The forest was a nightmare to navigate unscathed. The thistles and brambles hung and popped from every corner, just waiting for an exposed patch of skin to claw away at. It was basically nature's equivalent of sexual assaulters. Natalia was cursing herself for wearing shorts. Her mother had warned her, repeatedly suggesting to wear full trousers or even climbing gear. The latter she had barely used since buying. Although, it was more to do with her parents cancelling that vacation to Moarra. There is little use for climbing gear without...anything to climb.

"Arghh", she yelped, a moment's loss into her thoughts was all it took for the sharp wood to register a cut right below her knees.

"You alright?" Asked Dave from behind, Taiko and Rita were even further back and just catching up.

"Yeah", she answered through gritted teeth.

The sting was bad, enough for her to double over for half a minute. But by the end of it, she was somewhat relieved because her real concern had not been threatened. That, hung rather heavily on her neck, glinting in the afternoon sunshine. She turned the camera on and off again to ensure it had not taken any damage, despite the fact it encountered nothing but thin air.

"Are you sure this is even worth it?" Dave then asked.

Natalia glowered at him as the other half of the group finally closed the gap.

"Shit that looks painful", Taiko blurted, eyeing Natalia's left leg.

"Well no shit, of course it is".

Rita could only look on disconcerted.

"Did we really have to do this?" She asked.

"I just said the same thing", added Dave.

"Are you guys for real, don't you want a first look at it?"

"Yes", said Dave.

"So?"

"But we were going to get that anyway, along with everyone else".

"Exactly, along with everyone else, now we will be the first. And I've got my new camera so we will have the absolute killer first pictures too".

"You probably shouldn't say killer given what just happened to your leg", said Rita with a snicker.

"Here", Taiko sighed, opening his backpack and pulling out a first aid box.

"Why in the world would you even have that?" Went Rita.

"We are in the woods Rita, so I don't know, common sense maybe?"

"Yeah, you're probably the only to think that".

"To use common sense? Well yes I know, pretty obvious given everyone around me".

He ate a slap to the back from Rita as the other two chortled.

"Well, might as well get back to it then", said Dave.

"Yeah, you better get me that awesome profile picture".

Natalia rolled her eyes at Rita. Once Taiko was finished, they were off again, the cut was still painful but she no longer had to wince every second. Especially since most of her focus was back to keeping the camera safe. It was her prized possession at this time. Only after a couple months of imploring and negotiation did her father finally agree to get her the Driko SX570. Its various ranges, photo cleaning software, specialized lenses and modes made it the ultimate dream toy for a photography enthusiast.

They slowed their pace to avoid the sharpened obstacles. Half an hour later, much to their relief, the ground began to rise in a slope. It was another twenty minutes before they emerged out of the woods and onto the brae of Conny Hill.

"Finally", burst Natalia, barely being able to hold back her smile.

"Finally what? You realized that you're dumb? We still have to climb the hill".

"If you'd ever get off your ass you'd know it's actually a very easy climb".

"Point", Taiko said with a sharp look towards Rita.

"Screw you", Rita continued to huff as they began the ascend.

Thankfully Natalia's word did hold true. The climb was relatively easy and it was only fifteen minutes or so before they reached the brow. She breathed a sigh of ease, otherwise Rita would have been all over her.

Natalia quickly cast aside those thoughts and broke into a sprint. They were here, finally she could now see what all the one year's worth of hype had been about. She stumbled her way to the very peak and looked ahead into the distance. Her eyes widened, there it was. It seemed to be the size of an entire town, the pitch in the middle was so wide and long, one would tire just by running up and down it once. Not a lot could be made of the stands and galleries but they were vast and came very close to the pitch. Oh how incredible the crowds would be when they start having matches here.

The Virginia Sports Arena was part of the recent plans to start massive sporting events between the island nations. They were apparently very common, and grand, in the times before the Great Rising. Since then, the world, or what was left of it, had far too many greater concerns to give any thought to sport. Now it was all set to change, international sport was going to be a thing again and it would begin with football. Sending Natalia's excitement into near delirium was the announcement they would be starting with youth level competitions involving teams from schools. She could already see it, playing football, representing her school and Virginia in front of the world, and when she would score that winning goal…"Is she you going to jump off this hill?"

Rita's voice ended her daydreaming.

"Hello?"

"Yes Rita, I can see you".

"Holy shit", Dave mumbled, catching sight of the stadium in the distance.

"No kidding", said Taiko.

Natalia fired a glare at Rita who finally seemed to agree with the decision to come here.

"Oh man, even I'm thinking I'll start playing now", she said.

