The woods had always felt different at night, but that evening there was something heavier in the air—like the trees were holding their breath. Y/N remembered the way her friends laughed as they stepped off the path, their phone flashlights cutting thin, shaky lines through the dark. Someone joked about getting lost, someone else dared them to go deeper, and she followed because she always did. The sound came first—low, distant, impossible to place—and then everything unraveled too quickly to make sense of. By the time the forest fell silent again, only she was left standing. Now, months later, she barely left her house, the world outside reduced to whispers and rumors she refused to hear—until Ethan, fresh out of graduation and chasing his first real story, started asking questions no one else dared to.