“You could have mentioned this,” Lay said through his fingers, which were still hovering over his lips. He stared at the bite in disbelief, tracing first the outer ring of teeth marks, and then the smaller, inner ring.

“Don’t touch it,” Xiumin admonished as Lay winced. His voice softened as he asked, “Do you believe us now?”

Lay nodded weakly. He replaced the bandages and slipped back into his pants, but didn’t get up off the ground. “I don’t know what to think of any of this,” he said, shaking his head. “I don’t know what did this, but it certainly wasn’t anything… normal.”

Chen nodded in agreement. “And we really did get a picture from Tao,” he reiterated. “The real Tao.”

Lay stared at his outstretched feet with a vacant expression. After several minutes of no one knowing what to say, he finally spoke.

“We have to get out of here,” he said simply.

“We’ll carry you,” offered Luhan as he looked around for the stretcher, but then realized that they had left it behind in their frantic retreat into the woods.

“No, I can walk,” Lay insisted as he struggled to his feet. He drooped heavily on Chen as he kept his weight off of his injured leg.

Xiumin stepped in front of Lay as if to block him, and put a hand against his forehead. “You’re burning up, Yixing,” said Xiumin. “Your injuries could be getting infected. We should carry you.”

Lay said nothing, but started to take a few shaky half-step, half-jumps away from Xiumin. Chen kept his arm around Lay’s waist, moving slowly along with his limping friend.

“Wait, it’s not that direction, it’s this direction,” Luhan corrected, pointing to his right.

“What are you talking about?” asked Xiumin as he came to stand beside Luhan. “Lay is definitely going the right way.”

Chen continued to help Lay, who was moving determinedly ahead in the direction he had set out in, but then stopped moving abruptly.

“No, Luhan is right; it’s that way back to the path,” he said.

Lay and Chen turned to face their friends. The two pairs stood about five meters apart with an almost ninety degree angle between them and the tree they had just been sitting beneath.

“It’s definitely the other way,” repeated Chen with assurance.

Lay hopped in the direction Luhan had pointed, saying, “Fine. You would know better than I would, I guess.”

“I still think it’s the other way,” grumbled Xiumin.

“Ssh; no time for arguing,” Lay mumbled to the shorter man. “I just want to get out of here, Minseok.”

He limped onward, his eyes fixed with determination on the path ahead.

«««

“We are so lost,” moaned Chen.

The four boys had been circling for what felt like hours, desperately trying to find the path that should have been no more than five minutes away. They had to rest frequently for Lay, whose condition appeared to be deteriorating rapidly. On top of that, it was starting to get dark enough that it was difficult to see more than a few meters ahead. It wasn’t very late yet, but the heavy tree cover meant that it was growing dark much more quickly than it had when they were in the cleared-out campsite. Chen estimated that it was about 9PM, but he couldn’t be sure about just how long they had been searching for the trail.

“We’ll be okay,” reassured Luhan.

“Don’t lie, Hyung,” Chen said, the fear creeping into the corners of his eyes.

They continued on in silence for a minute more before Xiumin abruptly stopped and dropped down to his knees. He started emptying out his backpack.

“What are you doing?” questioned Luhan.

“It’s getting dark,” Xiumin said as he continued to pull out blankets and flashlights. He e on and shined it into his bag before continuing. “We’re all exhausted, Lay needs to rest, and it’s not going to do anyone any good to go stumbling around the woods at night when we don’t have any idea where we are. We can either find our way out in the morning or all die trying right now. I know which option I vote for.”

By now he had emptied a small space of the leaves that blanketed the smooth dirt underneath, and was starting to arrange some sleeping bags in a circle. He moved with surprising efficiency, and was still focused on his work as Chen stooped down to pick up another flashlight.

“If we have lights, can’t we just keep going?” asked Chen as he flicked the “on” button. He swept the beam of light back and forth across the trees, which were thankfully devoid of any life.

“No; Xiumin is right,” said Lay with a grunt as he lowered himself to the ground. “I’m sorry, but I need to stop for the night. I feel terrible.”

“That’s fine,” consoled Luhan. “We all need some sleep.”

“Well, we can’t all sleep. That thing is still out there,” Chen reminded them. “Someone needs to keep watch.”

“I’ll do it,” volunteered Xiumin. He looked at Lay, who had already curled up under one of the blankets. The injured man had a quiet grimace of pain on his otherwise smooth face.

“I’ll stay up with you,” said Chen. “You know - watch your back and stuff.”

There hadn’t been any screaming - or any other sign of the beast - since they had gotten lost after Lay woke up, but everyone was still on edge about the whole situation.

“That’s a good idea,” Luhan said with a yawn. “Wake me up after a few hours; I’ll take over for one of you.” He slid into the sleeping bag across from Lay’s and rolled over onto his stomach before closing his eyes.

“Hey, we should make a fire,” Chen suggested as he produced a box of matches from his pocket. “Just a small one. I don’t want us to be too easy to see, but it’ll be freezing without one.”

After several failed attempts, Chen finally got some kindling to light, and, using dry sticks collected by Xiumin, he built a small fire in the center of the circle of blankets. Each of the two men took a flashlight, and they settled beside the small pit of flames, facing back to back, to prepare for the long night ahead of them. They sat in absolute silence for almost an hour, with only the sound of Lay’s soft snoring and the chirps of crickets to listen to.

«««

Eventually, Chen leaned his head back to rest on Xiumin’s shoulder as he looked up at the couple of stars that were visible through the canopy of leaves.

“Hyung,” he whispered, “I’m so scared.” His voice wavered as he spoke.

Xiumin turned around to face Chen, and gripped his hand tightly. “Everything will be alright, Jongdae,” he whispered back. “Trust me.”

