It was a chilly autumn evening, and the leaves crunched beneath his boots as Marcus trudged through the woods. His friends had dared him to go alone, knowing he hated the forest at night. But Marcus was stubborn and didn’t want to back down. With only the dim beam of his flashlight cutting through the darkness, he pushed deeper into the shadowy trees, hoping to make it to the old abandoned cabin and prove them wrong. The deeper he went, the quieter the woods became. It was as if every sound had been sucked from the air, leaving only his footsteps echoing through the silence. The eerie calm made his skin prickle, but he shook it off, telling himself it was just his imagination. Halfway to the cabin, his flashlight flickered, casting ghostly shadows that seemed to stretch and twist around him. “Great,” he muttered, tapping it. The light steadied for a moment before going completely dark. Suddenly, a faint glow appeared in the distance, casting a sickly, greenish light from deeper in the forest. Curiosity got the better of him, and he found himself drawn toward it. As he approached, the air grew colder, and he could feel an unnatural weight pressing down on him, making it harder to breathe. Finally, he reached a small clearing and froze in horror. In the middle of the clearing stood a ring of old, twisted trees, their branches reaching toward the sky like claws. And in the center of the ring… was a figure. It was a girl, around his age, dressed in tattered clothing, her face hidden beneath a curtain of dark, tangled hair. She was eerily still, her back to him. “Hello?” he whispered, his voice barely a breath. The girl slowly turned, and Marcus's stomach dropped as her face came into view. Her skin was pale, almost translucent, her eyes black as the void. Her lips twisted into a haunting smile, and she raised a hand, pointing directly at him. Then, in a voice that sounded like it came from the depths of the earth, she whispered, “Why did you come here?” A gust of wind surged through the clearing, carrying the smell of damp earth and decay, and Marcus stumbled back. He turned to run, his heart pounding, but he couldn’t shake the feeling that she was following him, her gaze boring into his back. Every step felt heavier, like something was pulling him down, slowing him. But just as he thought he might collapse, he burst through the edge of the forest and into the open. His friends were there, laughing, oblivious to his terror. “What happened, man?” one of them asked, grinning. “Did you see a ghost?” Marcus tried to catch his breath, turning back to look at the woods. But the clearing was gone, replaced by silent, empty trees. He wanted to laugh it off, but as he glanced down at his hand, his blood ran cold. There, smeared across his palm, was a streak of dark, slimy mud, as if something had tried to grab him and pull him back. And in the distance, faint but unmistakable, he could still hear her whisper: “Come back… I’m waiting.”