Five-minute freewrite: Groan in the night.

I sat around the campfire with Clara and Jake.

"What’s taking them so long?" Clara shifted uncomfortably.

"Who knows? They’re probably just messing around," Jake said, letting out a puff of smoke.

"..." I glanced around. The firelight painted our faces in a soft orange glow, and beyond that lay the forest — a sea of black growing deeper as the sun bled out behind the trees.

"Why are you so quiet, Aiden?" Clara turned toward me.

I shook my head with a sigh. "I know Jacob loves his pranks, but Ian’s the opposite. He wouldn’t just let him fool around like this — not out here, in the middle of nowhere. Alone."

Clara and Jake both furrowed their brows.

Clara edged closer, gripping my arm. "What should we do if something happened to them...?" Her gaze flicked between me and the dark line of trees.

I looked up at the dimming sky, then toward the forest swallowing the last traces of light. I licked my lips.

Before I could answer, a scream tore through the woods.

We froze. The sound was raw, distant — and then gone. We turned to each other, shock giving way to fear.

The forest was completely dark now.

Then, from somewhere ahead, hurried footsteps broke the silence.

We all exhaled, a brief wave of relief washing over us.

"Ah, so they’re finally—"

It wasn’t Ian or Jacob that returned.

"—back."

Something else had come in their place.

Thanks for reading.