Vivian held Madeleine's hand tightly.
They ran.
The forest seemed endless.
They didn't know how long they had been running. The air burned in their lungs, and branches scratched their arms and legs, but they couldn't stop.
Then they heard it.
"Ten minutes left."
The leader's voice echoed through the trees, followed by laughter.
"In ten minutes, we start looking for them."
More laughter. Mockery. Amusement.
The two girls froze for a moment, paralyzed with fear.
They knew what those words meant. They had heard the conversations. They knew what they were planning to do.
They had no choice.
They could only run.
Madeleine could barely stay steady. Vivian's hand was the only thing keeping her focused. But fear began to consume her.
Suddenly, she let go.
"Madeleine!"
And she ran in another direction.
Vivian felt the emptiness in her hand and immediately tried to reach her.
"We have to stay together!"
But Madeleine couldn't hear her. Panic was guiding her now.
"Two minutes left!" the voice echoed again, more excited this time.
Terrified, Vivian lost her sense of direction. She no longer knew where Madeleine had gone.
She ran.
Branches cut her skin. She tripped, fell into the mud, and got up immediately. Her cheerleader uniform was dirty and torn. Small cuts covered her arms and legs.
"It's started."
The phrase echoed in her head like a sentence.
Had the time already passed?
It couldn't be.
Laughter exploded in the distance.
The game had begun.
Vivian threw herself into a hollow between roots and bushes and hid. She covered her mouth with both hands.
Footsteps.
The crunch of dry leaves.
They were already hunting them.
Tears slid down her face, but she tried not to make a sound.
"Please… please don't come here…" she begged silently.
The footsteps grew closer.
Every second felt endless.
"Over here!" someone shouted in the distance.
The man near her hiding place ran toward the voice.
Vivian almost collapsed in relief.
But then she tensed again.
Had they found Madeleine?
No… it couldn't be.
She stayed frozen.
And then—
A hand rested on her shoulder.
"Did you really think you could hide forever, Vivian?"
The leader's voice whispered near her ear.
She screamed and ran without looking back.
Laughter burst behind her.
They weren't in a hurry.
They were enjoying every second.
Vivian tripped again and fell to the ground. In front of her lay a shoe.
Dirty. Torn. Abandoned.
She recognized it.
It belonged to one of the other kidnapped girls.
Horror pierced her chest.
She didn't have time to think.
She got up and kept running.
She was exhausted. Crying. Desperate.
She saw Madeleine in the distance.
Their eyes met.
But laughter exploded near them.
"Guys, look… we brought them back together." "What good shepherds we are."
More laughter.
They ran together again.
Footsteps behind them.
Closer.
"Why are they doing this to us?" Madeleine gasped while running.
Vivian had no answer.
She looked back.
The leader was advancing with an axe in his hand.
"Run," he said calmly. "Because this is only the beginning."
One of the men fired a gun into the air.
Not to hurt them.
Just to scare them.
The shot echoed through the trees.
"Look, boss, now they're running faster."
Laughter.
"You can have your fun after we kill them."
An uneasy silence crossed the group. They all remembered the man who had disobeyed earlier.
"Keep chasing them," the leader ordered. "It's not time to kill them yet."
One of them raised a crossbow.
"Can we at least wound them?"
The leader nodded.
Smiles spread.
"Beauties… now we can hurt you."
Terror crossed Vivian and Madeleine's eyes.
An arrow struck a tree inches from Madeleine's leg.
Another grazed past her face.
She froze.
A man caught up to her and punched her in the stomach, knocking the air out of her. He grabbed her arm and forced her up.
"Keep running."
He shoved her forward.
Madeleine ran again, crying.
Vivian was running on her side, but the leader was following her.
"Vivian… this is only the beginning."
His voice was cold.
"When I'm done with you, another girl will go through the same thing."
She wanted to scream, but fear strangled her voice.
Suddenly, a scream tore through the air.
The leader stopped.
A dark aura seemed to surround him for a brief moment.
He looked toward the source of the scream.
"Seems someone forgot what happened to the last man who tried to disobey my orders."
He stepped away for a moment.
Then turned back to Vivian.
"But don't worry… let's continue."
Vivian was on the verge of collapse.
She remembered her nightmares.
The dreams she had tried to ignore.
They were real.
This was real.
More footsteps.
More crying.
Vivian saw Madeleine being dragged by the hair by one of the men.
The entire group was gathered now.
The man released her roughly.
"Go stand with your friend."
Madeleine, trembling, walked toward Vivian.
Both of them were crying.
The leader held the axe calmly.
"Well… it seems this is the end."
Silence.
The wind moved the leaves.
Then—
Something appeared between the trees.
A red balloon.
Floating slowly.
Everyone stared at it.
The color shone strangely in the darkness of the forest.
No one spoke.
The leader frowned.
The balloon drifted a little closer.