Part 2 — The Things That Lure You
(Part 1) ➡️ https://storiesworld.us/archives/10169
The following morning, Ethan convinced himself there had to be a rational explanation.
People heard strange things in unfamiliar environments all the time.
Isolation affected perception.
Fatigue affected judgment.
By daylight, the experience already felt less convincing.
He packed his gear and continued deeper into the mountains.
The forest seemed different now.
Less welcoming.
More watchful.
Several times he thought he saw movement between the trees.
A figure standing among the trunks.
A silhouette watching from deeper within the woods.
Every sighting lasted only a second.
Whenever he turned for a better look, nothing was there.
At first he blamed his imagination.
Then the sightings continued.
Around midday he came across a deer carcass lying beside the trail.
The sight immediately caught his attention.
The animal looked strangely untouched.
No visible wounds.
No signs of scavengers.
No obvious cause of death.
It simply lay there.
Waiting.
Another warning returned to him.
If you find a deer carcass, do not touch it.
Do not stare at it.
Walk away.
Ignore it.
The memory unsettled him.
The warning about voices had already proven far less amusing than he originally thought.
For several moments he stood there.
Then he noticed something.
The forest had gone completely silent.
No birds.
No insects.
Nothing.
The stillness felt unnatural.
Suddenly a rustling sound came from deeper in the woods.
Ethan looked up.
The noise came again.
A little farther away.
As though something was moving through the undergrowth.
The sound repeated.
Always just ahead.
Always encouraging him to leave the trail.
A knot formed in his stomach.
Without another glance at the carcass, he resumed walking.
The rustling followed.
Sometimes to his left.
Sometimes to his right.
Sometimes directly ahead.
Several times he thought he saw movement in his peripheral vision.
Large movement.
Something far bigger than a deer.
Yet whenever he turned, there was nothing there.
The deeper he travelled, the more convinced he became that he was being watched.
Late that afternoon he reached a small clearing suitable for camping.
The moment he entered the clearing, the strange sounds stopped.
The silence felt almost intentional.
As though something had chosen to remain beyond the trees.
Watching.
Waiting.
For the first time since arriving in the mountains, Ethan felt genuinely uneasy.
The old man’s warnings no longer sounded ridiculous.
They sounded like instructions.
And night was approaching.
(Continued in Part 3) ➡️ https://storiesworld.us/archives/10172