"Sarah, this is not a good idea." I tried convincing her, pulling over in the middle of nowhere.

"Why did you stop? You said you know where he is." She said, turning to face me. "You can't stop now. I have to do this."

"You can do this tomorrow morning, not in the middle of the night. How are we even going to find him in those woods?" I asked her.

Sarah had dragged me out of her house and into my car, demanding that I took her to Damien. I tried fighting her back but she was a strong woman physically and she was not taking 'no' for an answer.

But it's not a good idea to look for him. It's not safe, especially today. It was raining heavily and no forest is safe when it rained, especially at night. There could be mudslides and flooding, some wild animals did not mind hunting in the rain. Let's not forget the government, they could arrest us or even shoot at us, thinking we were a threat.

"We could get lost in there." I told her. I didn't need to list all of the other problems. I had tried doing so while she was dragging me to my car and she still didn't listen to reason.

"Drive now," she said while frowning. "Drive or I'll leave you here and go myself!"

"Leave me out in the middle of nowhere? Excuse me, this is my car." I scoffed at her.

"Damien will arrive home soon. If you cannot talk to him in the morning then wait for him to—"

"No! I've been waiting for him for ages. Waiting for him to stop cheating! To be better! To change for me! There is no more waiting!" She yelled, banging my dashboard out of anger. I understood that she was hurt and tired but it was not a good idea to go there.

"This is partially your fault. The least you could do to make up for everything is to just drive me to him. You don't have to leave the car or anything. Just take me to him." She said softly, her eyes closed as she tried to calm herself down. She was right. I was the cause of this too. I encouraged him to cheat on her and now I had to fix this.

I started the engine and turned on my headlights, speeding to the direction of the woods. I knew that there were three entrances to those woods. The first one was by my house, which was most likely flooded with police officers. The second one was by a park just near the city, it was probably closed too. The third one was the furthest from my house and also the most dangerous.

"We'll enter by the Ferrel River. There's a small hiking trail there that leads to the center of the woods. Perhaps we will meet them there." I told her, taking a turn that was at the opposite direction of my house. I used to be a big fan of hiking and camping before I got a job and I would always have time to do it. I discovered the trail a few years ago and I'm certain that it's still safe to use.

I just hope that it's not flooded, the river must be full because of the rain.

Sarah nodded, staring outside the window. "Thank you..."

"You don't have to thank me. I'm just trying to fix my mistake." I said to her.

There was silence after that, the only sound being the loud rain hitting my car and the sound the wheels outside made against the tar road. "There's just one problem with the trail." I mumbled, suddenly remembering. I pulled over next to a bunch of trees and switched the car off, leaving the headlights on.

Sarah looked outside the window and turned to me in confusion. "Why did you stop again?"

"The trail isn't big enough for cars. We'll have to walk to find him and the other scientists."

She looked at me in shock, as if she didn't expect that. What did she think? These are the woods, not a camping site where trees are cut down to accommodate cars. All the trees there are tightly packed together and haven't been touched by any mankind.

I opened my glovebox and pulled out a torch. I only had one unfortunately, so I handed it to her. She was at least in jeans and a shirt. I was in my pajamas and slippers because she never gave me the opportunity to change my clothes. I wasn't prepared for this at all.

"Thank you, I'll be back." She said, climbing out of the car. She switched on the torch and hurried towards the trees, making me even more nervous when she went inside and the light completely vanished. It was like the trees swallowed her in there. I leaned back on my seat and looked around the place.

There were no troops or any sign of people being close by. It was no surprise since only a couple of people knew about the place. I sighed deeply and looked back to where I last saw Sarah. Maybe I should follow her.

I should've at least directed her to trail. The woman is going to get lost in there. I smacked my face with my palm. Now I definitely had to look for her. But how? I had no torch or boots. I wouldn't even make it a couple of metres.

I ignored all of that and reached for my door handle, stopping with my hand midair when I felt a familiar warmth filling me. I suddenly felt lightheaded and leaned back on the seat, my eyes involuntarily closing. What was happening to me?

"Stay in your car." Sei's aggressive voice commanded. It wasn't loud but he sounded angry.

I tried opening my eyes again, my hand moving to find the door handle. I pulled it open but fell backwards when another surge of lightheadedness hit me.

This one was much more intense than the last time Sei spoke to me.

"Stay in the car, dammit! Why are you so stubborn?" He shouted this time. I shook my head, my eyes snapping open. What just happened? I looked around, seeing only darkness except for the small light my headlights provided. There was fog forming, making it even more difficult to see.

Sei spoke to me again. Could it be that he can communicate with me through my mind?

