Present...
The storm roared above as Jojo, Caroline, Bonnie, and Elena drove through winding forest roads.
Rain pounded against the windshield, lightning split the sky, and thunder echoed like a warning.
They were heading toward Glore Valley—
The place linked to the strange, desperate voicemail Caroline had received.
As they neared their destination, something unnatural happened.
The rain… stopped.
Instantly.
Glore Valley...
The car rolled to a halt before two eerie-looking houses—
Both old, silent, and drenched in shadows.
The moment the engine cut, silence blanketed the area.
Too still. Too perfect.
Jojo stepped out first and looked up.
His eyes narrowed.
"____"
In the sky above them was a massive ring-shaped cloud—
A perfect circle that hovered like a portal. Inside that ring, the rain dared not fall.
The storm raged around it, but not within it.
Not over these houses.
Bonnie followed, her boots splashing in puddles as she gazed upward.
Her frown deepened.
"This is wrong,"
She muttered.
"This isn't natural at all."
"What do you mean?"
Elena asked, glancing nervously between the sky and the houses.
"I mean, magic is involved."
Bonnie said, her voice grim.
"Could be a spell… or an ancient artefact. Maybe something that's lost control—or fell into the wrong hands."
Caroline folded her arms, instinctively uneasy.
"You think it's a witch?"
"Maybe,"
Bonnie replied.
"Or a warlock. Or worse."
While the girls debated the magical theories,
Jojo stood still, his brows furrowed, gaze fixed on the Glore Valley sign ahead.
"____"
The layout, the cloud ring, the houses—it all felt familiar.
'Too familiar.'
He didn't say anything.
But inside, his gut twisted.
'This is... Until Dawn,'
He thought grimly.
'Same setting. Same vibe. And if I'm right, then we're already too deep.'
With deep thought, calmly, Jojo analysed the dark clouds.
"We need to move."
Jojo said sharply.
"What? Why?"
Caroline asked.
Jojo didn't answer.
"____"
He just opened the car door and stepped out, scanning the road and the woods with narrowed eyes.
Bonnie exchanged a look with the others, then followed him.
Elena and Caroline hesitated, then quickly moved after them.
Behind them, the car stood alone.
Ahead—
The storm watched in silence.
As Jojo, Caroline, Bonnie, and Elena stepped cautiously toward the first house,
The wind seemed to die.
The only sound was the squish of their boots against the wet earth and the faint creaking of an old wooden sign swinging in the breeze.
Their hands hovered near the doorknob—
But they weren't alone.
In a darkened room filled with buzzing monitors, a man watched.
The glow from fifteen CRT televisions bathed the space in flickering light, each screen showing a different angle—
Doorways, forest paths, inside the houses…
All live feeds from old, grainy CCTV cameras.
The man leaned back in a torn leather chair,
Half of his face was covered by a stretched monkey cap, revealing only his sharp jaw and twisted smile.
In his gloved hand, he held a half-eaten cheeseburger, grease dripping onto a dirty tray beside him.
He took a slow bite, eyes fixed on the monitor where the new group approached the door.
"Ah… fresh ones,"
He whispered with a grin, chewing slowly, savouring the moment.
"Like toys. Delivered right to my doorstep."
Chuckle~
He chuckled softly as he toggled a dial, the screen flickering to a feed of the second house—
Inside, nothing but still darkness.
Then he flipped to another feed—
The basement.
A body bag twitched.
His eyes narrowed with delight.
"These ones might last longer,"
He murmured, licking cheese from his thumb.
Above him, crude drawings of masks, symbols, and diagrams of lunar phases were pinned to the walls—
Pages torn from ancient books, stained with ink… or blood.
As Jojo reached for the doorknob on screen, the man leaned in closer, eyes shining behind the shadow of his cap.
Jojo stood at the wooden entrance of the eerie old house.
His knuckles tapped twice against the heavy door—
Knock knock—
Echoing unnaturally into the silence beyond.
No response.
"____"
He stepped closer, his voice calm but firm.
"Hello? My name is Jojo. I received a call for help from this location. I'm here to assist. You don't have to be afraid. Please open the door."
Inside the house,
Clover, Max, Nina, Abel, and Megan froze in place.
"____"
"____"
"____"
The sudden knock had sent a jolt through their spines—
But it was the voice that truly rattled them.
Max looked toward the door suspiciously,
"That… didn't sound like one of them."
Clover's eyes widened, her voice shaky.
"But how could anyone know we're here? Unless…"
Nina interjected, her brows furrowed.
"Unless it's another trap. Another trick. But I was the one called for help previously."
Megan, still pale and recovering from her earlier possession, whispered hoarsely,
"He said… he got a call. But none of our phones work… when did it happen?"
Abel clenched his fists.
But hearing Nina, he looked at her confusedly.
"Then how did he get the location?"
They stood silently, staring at the door, the only barrier between them and the unknown voice.
Was it really someone offering salvation?
Or just another layer to the nightmare they were trapped in?
