The sun breaking through the trees overhead was harsh on the eyes of the people who had been staying in the dark cabin. It was night when they had arrived here, and now it was morning, and the air was so chilly that some of them shivered. It didn't help that the old man hadn't spoken since he told them to follow him out of the cabin, and the silence was so quiet that it was eerie.

There were no chirps of birds, no rustling of leaves as animals moved through the woods and the surrounding trees were deathly still. Adrienne was calm and traipsed behind the old man with no care in the world, while the people behind her gave Adrienne odd looks, but they just rolled off her skin.

After a long while, they came to a clearing that comprised a large lake and fog spread out from the trees beyond it. The lake water was murky and the plants around the outside were withering away. The atmosphere was dreary and gave the participants a sense of dread. They wanted to run away and find a way out of the woods themselves, but they knew they wouldn't get far: plus the man who left the cabin yesterday still hadn't returned, so it wasn't worth the risk.

The old man stood at the edge of the pond, his gaze solemn and his mouth tightened as he looked at the lake. Then he turned to the people that had gathered in the clearing and cleared his throat. When he started speaking, his voice was rough, like nails scratching a chalkboard, and it was like he hadn't spoken for a long time.

His eyes travelled over the participants, skipping Adrienne, and then focused on a spot over their heads. "I would like to thank you for coming to our humble village on such short notice. We've been asking for help for so long, but nobody wants to come to the middle of nowhere to help the people here."

He gave a dry chuckle and continued to say, "our village was cut off from everywhere else a long time ago and we've struggled to make it what it was today. Here there are only the elderly and a few young ones who stayed to take care of them. Things were harmonious at first, but things changed when one villager entered these woods and came upon the lake you see before you now.

At first, we thought nothing of it and although we were weary of it, we just left it be and warned people to be careful when they came here. But we should've told them to stay far away from it." Melancholy tinged his features now and he choked on his next words, "it wasn't until a few months ago that the first villager disappeared. They had gone out the day before and went to the lake to relax, and the next day it was discovered that he hadn't returned. We searched for a long time and there were no traces of him anywhere."

"Then what happened?" a large man known as Roman inquired, fully invested in the old man's story.

Dark eyes turned his way, and the man replied, "the search lasted for days but we found nothing, so we could only give up. The family was consoled and everything returned to normal, however, it was like a grey veil had been laid over the village. And people became more vigilant. But a few weeks later, another person went missing and then more and more people too disappeared into thin air. Panic ensued, and we begged the people on the outside for help, only to be ignored.

Then it was like our prayers were answered and a woman said she had heard about the tragic things that had been happening in our village. And she promised to send a group of people to help us search for the missing villagers, and find the cause of the disappearances. You know what happened after that."

The old man drew in a breath and said, "I've brought you to this lake because it is the first place that someone went missing, so maybe there are some clues here that will help you with the search. Please feel free to look around, and later I'll take you to the village to rest." After saying his piece, he bid the participants farewell and left in the village's direction.

After watching the old man leave, the participants exchanged glances and none of them dared to move. Adrienne cleared her throat, startling the others and focused on her, to hear her say: "we know the gist of things now. For now, there's not much we can do, and should focus on the task at hand. Split up into groups and search the clearing for clues. Remember to never walk about alone. Who knows what could be lurking out there..." She laughed eerily and grabbed the hand of the person next to her, and wandered off to search.

The remaining people exchanged glances again, then shrugged and joined the unusual woman in looking for clues.

Silence reigned over the clearing once more, and was broken by the cries of a girl who had fallen to the ground. She scrambled backwards with her finger pointing forward, catching the attention of everyone else. They followed the direction she was pointing, and they all gasped: some even had to go to the side and vomit.

The still-screaming girl had just been looking around the edge of the woods when a man stumbled out of the woods and collapsed to the ground.

Adrienne stooped down next to the body and examined the corpse. It no longer looked human and its skin had melted away, leaving its muscles on full display. Organs spilt out and littered the ground, making the people retch more and the others had to turn away so they didn't see the disgusting sight.

Removing her focus from the corpse, Adrienne squinted her eyes at the woods and seemed to think of something as she studied the trees. There was nothing unusual about them, but what could be in there that could turn a human into something like this?

She stood up and stepped around the corpse to look closer at the woods, but nothing could be seen through the thick fog. And something inside told her that the man who came from there was just the beginning, and there was even more tragedy to come.