Page 10 of Immersed
Maddie shook her head.“Already tried. He took one of my special brownies and he’s dead to the world. I can’t even roll him over.”
Of course.The one time I need backup, the tank is debuffed by edibles.
The thought of Zoe alone in the dark forest made Levi’s skin crawl.She’dbeen so practical, so careful. She wouldn’t just disappear without a reason.
“I’ll go look for her,”Levi heard himself say.
Maddie’s eyes widened.“Really? Are you sure?”
“Yeah.”Levi reached for his shoes and a flashlight, surprised by his own certainty.“Someonehasto.”
Whatever thiswas—game, dream, or impossible reality—Zoewasout there somewhere, possibly in trouble. He couldn’t just lie there and do nothing.
“I’ll come with you,”Maddie offered.
“No,”Levi said.“Someone should stay here in case she comes back. Just... keep trying to wake Tyler.”
As he stepped out of the tent, the forest seemed to expand around him, darker and more menacing than before. The trees stood like silent sentinels, their branches reaching toward a sky that suddenly seemed too vast, too empty.
“Be careful,”Maddie whispered, her voice small against the looming darkness.
Levi nodded, swallowing hard.“I will.”
He grabbed the camping hatchetthey usedearlier to split kindling. It felt solid. Real. The wooden handle felt smooth against his skin, worn from use, but it was smaller than he would want as an item for self-protection.
“Better than nothing,”he muttered, tucking it into his belt.
The flashlight beam cut through the blackness, carving a narrow path of visibility. Shadows leaped and twisted around him, tree trunks transforming into looming figures before resolving back into harmlesswood. Every sound made him jump—the rustle of leaves, the distant hoot of an owl, the soft crunch of his own footsteps.
Following mysterious trails in dark woods is such a smart move.Every horror movie everhastaughtme this ends well.
“Zoe?”he called softly, not wanting to attract whatever might be lurking in the gloom.“Zoe, are you out here?”
Only the wind answered, sighing through the canopy overhead. The sound of the camp faded behind him until all he could hearwashis own breathing and the thundering of his heartbeat.
Twenty yards in, he spotted the first sign: a freshly broken branch still oozing sap. He moved in that direction, eyes scanning the ground. Disturbed leaves. A partial footprint in a patch of soft earth.
She came this way. He pulled the hatchet from his belt.And maybe something else too.
Each step took him further from safety. The darkness seemed to thicken around him, pressing against the edges of his light. His earlier confidence began to crumble, replaced by a growing sense of dread that made his hands quiver.
His foot caught on something soft yet unyielding. He stumbled, nearly falling, and swung the flashlight down to see whathadtrippedhim.
The beam illuminated a hand. Pale. Delicate. Familiar.
“No,” Levi breathed.
He stepped back, beam wavering in his grip as he forced himself to pan the light upward. The flashlight traveled over an arm, a shoulder, and finally came to rest on Zoe’s face. Her eyeswereopen, glassy, reflecting his flashlight in twin pinpricks of light that held no life behind them.
“Zoe?”he whispered, though some part of him already knew she couldn’t answer.
The light moved downward, revealing the full horror. Her torsohadbeen split open from sternum to navel, the edges of the wound jagged and gaping. Her internal organs glistened wetly in the harsh light, some missing entirely, others arranged in patterns that defied all natural order—spirals and geometric shapes that spoke of deliberate, ritualistic intent. Dark bloodsoakedinto the earth beneath her, turning the soil into black mud that squelched beneath his feet.
Then the smell hit him. Copper and waste and something else, something sweet and rotting that made his gorge rise. The metallic tang of blood mixed with the organic stench of exposed bowels, creating a cocktail of odors so viscerally wrong that his body rebelled against it. His knees buckled. The hatchet fell from his nerveless fingers as he collapsed beside her body.
“This isn’t—”he choked out.“This can’t be—”
His stomach heaved. He doubled over, emptying its contents onto the forest floor in harsh, wrenching spasms. His throat burned as he retched again and again, his body trying to expel the horror before him. Each gasping breath brought the metallic scent of Zoe’s blood deeper into his lungs, triggering another wave of nausea.