I jumped out of my car anyways, eager to find Sarah and help her finish what I had contributed to starting. I closed my door and ran inside the trees, trying to remember the direction of the river while trying to see as much as I could.

I held my hands out in front of me as I ran, that way if I hit a tree, my hands would shield me first and stop me before I hit my head. It was tiring for my hands but it did help. My slippers got stuck in the mud, making me trip when they both slipped out of my feet. The ground was freezing, mud squeezing in between my toes. I wanted to scream in agony caused by the cold.

"Shoot!" I hissed, leaning against a tree. I was dripping wet. My pajamas clinging onto my skin. I felt naked, every drop of rain that hit me went right through my clothes and to my skin. My pajama pants were getting dragged on the floor, the thick mud clinging onto them, making them heavier. My hair was all over my face. I felt scared because I couldn't see, I couldn't hear from the rain, I couldn't feel anything but coldness.

It's like I lost all of my senses, and that made me want to scream and cry.

I pushed my hair back, taking deep breaths to calm myself down. I listened carefully, trying to hear anything other than the rain and quite faintly, I could hear the river. "Okay... Okay, just follow the sound of the river and you'll find the path." I said, my hands shaking.

I pushed myself off the bark of the tree and slowly but surely followed the sound. My feet felt numb but the pain was still there and very much unbearable. I held all of that in and walked, trying to find the river. The sounds of water rushing started getting louder, making me think that I'm closer.

I took one more step, my leg getting submerged in ice cold water, making me fall back and scream. I held my foot and rubbed it, trying to warm it up as much as I could. It didn't work, instead it made the pain increase. I nearly fell into the river. I was just a tiny bit happy that I had found it.

"No! Shoo, go away!" Sarah yelled in the distance, making me look in the direction where her voice came from. I could also hear loud growls, like a wild cat. I quickly stood up, using my hand to wipe the water away from my face. I soon saw the blue light of my flashlight and I ran towards it.

"Leave!" Sarah screamed. "Shoo! Shoo!"

The growls only got louder.

Sarah was getting attacked by a wild animal.

"Sarah!" I called her, getting closer to her. That's when I saw two large bright red eyes staring back at me, I froze on the spot, having never seen anything like them.

A hand grabbed my pajama and pulled me with it, nearly making me trip. "What was that!" I asked her.

"I don't know! You're the scientist here!" She shouted, looking behind us. She screamed at whatever she saw following us, my screams also following when I heard a murderous screech behind us.

"Christ no! It's a demon! Run and don't stop." Sarah screamed, pulling me harder. I couldn't see where we were going. Sarah held the torch but she wasn't pointing it in front of us. I could still hear the river flowing next to us but it wasn't too close. "We need to get to the car quickly!" I said to her as loudly as I could.

Screeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

That was the painful noise that the creature made. It pierced my ears, making me cower away. It was hard to run with such a painful noise in your ear.

Screeee!

"Make it stop!" I screamed, not knowing who I was screaming to. I wasn't focused on my running anymore and that made me slip and fall over. Sarah tried to catch me but she also fell, both of us rolling into the river.

I fell face first into the water, all loud noises getting blocked out and only the sound of water filled my ears. I felt like someone had just buried me in snow. It was so cold, so painfully cold. I kicked with my feet, trying to swim up. When I did, all I heard was the rain.

The water was moving, fast too. It was impossible to swim a certain direction. It would constantly submerge me back underneath or I would be thrown left and right around the rapids. There was no way I could find Sarah in there. I couldn't even tell where I was or where the river was taking me.

I coughed in pain when my back crashed into a boulder that was underwater, making me lightheaded. Currents of water were hitting my face but the large rock kept me in place. I grabbed onto it with weak and shaking hands, trying to climb my way out of the water and on top of the boulder.

When I did, I slumped onto it and coughed loudly, having a hard time breathing. I thought it was the end. There was no way I could swim to land in the dark and in such aggressive currents. It was too cold, and I was wet. I wouldn't survive the night. That thing was still out there and Sarah was nowhere to be seen.

What if she drowned?

I choked a sob at that thought, tears rolling down my eyes, being the only source of warmth I got. I tried sitting up on the rock and opened my eyes. I needed to see what was happening and how far I was to land.

I couldn't see anything but slowly, my eyes adjusted to the darkness.

"Sarah!" I called out, still sobbing. How could she hear me with all of the noise? The rain plus the river. I slumped back on the rock, huddling myself into a ball to try to get just a little bit of warmth. I was probably going to die soon...

I closed my eyes, not expecting to open them ever again.