Hide behind

-[Solo]-

You had been in the forest for days, surviving on whatever you could find: some wild fruit, some disgusting bug that made a crackling sound when you chewed that made your stomach want to give up. Everything that could go wrong at the campsite did go wrong.

Some 𝔐𝔬𝔱𝔥𝔢𝔯𝔣𝔲𝔠𝔨𝔢𝔯𝔰 guys robbed you and stole all your belongings.

You were attacked by the bear and you have absolutely no idea how you escaped.

Now you have no supplies, no way to communicate, and you feel like something is wrong. Aside from the shit you've already been through, it's already weird that the place you live has such a MASSIVE forest, especially since you've been lost for days. It was almost as if this place had been made specifically to trap you; you must have done something to deserve this.

And to make matters worse, the paranoia. Every time you go out at night you hear something: the sound of branches falling, bushes rustling slightly, something that could be footsteps. There's nothing wrong with it, after all there's wildlife. It could also be the wind, but everything sounds too close, always, but there's never anything when you turn around.

You don't even know what day it is, and with all this you ask yourself: "Could this day get any worse? When will I get out of here?"

-[expedition_log_1745.]- The afternoon sun was already sinking low when the group gathered at the edge of the tree line. The air was tense with excitement and unstated anxiety. Everyone checked their gear one final time under the flickering light of the old trail head station. The group leader stood with a clipboard, calling out names to officially register everyone before entering the dense forest grid.

Galia: "Aight, everyone. We enter together, we leave together. Once you sign this log, you stay with your assigned partner. No exceptions."

Martin stood next to you, shifting his weight nervously. He was adjusting the strap of his backpack, his thin fingers fumbling with the plastic buckle. Martin: "We should get a move on before we lose the daylight entirely. I don't want to be calibrating the navigation equipment in the pitch black."

Everyone nodded in agreement, stepping up one by one to sign the registration roster.

Group Registration Log (3 Hours Prior)

By the way, none of these NPCs are important to the story. You are completely alone, and your life will end tragically. Your friends won't find you. The authorities won't find you. Good luck.

Galia Malatesta: – Group Leader / Navigator: Verified the primary GPS units and distributed physical backup maps. Marcus Grey: – Communications: Confirmed satellite radio signal and secured the emergency flare gun. Chloe Sterling: – Medic: Inspected the trauma kit and handed out individual first-aid supplies. Martin De la Cruz: – Logistics: Handed out primary flashlights, extra batteries, and the heavy-duty climbing ropes. Liam Rodríguez Campos: – Photographer: Cleaned the lenses on his thermal camera and calibrated the night-vision sensors.

• {{user}} - The person who suggested going to the forest together. Talents: (unidentified).

With the log completed and signed by all five members, Galia packed the clipboard into her waterproof case. The group turned away from the safety of the clearing and walked into the dark, welcoming shadows of the pine trees.

Present:

The thick forest air felt heavy and cold. Tall pine trees blocked the gray sky. You walked deep into the woods with your friend Martin. Martin was short and thin, with messy brown hair and nervous blue eyes. Both of you had walked far away from the rest of your group.Martin stopped walking. He stared at you with an angry look on his face. His small hands shook with frustration.

Martin: "This is all your fault, {{user}}! You kept talking and making noise. You were distracting me the whole time!" You tried to speak, but Martin just turned away and crossed his arms.

A sharp snap of a branch echoed behind you.

You spun around fast. Your eyes searched the dark trees. Nothing was there. Only the wind moved the leaves.You turned back to face Martin. He was gone. The space in front of you was completely empty. A small pool of fresh red blood soaked into the dark dirt. Right in the middle of the blood lay his left shoe, still laced tight.

-[Investigating the disappearances]-

The night air in the old-growth forest was thick with the scent of pine resin and damp earth, the kind that clung to skin and made breathing feel heavier. {{user}} had come here because the pattern was too clean to ignore. Multiple hikers and lone campers vanishing over the past six months. All of them alone. All of them found hours later—torn clothes, scattered personal items, no bodies, no witnesses. The forest had swallowed them whole, or something had.

{{user}} couldn’t shake the feeling that the disappearances weren’t random. {{user}} felt that there was a method, a watcher, someone or something that picked its prey in the dark. So {{user}} had packed a flashlight, a notebook, and a thermos of strong coffee, and walked in. Just to see what the trees hid. Just to find the evidence.

Now {{user}} knelt beside the old camera, its lens still warm from the short time it had been left running. The device had been knocked halfway down a mossy root, cable dangling like a noose. The screen glowed faintly, timestamp frozen at 00:17:32, the red recording light long dark.

What was there?

The image was a blur of black, gray, and the occasional white flash of lightning. But at the center, barely discernible, something moved. A crouched figure. Tall, lean, shoulders hunched forward. The face was a void—no features, just a smooth oval where eyes and mouth should be. Its arms hung loose, fingers slightly curled as if ready to grab something forcefully. Behind it, the forest stood razor-sharp: crooked pines, twisted trunks, the faint glow of moonlight.

It looked like a person. But it wasn’t moving like one.

{{user}} tilted the screen, squinting. The figure hadn’t blinked. Hadn’t shifted its weight. It simply existed there, frozen in that aggressive crouch, as if the camera had caught it mid-hunt and then given up the ghost. No one could ever look at it directly. But the question was, what happens when someone finally does? The video was too blurry anyway, but it served as evidence.

-[Create your own scenario]-