" I barked, too loud, too fast. "Always spouting the same bullshit, you're delusional! Me and Adrian both know you are seeing things!''

  Her hands flew to her hips, trembling with anger. "You're insane! You think surviving means stepping over everyone else? You think Lukas dying didn't affect you? You're so focused on yourself you don't even see what's happening to the rest of us!"

  I froze for a fraction of a second, then forced my voice even, cold. "I don't see it? I've been the one keeping us alive this whole time! If I don't think, we all die, so listen to me and wake up to reality''

  She took a step closer, eyes blazing, voice cracking. "Reality? You call killing your own friend reality? You call betraying us reality?"

  The words hung in the air like smoke, sharp and choking. I said nothing. The shadows thickened, swallowing the path ahead, and night wrapped around us, heavy and unrelenting. The forest felt like it was leaning in, listening, waiting for the next mistake

  The last sliver of sunlight vanished, leaving the world muted, colourless, and full of threat. Every step we took sounded louder than it should have, each snap of a twig echoing like a scream

  Vera's anger hadn't faded; if anything, it had sharpened. She stayed close to Adrian, hands twitching at her sides, jaw tight, eyes flicking back to me every few steps like she expected me to betray her again. She didn't say a word, but I could feel it in the weight of her gaze, the accusation, the warning, the unspoken judgment

  Adrian noticed it too. His steps slowed slightly, and he kept shifting between us, like trying to shield her from the tension he couldn't name. I could hear his quiet, uneven breathing, feel the strain radiating off him, and even that didn't matter anymore

  Vera's anger was a tether to the danger we couldn't see yet. Her chest rose and fell fast, hands clenched, movements jerky. Every instinct told me to stay alert, to calculate, to watch her as carefully as I watched the forest. Because right now, she was unpredictable. And in the dark, unpredictable could kill

  She glanced back at me one last time before moving ahead, muttering under her breath in a way that only I could catch, "I don't trust you… not anymore"

  Something in the forest seemed to shift at the same moment, the shadows stretching longer, deeper, as if the world itself was pressing in. Vera didn't slow; she pushed forward, faster than her tired legs should have allowed. Anger and fear braided together, driving her steps. I knew then she was positioning herself recklessly, walking toward danger without realizing it

  The forest waited, patient and cruel, and I felt it in my chest

  The hunt was beginning