Fueled by anger and sadness, Jett and I switched the date that we would go back into the forest to the very next day. It was Sunday, January 28th. We had decided we would go at night because the policemen were there during the day most of the time. At night, there would be one or two guards at the most.

I stood in my room looking into a mirror I had brought from the bathroom. I wore black pants, black sneakers, and a black hoodie. I was ready.

I hadn’t told my mom about our plan so that meant I would have to sneak out of the house. It was 10 PM and I made my move. 

The lights were off in the hallway. I tiptoed towards the stairs. I looked into my sister’s room. The lights were turned off. I could see her sleeping in her bed. She rolled to the left and scratched her face. I smiled at her. I couldn’t imagine life without her. 

I looked into my parents room. They were also sleeping. I saw that my mother was spooning my father. It was a cute sight. I tiptoed down the stairs and arrived downstairs, looked around, and walked towards the door. I took a deep breath and opened the door, locked it on the inside and made sure I had my spare key. I closed the door and walked towards the halfway point. As I walked, I couldn’t help but feel as though I were making a big mistake. …………………………………

“Hey bro, over here,” I heard someone whisper. 

I turned to look at Jett. He was hiding behind a bench. He was wearing all black like me except he wore a black long sleeved shirt.

I hid behind the bench with him.

“Look, there’s a cop at the entrance of the woods,” Jett said, pointing.

“How do we get past him?” I asked.

“We can go through the bushes to the left.”

The woods had a main entrance with a path. Around the woods there was a wall of thick brush.

“Can we even get in through there?” I asked.

I didn’t realize because it was so dark but Jett was wearing a backpack. He pulled out a small camping ax.

“Wow, you were prepared,” I said.

“I’m very determined,” he said seriously.

“I am too.”

“We’re going to find the bastard who killed Mason and betrayed us all, and make them pay.”

“Let’s do it.”

We crouched and walked towards the edge of the woods. Jett started cutting away at the bushes, making a path for us to go through. 

I heard the policeman sigh nearby. He reached into his holster and pulled out a flashlight.

“Uh oh,” I said.

“What is it?” Jett said as he cut the bushes.

“He’s scanning the area with his flashlight.”

“Oh no.”

The man shone his flashlight on the bushes. I watched in horror as it slowly moved closer and closer to us.

“Hurry up, Jett,” I said panicking.

“I’m coming! Chill out!”

The flashlight was practically next to us. It was about to shine on me when Jett pulled me into the bushes. The light shone on my foot. I held my breath waiting for the policeman to say something but heard nothing.

“We’re good. Let’s get a move on here,” Jett whispered.

We crawled through the bushes. Jett had made a tunnel for us to go through. We got into the woods. It was pitch black.

“I'm going to put a glow stick here so we don’t lose our way back,” Jett said.

He pulled out a glow stick from his backpack. He started bending it and it lit up. He set it at the entrance of the bushes.

“Let’s get a little deeper into the woods and then we can pull out our flashlights.”

We stumbled and fell a couple of times as we got deeper into the forest. I could barely see anything.

“We should be good now. Take out your flashlight,” Jett said.

I pulled out my flashlight from my pant’s pockets. I turned it on. I felt better. I could finally see. I was quite scared in the dark but brushed it off convincing myself that I was doing all of this so justice would be served.

“Do you think they’re still here?” I asked.

“Do you mean The Path?”

“Yeah.”

“Probably not. If the police are here that means that they have cleared out and left.”

“I think that they let the body to be found. I don’t know why but they must’ve. Why would they let the police get so close to their base? It just doesn’t add up!”

“Maybe they wanted media attention?”

“I doubt it.”

We walked for a while in silence.

“Hey, let’s head back. I want to see if that pentagram is still there,” I said.

“Why?” Jett asked.

“To see if the police found it and linked it to the cult!”

“I doubt it’s still there.”

We headed back into the direction of where we had seen the pentagram. We arrived. For safety, we turned off our flashlights. I crouched on the ground and tried to see despite the darkness. I couldn’t see any signs of the pentagram.

“It was here, right?” I asked.

“Yeah.” Jett said.

“Do you think the police saw it?”

“Probably not. We would have heard it on the news if they did. Unless they were keeping information from the press which I doubt.”

“Guess we can’t share any of the things we found with the police.”

We walked to the lake in silence until we arrived at the lake. It matched Sebastian’s description and the news report I had seen.

I shone my flashlight into the lake. I peered into it. I wondered how deep Mason’s body was before they found it and how they found it. 

“Now, let’s go to the lake house Sebastian found,” Jett said.

We walked around the lake, careful not to fall into the water. I could see in the distance a run down lake house. 

We arrived in front of it. Sebastian hadn’t seen anything inside except the figures in the cloaks.

“Are you sure there’s nobody inside?” I asked.

“Yeah bro. If the police are outside, how are they going to get in?” he whispered to me.

“They could get in like we did.”

“Bro they obviously moved. What kind of cult would stay at a place where the police have discovered? What they’re doing is illegal!”

He finally convinced me. I opened the broken door and shone my flashlight inside. I made the mistake of calling it a lake house. It was more like a small cabin. The cabin was one small room. On the walls there was blood splattered. Whether it was human blood or animal blood was unknown. Painted in the middle of the furthest wall, was a pentagram with a skull at the center.

