Chapter 2: Death

The forest was black.

August looked around wildly at the circular clearing in front of where she was tied against a tree. The clearing was pitch black, and at its center—rotating slowly her way—an enormous eye. All she could do was watch as it continued to turn her way.

The eye's white iris looked like one of Saturn's frozen rings, crystalized and arcing high above to the treetops towering somewhere in shadow. While the black cavity at its center had yet to turn its gaze on her, she felt the pull of its gravity sucking everything in. All life. All creation. Everything it looked at was taken, and August was next.

She struggled but couldn't move. The white iris was growing bigger as it rounded toward her, more of the black center coming into view. Like the beautiful celestial patterns of a predator's eye. Breathtaking and deadly.

Then in an instant, the forest's eye slid impossibly away, and in its place was only burning pain. August sucked in a breath as the green forest sprung back into view.

"You're alive."

"Jonathan?" Her voice was hoarse.

That's right. They had been exploring Hallows Forest near the university. The weight of her camera still hung around her neck, and she thoughtlessly raised a hand to palm the lens.

"Shhhh. Hold on. Let me grab something," he answered as she squinted her eyes closed, resting her head back against a tree. Everything hurt. Jonathan grabbed her wrist and then there was a sharper pain to concentrate on.

"What the fuck, Jonathan!" she hissed and pulled her arm back.

He backed away uneasily, staring at her.

"What was that for? What happened?!" She looked at her wrist but didn't see the source of the pain. "Where is everyone?" she asked now, remembering how they came to be here.

August clutched her wrist and looked around, using her shoulder to push herself up against the rough bark of the tree behind her. Although he looked terrified, Jonathan appeared to be fine. He was still staring at her.

A brisk September wind blew past, ruffling her hair over her face. When she swept the hair back, she noticed a body slumped against a tree a few paces from her.

"Elsie!" August called, forgetting her pain and rushing to the girl's side with her camera knocking against her heavily.

Elsie's head hung awkwardly to the side where her hair was still gathered in a loose ponytail. August shook her.

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"Elsie! Elsie, wake up!" she cried, cupping both sides of her face.

Elsie's eyes were dilated, their black centers huge and lifeless. The vision of death's rotating eye suddenly flashed through August's mind, and she shuddered, stumbling backwards as Elsie's dead eyes watched her.

Jonathan grabbed August's shoulders from behind, making her cry out.

"They're all dead, August," he whispered close to her ear. The words didn't make sense. It wasn't possible.

August tried pulling away from him and his impossible words just as something sharp pierced her neck. Jonathan cradled her as she fell back against him.

"August Moon Cady. What a surprise you are," his voice was emotionless as it drifted away.

Some time later, August's senses returned. She groaned and tried moving, but her wrists seemed to be tied. She heard Jonathan curse above her and felt him immobilize her head as he fumbled for something. A rush of instinct took over, and August swung her tied arms around, hitting Jonathan's arm and freeing her head in the process.

She sat up as he lunged for her, and she stumbled back, kicking at his face and causing him to fall away from her. Rather than waiting to see if he was hurt, she scrambled up and ran in the opposite direction.

The forest was turning even darker now, and the leaves that had started to fall with the season were slippery underfoot, causing August to stumble several times on her way. But on her way to where? She was in the middle of suicide forest running from a psychopath. What would she even do if she got away from Jonathan? Where was Eliade? What about her friends? Were they all dead like he said?

The flood of questions made her panic spiral higher, and the thought of Elsie… Elsie's black eyes staring blankly at her. She pushed the thoughts away and kept running. Her tied hands pushed against tree trunks as she ran blindly forward, simply trying to put distance between her and the maniac somewhere behind her.

Eventually August struggled up a steep incline, pushing off the ground, slipping and falling and getting up again before scrambling behind a tree and panting quietly against it. Was Jonathan following her? She stilled her breath to listen, but the eerie silence of this strange forest yawned around her.

The forest seemed to swallow her. And Jonathan. And everything that happened back there, leaving her to wonder if it had even happened at all. Had it? It was so crazy—she would give anything to believe it hadn't.

Her eyes trailed upward, following the dark silhouettes of these trees that seemed to bend unnaturally when suddenly the fall of Jonathan's boot sounded somewhere behind her.

"Go ahead and run!" he called out, and she held her breath. "That's a GPS implant in your arm, dumbass. We'll get you eventually."

The threat echoed off the trees around them, but his voice seemed to falter in the end. Was he—was Jonathan scared?

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