For a brief moment, the house itself seemed to hold its breath.
Megan, breathing heavily and visibly shaken, pushed past her friends.
"I'm done waiting."
"Wait—Megan!"
Nina called, but it was too late.
With one swift motion, Megan unlocked the deadbolt and pulled open the door.
They braced themselves—
Expecting armed police, maybe a rescue team in uniform—
But instead…
There stood a young man, calm and confident, flanked by three women.
All looked human—
Too human.
The strangers' casual appearance clashed violently with the blood-soaked fear inside the house.
None of the five friends let their guard down.
The man stepped in slowly.
"I'm Jojo. These are Bonnie, Elena and Caroline. We're here to help."
The room was silent.
"____"
"____"
"____"
Behind them, the third woman—
Caroline—
Remained standing on the porch, not crossing the threshold.
Her arms folded, her expression unreadable.
Jojo noticed instantly.
He glanced back, then turned to Megan.
"Could you invite her in?"
Megan blinked.
"What?"
Jojo's tone remained calm.
"She needs to be invited. Please."
Confusion spread among the group.
Max frowned.
"What kind of rule is that? The door's already open."
Nina whispered,
"Why… does she need an invitation?"
Jojo turned to Clover, catching her gaze.
"Please. Just say, 'Come in.'"
Clover, hesitant but oddly compelled, nodded slowly.
Nod~
"You're invited in..."
At once,
Caroline stepped inside—
Crossing the threshold without resistance.
The five looked at each other, unease deepening.
'Who were these people?'
'And what exactly had they just let in?'
Were the only one thought in their mind.
Max, unable to hold back any longer, stepped forward.
"Okay, who are you people?"
Jojo didn't look at him.
"____"
His eyes scanned the walls, the ceiling, and the dark corners of the room.
"We're the help you've been waiting for."
He replied calmly, like that explained everything.
He moved purposefully, like someone looking for a signal only he could detect.
The others exchanged confused, wary glances.
Abel, arms crossed, finally spoke.
"If you're really here to help us, then why are we still standing around? Shouldn't we be getting the hell out of here?"
Jojo raised one finger to his lips without turning to look at him.
"Shhh."
That single gesture sent a strange chill through the room.
Without another word,
Jojo stepped over to a dusty axe propped beside a faded portrait hanging on the wall.
He picked it up without hesitation.
Instantly, the five friends tensed.
Nina backed up.
Megan's eyes darted toward the front door.
Max's hand moved subtly to a heavy candleholder on the table.
But Jojo didn't attack.
Instead, he turned, stared hard at a seemingly random section of the floorboards—
And swung.
CRACK!
The axe bit into the wood with a loud, splintering crack.
Then he struck the wall behind the old bookshelf.
WHAM!
Dust and fragments rained down.
He continued—
Striking furniture, shelves, and the base of an old grandfather clock.
One by one, he shattered items that seemed irrelevant.
The friends stared in a mixture of fear and bewilderment.
"What the hell are you doing?!"
Max finally shouted, unable to hold back.
Jojo didn't stop.
"You will know soon."
He swung again—
THUD—
shattering an antique mirror.
Bonnie, watching carefully from the corner, muttered,
"He's not just guessing. He knows something is here."
"Don't you guys get stuck in a loop?"
Elena looked at them and asked the question.
The question hit like a thunderclap.
All five of them froze.
Clover slowly nodded.
Nod~
"We… we remember it. The night… we all died. And all repeated again."
Hearing Elena's words, Clover excitedly started explaining what was happening to them.
"____"
Jojo paused, glancing at her with a flicker of empathy.
"Then let's make sure it doesn't happen again."
He raised the axe.
And the search continued.
Before them lay a collection of shattered hidden cameras, audio bugs, and tiny mics, their wires exposed and sparking faintly.
The realisation hit like ice water.
Someone had been watching them.
Listening to every scream.
Every cry.
Every whispered plan.
All this time…
Someone had been enjoying their suffering.
The five friends turned pale, horror etching itself into their faces.
Clover's hands trembled.
Abel clenched his fists.
Max looked like he might be sick.
"We were never alone,"
Megan whispered.
Without a word,
Jojo began sweeping the room for more surveillance.
The others joined in, tearing through drawers, checking behind paintings, and overturning furniture.
In the chaos of searching, Caroline's voice rose above the others.
"Jojo… I found something."
She held up a dusty, old VCR tape, the label faded and peeling.
"____"
Jojo took it with a deep frown, his expression growing more serious.
"This better not be what I think it is."
He moved to the old TV set and slid the tape into the VCR player below.
With a crackle of static, the TV flickered to life.
Everyone gathered in front of it—
Jojo, Bonnie, Elena, Caroline, and the original five—
Watching in eerie silence as the footage began to play.
A grainy black-and-white video appeared.
A man in a lab coat sat facing the camera.
"Dr. Hill, Glore Valley Facility, Trial 42 – Wendigo Conditioning."