There were shackles on the right wall. On the floor there were candles. We had crushed a couple as we walked inside.

“This is definitely The Path’s base,” Jett whispered.

I nodded but with the dim light I doubted he could see me.

I walked up to the pentagram. For some reason I felt drawn to it.

“What are you doing?” Jett asked.

“I’m going to touch it.”

“Do you know how bad it burnt you the last time we touched one of those pentagrams? And it must’ve been like a month old!”

“Maybe touching it will help me understand…”

I touched it. The second I did I felt more pain than I ever had felt up into that point in my life. My hand burnt. It felt like I had touched a horrible fire and received what looked like a third degree burn. I looked at my hand. A purple glow shone. There was writing that read Rebirth.

I screamed in pain. It hurt, it hurt, it hurt, it hurt, it hurt. I knew I wasn’t going to die but it really felt like I was.

“Shut up! They’re going to hear us!” Jett said, raising his voice.

He put his hand over my mouth.

I heard a twig snap outside. My eyes widened and so did Jett’s. There was a little hole in the wall. Jett helped me through and then he followed. We hid behind the cabin. Jett still held his hand on my mouth because the pain hadn’t gone away.

Through the hole in the window behind the cabin I could see a figure in a purple cloak. They were looking around the cabin and had their back to us.

“Why are THEY here?” Jett whispered.

I didn’t reply because I was worried I was going to scream if I said anything. I looked at Jett. His face seemed calm. But then suddenly his face changed. He looked panicked. I could see it. He was about to sneeze. I shook my head at him. Telling him to hold it in. But he couldn’t. He sneezed. And loud. I watched as the figure in the cloak turned and looked out the window. A knife slid out of his sleeve. 

Adrenaline kicked in and I got up fast. We ran through the forest. We tripped and fell a couple times because we had dropped our flashlights. We arrived at the little hole we had made and crawled through as fast as we could. We were convinced someone, the figure, was right behind us.

We got out and ran down the street. Far. We ended up arriving at Giampi’s house. I went to knock on the door but Jett stopped me.

“We...can’t…involve…anyone...in…this...I...will...not...let...anyone...else...die,” Jett said, out of breath.

I sat down on Giampi’s doorstep.

“We almost died,” I said.

“Yeah.”

“What now?”

“Let’s both go home and talk about it in the morning. We need to go somewhere safe.”

“I agree.”
“He didn’t see our faces, right?”

“I’m positive he didn’t.”

We talked for a little while longer and then split up. I walked home in the dark. It was 12 AM at that point. It was officially Monday. 

How am I going to function at school tomorrow? I asked myself. I let out a little laugh. Turns out we didn’t learn anything about The Path. I looked down at my palm. The pain was gone. The mark was gone as well. I was worried it was permanent.

I arrived at my house and pulled out my key to open the door. I put the key in the lock but suddenly the door creaked open.

That’s strange… I swear I left the door locked…

I walked into the house. Someone sat at the table. They were sleeping. I got closer and it was my sister. It was cute how she was concerned about me. She must’ve heard me leave and she waited for me to come home. I walked over to the light switch I brushed against the table and felt my sleeve get wet. That was strange.  I flicked it on.

I fell back on the ground breathing heavily. My eyes were wide. No, no, no. no, no, no!  I glanced at my sleeve. It was blood. BLOOD! I stood up and walked towards my sister. I shook her.

“Rhythm! Rhythm! Wake up!”

Her eyes were closed. I watched as she fell out of the chair onto the floor. Tears formed in my eyes. 

Wait. Mom and Dad are here. I have to tell them! I ran up the stairs into their room. I flicked on the light. In the bed were my parents. They were holding each other. The bed was covered in blood. Their eyes were open, blood soaking the clothing at their mid-sections. They lay still, emotionless.

I fell onto the floor and threw up. I stood up but fell again. I sprinted towards the stairs but someone stood there, blocking my way. A figure in a purple cloak. It was the same person as the one from the cabin. I stumbled back and sat down, hard. I got up and ran into my room. I locked the door. I walked over to my window and tried opening it. 

I heard pounding on the door and then cracks. The door exploded, with shrapnel piercing my face. I screamed and fell onto the ground clutching my face. The figure walked over to me and picked me up by my neck. They threw me onto my bed and got on my chest, pinning me down.

“LET ME GO!” I screamed.

“Now, now, calm down,” I heard them say. They were wearing a voice changer.

“I’ll kill you! You murdered my family!”

“I couldn’t let you die without administering your punishment.”

“I’LL KILL YOU!”

I spat on their cloak.

They didn’t react. Instead they hardened their grip on my arms. I started crying again.

“It was about time for your death. We already killed Mason. We had to complete the ritual. And we also had to terminate the curious ones. Like your friend Jett. I eliminated him as he walked to his house.”

I screamed a litany of curses.

They covered my mouth. “Those were your last words.”
My eyes widened as I felt something poke me. It was a knife. It poked my stomach. I coughed up blood. I could feel myself losing consciousness. I could feel myself getting weaker.

I’M DYING! I’M DYING! I’M DY-!

My vision tunneled and I closed my eyes.