When In Hells Tarnation did I curse anyone Sebastian thought truly befuddled.
"I see…" Mike murmured, his forehead furrowing as he sank into deep, almost painful concentration. Slowly it eased. He cleared his throat, lifted his gaze, and a faint shimmer of hope flickered in his eyes.
"Perhaps—if what you're saying is true—" he stopped again, glancing at Chloe before continuing, "then there's a chance it isn't attacking out of rage. It might simply be confused… or greedy from the sheer amount of life force in this place."
He paused, letting the idea hang in the stale air, watching to see if anyone wished to add or question something. Then he exhaled, turned away, and crouched to retrieve the torch which with a swift strike, he lit.
The flame bloomed to life—a strange, wavering green-blue glow.
Sebastian's eyes fixed on the lamp, his gaze unfocused as though clawing at the edges of some half-remembered warning. They continued toward the flower, torch raised, moving with a slow, cautious rhythm.
Andrew and Isabelle stayed alert, their attention locked on the treeline, ready for the slightest retaliation the forest might throw at them.
Sebastian's expression sharpened.Then—
A panicked scream tore out of him.
"wait bro, wait"
It jolted all four of them from their tasks. Mike spun around, jaw tightening. Had he been allowed, he would've happily beaten the boy senseless just to silence the ringing in his ears.
"What is it, kid?" Mike snapped, voice clipped and strained.The others turned toward Sebastian as well, their faces twisted with confusion—and growing irritation.
Seb flushed under their stares. Chloe's glare in particular felt like it was stripping layers off his soul.
"That torch…" he said, pointing shakily, "where did you buy it?"
They looked at him confused then, at the torch then, back at him With pity
The kind reserved for someone who had asked the stupidest question imaginable.
Sebastian ignored their looks pushing through. Better to sound foolish than die clueless.
"I mean the fire," he said carefully. "Its colour—greenish blue—I heard or read once… that it only occurs when you burn thallium, which is extremely toxic. So I just wanted to make sure."
He waited, watching Mike reaction.
Mike shook his head, muttering under his breath. Then he sighed.
"The fire's completely safe. I've used it before. Whether it actually contains thallium…" he hesitated, "that I can't say. It was a gift from my teacher. A parting gift."
Sebastian glanced toward Chloe, searching for any sign of disapproval. But she seemed unfazed. So did the other two. He let out a weary breath. It seemed that at this point, they all thought that poisoning sounded like a kinder fate than starving in this cursed forest.
Mike turned back toward the flower—then suddenly recoiled, stumbling violently away.
His face drained of colour.
Sebastian and Chloe stared, confused. They'd dug up the soil themselves; there had been nothing horrifying beneath it… unless they had simply failed to see.
Seb caught Chloe's eye. She nodded—indicating they approach together. Andrew and Isabelle had already reached the same grim conclusion.
All four stepped toward the flower exposing their nose to the hellish stench permeating from the flowers position.
A sickly, rotting smell gradually seeped from the disturbed earth.
That smell hadn't been there before they all thought.
So What had changed?
They all peered into the wound inflicted to the ground—and all four minds blanked.
It took a few seconds for their eyes to adjust to the shadows in the dug out pit and another few more seconds for their mind to process the hair raising situation
A corpse, It lay upside down and twisted inside in the pit. Its body was partitioned, as though death had claimed each section at a different time. The legs appeared disturbingly fresh. The torso—bloated, grey, half-rotting. The neck and jaw—sunken, leathery. The head little more than a skull lodged deeper in the soil… yet somehow the eyes remained intact, glossy, watching. Brain tissue clung wetly inside, inexplicably preserved.
The sight crushed their minds with a silent, mocking question:
How long has it been here? And why didn't we see it?
Sebastian, Andrew, and Isabelle bolted to the edges of the clearing.Two collapsed, violently vomiting.Sebastian dry-heaved, his empty stomach spasming in painful, hollow waves that left him trembling and weak.
Chloe, however, remained still.
Her gaze stayed locked on the corpse, her thoughts spiralling.
Was this always here?
Was it the flower?
Would burning it even help?
How did we not smell this?
Did the flower hide it no, we didn't dig that deep right?
Did touching the flower trap us here?
Am I the reason we're stuck here?
A flash of guilt crossed her face as all the questions sped past in her mind all jumbled and chaotic.
She looked briefly toward Sebastian—pale, shaking, barely holding himself up—and the guilt deepened.
twitch
Her eyes snapped back to the pit.
The foot surely had not moved?.
No, It had definitely moved after all she had been trained to track moving objects even in her peripheral vision.
This caused her to stumble back, her heart hammering. Mike on the other-hand forced himself upright and stepped toward the flower, his expression hardening with grim resolve.
He swept the torch across the petals swiftly striking it heavily perhaps subconsciously believing that maybe an additional force might hasten the death of the abomination in there.
The fire caught instantly.
Flames raced down the roots, crawling into the ground—toward the corpse.
The body twitched.
Chloe and Mike broke into a cold sweat.
Had they awakened it?
Then the scream came.
A soul-rending, throat-shredding sound that felt like it tore at the sanity of anyone living.Sebastian, Andrew, and Isabelle collapsed into each other, scrambling away from the edges of the clearing, too terrified to care about the stench or the remains of their own retching.
The scream grew louder.And louder.And louder—before cutting off with sickening abruptness.
Silence swallowed the clearing.
They stayed frozen, breath ragged, hearts pounding like trapped beasts.
Finally, the four fell to the ground—except Chloe, who remained standing. She glanced at them, then turned toward the forest.
"I'll check if we can leave," she said quietly.
Sebastian's head shot up instantly.
"You're not going alone. That's stupid. Someone should go with you."He turned to Mike and the others.
None of them moved.The dirt beneath them had become suddenly fascinating—apparently the most beautiful thing they had ever seen.
Sebastian groaned.
He stood, walked over to Mike, and held out his hand.Mike handed him the torch wordlessly.
"Fine," Seb muttered. "Let's go. I'll follow you."
Chloe immediately rejected him, grabbed the torch from his hand, and dashed into the trees.
Sebastian stood stunned unable to react quickly, he decided he might as well wait
A minute later she returned, face clouded with despair the bush parting for her passage.
They looked up Seb already reaching a grim conclusion on looking at her face
"It didn't work," she whispered. Her jaw clenched. The trios heart dropped, Sebastian's much deeper on hearing the news.
"We're still trapped in here… with the dead," she breathed, the words sinking into the silence.