Behind him, inside a glass chamber, were two restrained men—
Eyes wild, bones sticking out from malnutrition.
The doctor spoke clinically, emotionlessly.
"Subject A will be terminated. Subject B will be administered psionic meditation and starvation therapy."
The screen cuts to a montage of horrors:
One man was executed—
Stabbed and left to rot.
The other, locked in with the corpse, was slowly deprived of food.
Days passed...
Then came the moment that made everyone in the room recoil:
Subject B, weeping, screaming—
Gave in.
He crawled to the dead man, tore into the flesh, and ate.
"____"
Each day, he changed more—
His body twisting unnaturally, his fingers elongating, his eyes growing hollow and black.
"Loss of human identity—complete,"
Dr. Hill noted coldly.
"Subject is no longer responsive to memory triggers. Pure hunger. No morality. Mutation is irreversible."
The final image froze on Subject B lunging at the camera—
Its mouth unhinged, teeth jagged, a full-fledged monster.
The screen flickered…
Then turned black.
Silence filled the room.
"____"
"____"
"____"
Heavy. Suffocating.
Bonnie swallowed hard.
Gulp~
"That wasn't just a research tape… That thing might still be here or might be more."
Jojo stood slowly, his voice dark and steady.
"They didn't just watch you… They created the nightmare you're trapped in."
After watching the horrific transformation of Subject B,
the group grew more determined—
And more desperate.
Fueled by adrenaline and rage, they tore through the house with renewed urgency.
Jojo barked orders.
Elena flipped rugs.
Bonnie used magic to sense hidden compartments.
Megan and Max opened every drawer and smashed every mirror, while Abel and Clover scoured the attic.
They found more hidden surveillance equipment, more invasive bugs—
Every discovery is tightening the noose around their nerves.
Then, tucked away behind a false wall in the hallway,
Caroline uncovered a set of aged documents and yellowed news clippings.
"Guys… you'll want to see this."
The clippings told the forgotten history of Glore Valley.
"TRAGEDY IN GLORE VALLEY – 1,137 KILLED IN MINE COLLAPSE"
"Blame Falls on Local Mining Company – Safety Violations Ignored"
"Entire Community Buried Beneath the Earth"
"Last Rescue Attempt Abandoned – Site Deemed Unrecoverable"
One article, barely legible, mentioned strange reports years after the tragedy—
Lights in the woods, voices from beneath the ground, and missing persons.
"It wasn't just a natural landslide."
Bonnie, she could feel it murmured.
Meanwhile,
Underground Surveillance Room...
Deep underground, beneath the house, in a dimly lit room humming with electronics, the truth was unmasked.
The man in the monkey cap,
Seated before a control panel of over 15 CRT monitors—
Ripped the wool cap from his face.
Dr. Hill.
His face was older, gaunt, half-scarred from past experimentation.
One eye was twitching with suppressed fury.
A cruel smirk that had vanished was now replaced by visible displeasure.
"____"
Across all monitors, the same message blinked in red:
NO SIGNAL
NO SIGNAL
NO SIGNAL
The cameras were destroyed.
His test subjects—
Not cooperating.
He clenched his gloved hand into a fist and muttered:
"They're ruining my research…"
Behind him, a large containment unit hissed.
Something inside moved—
Slowly, hungrily—
Responding to its master's rising agitation.
Dr. Hill turned to the cell, voice dripping with venom.
Dr. Hill's twisted grin returned as he slammed his fist on a large, rusted control panel.
Red lights flickered across the room as rows of old containment chambers hissed and unlocked one by one.
"Wake up, my children…"
"Your meal is ready."
From the dark corridors beyond the lab,
Figures began to stir—
Once human, now something far worse.
Grotesque, elongated limbs cracked into motion.
Their skin was pale and stretched thin, their mouths warped into permanent snarls of hunger.
Their eyes glowed faintly with madness—
The same monsters from the VCR footage.
Wendigos.
With a chorus of unnatural growls and screeches, the creatures burst forth, sprinting and crawling like predators unleashed.
Their sharpened claws scraped against walls and ceilings as they raced toward the surface.
"Bring me their bones…"
Dr. Hill hissed.
"Eat them slowly. Let me hear them scream."
One by one, the abominations disappeared into the dark stairwells and tunnels—
Heading for the house above.
Back at the Glore Valley house, Jojo suddenly stopped mid-search.
The silence was too deep.
"____"
A low rumble passed beneath their feet.
Bonnie's eyes widened.
"Something's coming."
Elena grabbed Caroline's hand.
From outside, faint at first, then louder—
SkreeeEEEEEEEEE—!
The screech of a beast not meant to exist.
Jojo moved to the window. What he saw drained the colour from his face.
"We're not alone anymore. They're here."
In the foggy distance, shapes emerged—
Six, maybe seven of them, all sprinting on all fours, inhuman, charging toward the house with terrifying speed.
**********************************************************************************************************************************************************
(Author's POV)
(A/N):
Thanks for reading the chapter!
Please give a review and power stone!!!