Without letting go of Xiumin’s hand, Chen pulled his legs to his chest, crossed his arms, and rested his elbows on the fronts of his knees. He buried his nose into his little bundle of limbs and sighed.

“You can go to bed if you want,” offered Xiumin, now speaking at a normal volume.

“No, it’s okay,” replied Chen. “It’s safer if two of us stay up.”

“Seriously,” pressed Xiumin. “Get some sleep; you look horrible.

Chen laughed. “Gee, thanks,” he chuckled. “I’m fine, though. And, honestly, I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to sleep again after everything that’s happened today.”

“Yeah.”

“It’s like my mind is racing at a mile a minute. It’s crazy. If you had asked me before today if I believed in anything paranormal, I would have said, ‘No way. Never.’ But now… I just don’t know. I don’t know what that thing was.”

Xiumin stared silently into the fire.

“At least we haven’t heard it screaming for a while,” continued Chen. “Maybe we’re out of the woods, so to speak.” Giggling softly at his own joke, Chen gave Xiumin’s hand a squeeze before turning back around to gaze out into the trees. “Maybe we will be okay.” Hope had started to seep its way back into Chen’s voice.

“Don’t worry,” said Xiumin as he tousled Chen’s hair. “You’re pretty tough.”

With that, Xiumin, too, turned away from Chen, who was still smiling softly, and pressed their backs together so they could lean against each other while they watched the woods.

«««

Chen awoke with a start. He brushed the dirt out of his hair while pushing away the blanket that was half covering him. His eyes were still itchy from sleep, and he thought he had been lying on a rock, because there was a sharp pain radiating from his left hip.

“Ow!” he grunted noisily as he sat up.

“Shh!”

Chen looked up to see Luhan, with his pointer finger pressed to his lips, staring intently at him. The older man was crouched next to Xiumin, who was scanning the shadowy woods. It was still dark out, and Chen couldn’t remember falling asleep - although he did remember that he had kept watch with Xiumin for a couple of hours, so it had to be sometime after midnight. Without standing up, Luhan moved over to where Chen sat.

“It’s almost morning,” Luhan said in a voice so quiet that Chen had to lean almost right up against his mouth to make out the words. “I couldn’t sleep very well, so I got up a couple of hours ago and helped you to bed. You were pretty out of it.”

Chen nodded. As he came out of the haze of sleep, he could vaguely recall being already half asleep when Luhan came over and told him to go to bed. Xiumin had offered to stay up on his own again, but Luhan had insisted on keeping watch with him. After that, Chen had drifted into a state of complete unconsciousness.

“Just tired, I guess,” he explained, rubbing his eyes.

Luhan responded with a short nod as he checked over his shoulder. “Anyway, Xiumin and I have been up since then,” he whispered, “and we’ve been hearing something… crying… for about the last ten minutes.”

Chen’s eyes widened.

“It’s getting closer,” finished Luhan.

Next to Chen, Lay had started to stir, and Luhan crawled over to him to explain their situation before the wounded man could make any noise. Chen d in the darkness for the flashlight next to his bed, but didn’t dare turn it on as he made his way to where Xiumin was kneeling, alert and listening. Someone had put the fire out, but Xiumin’s worried expression was still visible by the soft, blue light of the moon. He didn’t move as Chen settled on the ground next to him.

“Something’s out there,” gulped Chen.

Xiumin bobbed his head solemnly. From somewhere in the darkness, a soft whimper drifted so that it was barely audible, and yet unmistakably present. Again, the tone was almost one of fright, but that didn’t stop the sound from sending shivers down the four friends’ spines.

“It’s playing with us,” Luhan said angrily. He and Lay had positioned themselves slightly behind Xiumin and Chen. “Trying to get us to come to it. Or… something like that.”

He looked over at Lay, who gripped his hand without a word.

“We’re being hunted,” breathed Chen. He squinted his eyes against the darkness.

“What are we going to do?” asked Lay, his voice groggy from sleep. “We can’t just sit here and wait for whatever that thing is to find us.”

“Everyone stay quiet,” commanded Luhan. “We don’t know if it will find us or not, and we might just be able to slip away unnoticed if we don’t make any noise.”

A twig snapped to their right, causing everyone to whip their heads around to face the noise. It was impossible to make anything out among the shadowy outlines of the trees, but they didn’t have to, because the sound of crunching underbrush was followed shortly by a quiet plea coming from the bushes.

“Help,” it whispered.

The voice sounded as if it was right next to the huddled boys. There was a scrambling of leaves as all four struggled to get up and run in a single direction.

“No, no - this way,” urged Luhan in a panicked squeak as he grabbed Lay’s arm.

«««

Chen took a hard fall in the shuffle, and let out a muffled scream as he hit his elbow on a rock. He swore and rubbed his injured arm.

“Jongdae!” yelled Lay.

“Keep going!” called Chen as he motioned to Lay, urging the other man to continue running away from the thing in the bushes.

“Jongdae?” asked the hidden voice.

Lay stood, conflicted for only a moment, before hobbling off to Luhan and Xiumin, who were waiting to help him. Still sitting, Chen turned to face the source of the voice: a towering silhouette that was slowly advancing with outstretched arms.

“Wait!” it pleaded. “I’m so glad I found you; I -”

Chen panicked. That wasn’t Tao’s voice. He felt along the ground until he came across a large branch, and swung blindly upwards, miraculously making contact with the figure’s head. There was a loud crack.

“Yah!” yelled the dark shape as it fell to the ground.

Chen brought the branch down on his assailant's head once more before toppling backwards into the leaves himself. His elbow burned from the exertion, and he gritted his teeth against the pain. Luhan called out from somewhere behind him, but Chen paid no mind to his friends. He searched for his flashlight, which he had dropped in all the excitement, and shined it on his fallen victim’s face.