"She is a child. How much ground could she have covered? Go with her." James had said casually, ordering myself and three others to follow the lost child who had wandered into our camp and tugged at my sleeve, pleading me to follow her.

We had done as ordered and found ourselves at a clearing.

"Is this the place?" I had enquired; the child had nodded.

Finding no one around, I had asked my team to spread out and soon came across a grotesque sight: seven pairs of dead eyes staring at us, all limbless.

"Are you the only one left!?" I enquired, and when she nodded, I called James, who informed me that the bodies probably belonged to a group of campers who had gone missing a couple of nights before.

"So, that makes her the only survivor." I sighed. Disconnecting the all call, I looked over at the pile.

Bile rose to my throat as three more pairs of dead eyes stated back at me: my friends.

Panicking, I looked around. The child was nowhere in sight. Refusing the give up, I started looking for the survivor.

I shouldn't have.

The next moment, I felt my feet sink into the soil; I tried to scream, but no words made out of my parted lips. Arms, like lifeless tree branches, erupted from the earth and wrapped around my limbs.

I knew what came next, but it didn't matter. I was already as good as dead.

{Word count : 246}