The morning air was damp and cool when Alex stepped into the forest. The soft crunch of leaves beneath his shoes blended with the faint rustle of branches swaying above him. Sunlight slipped through the canopy in speckled patterns, catching the edge of dew that shimmered like fragments of glass. Despite the calmness around him, his chest felt tight, a tension that hadn't faded since the previous night. Grey's silence still echoed somewhere in the back of his mind, but today was about finding answers—and Ruby.
The farther he walked, the deeper the forest's voice became. The earthy scent of moss and wet bark seemed to thicken the air; even his own footsteps sounded muffled, swallowed by the natural hush. After about ten minutes, he reached a familiar clearing—the same place where he had seen Ruby before. She was already there, leaning against a tree, her arms crossed, her hair gently stirred by the morning wind.
When she saw him, Ruby raised her head, her expression unreadable. "You came," she said quietly.
"Yeah," Alex replied, his voice subdued but steady.
Ruby sighed, her breath forming a fleeting cloud of frost in the chilly air. She looked around cautiously before speaking, her tone heavier than usual. "Look, I don't know every detail," she began. "What I do know... it's what I've seen, what I've heard. Whether you believe me or not—that's entirely up to you."
Alex nodded slowly, shaking his head just a little, unsure whether it was disbelief, exhaustion, or both. The forest around them seemed to hold its breath; not even the birds sang. The silence between them deepened, carrying both curiosity and unease.
Ruby's voice lowered, heavy with the weight of unsettling truths. She explained that there was an evil god worshiped by a secretive group, a cult driven by greed and dark desires. Their worship required sacrifices—once just a single victim, but over time, the demands grew. The more power they sought, the more sacrifices were needed.
The rituals were bound to a cycle, performed on a specific date every fifteen years, though Ruby admitted she didn't know the exact reason why it was that way. All she knew was that it had always been so—until one time, when someone escaped and disrupted the ritual entirely. That someone was Alex's mother
Because the cult couldn't complete the sacrifice as intended, things changed. The rituals became more frequent, now occurring every year on the night of the red moon. And the victims chosen were always children who had reached eighteen years of age.
When Alex asked why the cult targets eighteen-year-olds, Ruby explained that once kids turn eighteen, they become legal adults. They gain freedoms that make it easier for the cult to exploit their independence—teenagers can leave the remote place without parental permission, giving plausible reasons to disappear or flee. This, Ruby added, was her own observation of the cult's practical logic.
She also revealed the forest itself was saturated with a dark, malevolent energy under tight control. This evil presence chooses its own sacrifices and hunts them personally, while the cult members serve only as worshipers. This chilling detail made it clear that the danger was not limited to cold ritual but included a living, supernatural force within the forest itself—calm yet predatory, focused on exacting its demands with deadly precision.
Ruby explained to Alex that she had noticed a pattern regarding the people involved—they were not originally from the area. Most had only moved to the forest or nearby settlements recently, or lived there since shortly after Alex's mother escaped from the place about 20 years ago. This indicated that the cult's influence had extended over time, drawing in or relocating members and their families from elsewhere, perhaps to maintain secrecy or control over the area and its dark rituals.
This pattern suggested a calculated effort to keep the cult's activities hidden and contained within a select community, possibly isolating it from outside interference while ensuring a steady supply of new members or sacrifices. Ruby's observation highlighted how the cult had evolved since the interrupted rituals twenty years ago, changing not only the frequency of sacrifices but the very demographics and geography of its people.
When Alex asked about the symbols on the trees, Ruby explained that those marks were ritualistic symbols—signs left by the cult as part of their dark ceremonies. These marks were meant to signify territory, protection, or the presence of the cult's influence tied to their sacrifices.
However, when Alex pressed Ruby to reveal how she knew about the cult in the first place, her eyes darkened with a hollow, pained look. She hesitated, clearly reluctant to discuss the details behind her knowledge. Finally, she said softly that she didn't want to talk about it and would only share what she knew about the cult itself, not how she came to know it.
Seeing her like that, frozen with discomfort and pain, Alex nodded softly in understanding, respecting her boundary. The silence that followed spoke volumes—some truths were too heavy to unburden, even to those seeking answers.
As they slowly emerged from the forest, the morning sun casting long shadows between the trees, Ruby turned to Alex with a serious expression and warned, "You shouldn't go into the forest at night, especially not at midnight."
She explained that in many folklores, midnight is the hour when the dark energies and spirits that inhabit such places are at their strongest and most dangerous. The forest at that time is not just physically perilous but is believed to be a gateway for sinister forces—both natural and supernatural—that prey on the vulnerable. Local tales often speak of travelers getting lost, encountering malevolent creatures, or being trapped by the forest's eerie powers, especially under the cloak of darkness.
Ruby's advice was clear and urgent: the forest held secrets and threats that were magnified by the midnight hour, a time to be avoided if Alex wanted to stay safe.
As Alex walked slowly back toward the cabin, the weight of everything he had learned pressed heavily on his mind. The chilling truths Ruby had shared about the cult's sacrificial rituals, the dark presence that hunted its victims, and the insidious pattern of new members moving into the forest all swirled together with the haunting revelations from his mother's diary. Each piece added another layer of mystery and danger to the already tangled web of his family's history.
He debated within himself whether to finally talk with Grey about what he now knew. But the thought of explaining the diary—and revealing how much he had uncovered—felt overwhelming. The silence Grey had maintained, the unspoken worries in his eyes, and the tense atmosphere between them made Alex pause. Maybe some things required time, patience, and the right moment.
So, Alex decided to wait a little longer before confronting Grey. Today was not the day. For now, the secrets would remain his burden alone, while he prepared himself for the conversations and decisions yet to come.
The quiet forest around him seemed to echo his uncertainty, the shadows lengthening with the setting sun as he made his way home, each step slower than the last but resolute in its own way.