Then the scream came.
The same scream they'd heard before — high, wrong, tearing through the cave walls like it didn't care about stone or distance.
Darren's heart slammed against his ribs.
The thin strip of light spilling in from the cave entrance vanished.
Something blocked it.
Something solid.
Something alive.
"Come on," Charlie whispered urgently. "We need to run. Now."
"No," Darren said.
Charlie turned to him in disbelief. "What?"
Darren didn't look at him. He was staring upward, toward the slope they'd descended — even though he couldn't see it anymore. He didn't need to.
"It's too late," Darren said quietly. "We won't make it back up."
Another heavy thud echoed through the cave. Closer.
"Guys," Darren said, lowering his voice even further. "Turn off your flashlights."
Charlie shook his head. "Are you crazy?"
"We're deep in the cave," Darren said, gripping Charlie's shoulder. "If we keep the lights on, it'll see us. If we turn them off… maybe it won't."
The scream came again, closer now — distorted by the stone.
One by one, the lights went out. Darkness swallowed them whole.
Just before his phone screen dimmed, Darren caught something to his right.
A narrow opening near the ground.
A passage — barely wide enough to crawl through.
"Here," Darren whispered. "There's a passage. Crawl in. Feet first." He paused. "Don't talk. Don't make a sound."
Another thud shook the cave.
Ava moved first, squeezing into the opening. Then Charlie. Then James. Jenna followed, her breath shallow and uneven.
Darren waited until they were all inside. He was last.
Using the faint glow of his phone screen — just enough to see — he slipped into the passage and turned the light off completely.
The space was tight. Stone pressed in from all sides, cold and unforgiving. They had to crawl, inch by inch, barely daring to breathe.
Above them, the cave trembled again.
They didn't know if it had seen them.
They didn't know if it was listening.
All they could do was stay still—
And hope.
The thudding grew stronger.
Closer.
Then it stopped. Right in front of the skulls.
Silence flooded the cave, thick and suffocating. No movement. No sound. Just the lingering smell of rot and blood hanging in the air.
Darren's breath caught in his throat.
Because he was the last one in.
His body was half-turned toward the narrow passage, but his face was still angled outward, toward the open space of the cave. In the darkness, he couldn't see much — only vague shapes, shifting shadows.
But one thing was clear.
Whatever it was…
It was big.
Big enough that the chill along his spine sharpened into something almost painful. Big enough that the pressure in his chest felt like it might crush his ribs.
Don't panic, Darren told himself.
This was the moment he had to think.
To act.
His fingers tightened around his phone.
If we survive this…
If we get out…
No one is going to believe us.
Not the police. Not anyone.
They'll say we imagined it. That we panicked. That it was an animal.
Darren swallowed hard. He needed proof.
Very carefully, he shifted his grip on the phone, lowering the screen brightness until it was barely more than a dull glow. Just enough to see by. Just enough to frame something.
A soft tap pressed against his back.
Darren stiffened.
He turned his head just enough to see Jenna behind him, her face pale in the faint glow. She shook her head slightly, her eyes questioning.
Are you sure?
Darren swallowed.
He mouthed the words carefully, barely moving his lips. "It's okay."
Jenna hesitated for a fraction of a second… then nodded.
He raised the phone a little higher, heart hammering so loud he was sure it could be heard.
The camera struggled in the darkness. Grainy. Unclear.
Useless.
Come on… just try.
He pressed the button.
And in that instant, Darren realized—
The flash was on.
His blood ran cold.
Too late.
The flash erupted, harsh and white, tearing through the darkness like lightning.
For a split second, everything was exposed.
Stone.
Bones.
And something massive, wrong, and towering just beyond them.
The creature flinched.
A low, violent sound rumbled through the cave — not a scream, not a roar, but something deeper. Something angry.
Darren dropped the phone and slammed his face against the stone, squeezing his eyes shut.
Too late.
Way too late.
Above them, something shifted.
The ground trembled, subtle at first — then stronger. Darren felt the vibration through the stone as his cheek pressed against the cave floor. He wasn't the only one. He could feel the others tense around him, their breathing shallow and uneven.
Don't move.
Don't breathe.
Darren kept his eyes shut, forcing himself to stay still. Whatever happened next, he couldn't flinch. Couldn't make a sound.
But the pressure grew closer.
Curiosity — or fear — got the better of him.
He opened his eyes just a sliver.
In the darkness, something loomed.
Not clearly. Not fully.
Just a shape.
A massive outline, like a face pressed toward the opening — too large, too close. Whatever it was, it was trying to look inside. Trying to see.
But it couldn't.
Its head was too big. All that reached the narrow passage was part of its jaw, hovering inches from the stone.
Darren's heart pounded so hard he was sure it would give them away.
He squeezed his eyes shut again.
Seconds passed.
Then more.
And when he finally dared to look again—
It was gone.
A scream tore through the cave, echoing violently off the stone. Another followed. Then heavy thuds, moving away this time — each one fainter than the last.
The sound faded.
Retreated.
Silence returned.
No one moved.
No one spoke.
Finally, Charlie whispered from behind, his voice shaking, "Guys… is it gone?"
Darren swallowed. He listened — really listened.
Nothing.
"I think so," Darren whispered back.
They waited longer than they thought necessary.
Then longer still.
Only when his muscles started to ache did Darren slowly push himself forward. He poked his head out of the passage and flicked his flashlight on, sweeping it left… right… up.
Empty.
The cave was still.
One by one, they crawled out, careful and quiet. None of them wanted to leave the passage — but it was too tight, too suffocating to stay there forever.
The relief was fragile.
And Darren knew better than to trust it.
"What… what was that?" Charlie breathed. "Darren, you scared the hell out of me with that flash. I thought we were done."
"Yeah," Darren said quietly. "Sorry. I didn't mean to—"
He stopped.
Something clicked in his head.
He hadn't turned the flash off in time.
Which meant—
His hand trembled as he picked up his phone. The screen was cracked now, a thin fracture running across it, but it still worked. Darren opened the camera roll.
The image loaded.
He sucked in a sharp breath.
It was blurred — smeared by motion and fear — but it was there.
Something tall.
Something massive.
Brown.
Not fur. Not skin.
Rough. Uneven. Like bark layered over muscle.
The shape filled most of the frame, distorted by the flash, but Darren's eyes were drawn upward — to where the light had caught something reflective.
Two points.
Yellow.
Orange.
Eyes.
Reflected back at the camera from the darkness above.
"Oh my god," Charlie whispered, leaning closer. "That's… that's real."
The others gathered around, staring at the screen in silence.
No one could name it.
No one even tried.
"That's like—" Charlie swallowed. "That's like a fantasy monster or something."
Darren barely heard him.
Because something else had surfaced in his mind.
The dream.
Running through the forest.
Cold air.
That shape in the darkness.
He remembered looking back — just for a second — and seeing something tall behind the trees. Something he'd dismissed as fear filling in the gaps.
But now—
The shape in the photo matched it.
Too closely.
His stomach dropped.
How could I dream about something I'd never seen before?