"There aren't any sports that can be played while sitting on your ass", replied Natalia.

Rita offered a glimpse of her middle finger.

"How about you actually start doing what we came here for", Rita went on.

Still a bit miffed, Nat began her usual duties. She started with a few shots of the new landmark, before clicking some rather breath-taking single snaps of each with the stadium in the background. Unsurprisingly, Rita made her take around a dozen before she was satisfied. On this day, and, only on this day, she didn't mind. The photographs only got better with each click, even if she was being her own critic. She was inspecting the latest of these while the others lay flat and gazing, when suddenly there was a roaring from above. Her adrenaline seemed to shoot up at once. Natalia frantically fumbled with her backpack and pulled a protective casing for her camera, calming down only after safely securing her precious device before the rain started falling.

"Grief Nat, your camera will be fine".

"It better be, or else I won't! Do you know how much I had to beg dad to get me this. And it cost three hundred freakin rowns".

"We can leave now anyways, the rain is starting to come down hard", suggested Taiko.

"I'm with him", agreed Dave.

"Wait, we didn't do a group photo", said Rita, distressed at the prospect of leaving without fulfilling everything on her apparent list.

"Alright fine, let's take a group photo and then leave", said Nat.

"Get your phone then", Dave said to Rita, "it clicks the best selfies".

Natalia held her breath for moment, she knew what would come next.

"No not a selfie", said Rita, confirming Nat's fears, "Nat your camera can do a timer right?"

Nat sputtered with her words. It most certainly could, but to leave her precious camera on some rock on top of a hill, with heavy rain coming down, was not a prospect she looked forward to.

"Well?" Rita asked again, the three of them were staring at her, the rain too was getting heavier.

She was biting her lip, a few seconds passed as she contemplated saying no. In the end however, she could not get herself to deny her best friends. This was the promise she made to them in exchange for coming here. As uncomfortable as she was endangering her camera, disappointing them was worse.

"Yeah", she finally answered, "yeah it does".

"Geez did you have to do a web search to find out", said Rita.

"Just get in place", Natalia snarled back, scouring for a place to put her camera on.

There was a tiny mound on the peak placed just right for keeping the all-important stadium in frame. After meticulously placing the cover wrapped device on the hard earthen surface, she adjusted focus, turned on the timer and ran back to the others whom Rita had already arranged properly for a good shot. She never failed at those duties, possibly the only thing she never failed at. Natalia huddled close to the other three, smiles were widened, victory signs raised, the timer ticked down and the flash lit up. The picture was taken, satisfying everyone and bringing a sense of relief to Natalia.

She began walking towards the perch when all of a sudden, the camera casing slipped from all the rainwater covering the mound and fell downwards. Before Natalia could even utter a word, it kept slipping down the slope and out of sight. Nat thought her heartbeat would stop, it was a couple of seconds before she even got her muscles to move again. She let out a scream that could only be fitting of a goat about to give birth, breaking into a desperate run down the hill, a move far less likely to save the camera and more to ensuring she suffered a similar fate.

She sprinted to the edge of the peak and literally threw herself down the slope, tumbling down a good height and picking up another bruise or two before getting back on her feet. Every other thought, and pain, seemed to vanish from within her. At that moment nothing else mattered. She kept running, crossing a few more feet until as abruptly as it had made its exit, the camera once more appeared in sight. It did not go far, reaching only a short distance below the peak and grinding to a halt along the slope.

"Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit, SHIT!"

Nat kept cursing all the way up till she had her hands on the camera.

"Please, God, no…."

She anxiously put her hand inside the cover, not even remembering to dry her fingers, and turned on the home screen. Her heart lowered down from the throat and went back into her chest, it was still working.

"NAT!" Chorused all three from above.

"It's fine!" She yelled back.

"We were asking about you, you dumb piece of shit", hollered Rita.

"Yeah, like what the hell are you thinking", called Taiko.

Dave had already began making his way down.

"I swear", he muttered, clambering down to where she was.

They weren't exactly wrong. She unfolded the covering to turn the thing off. In all honesty, Nat wanted nothing more than to put it in a bag and keep it there for now. Taiko and Rita had also started to climb down when she managed to take the cover off and brought her thumb over to the power down button. Her eyes fell on the screen, she almost dropped the camera again. She was terrified yet could not look away, her hands, in fact entire body began trembling. There was a picture on the screen, a clicked photograph. It seemed to have been taken on this very hill. Only, in the photograph, was some kind of red, four eyed monster.

"Hey!" Came Dave's voice, breaking her free of the numb.

"Da, Dave, look at this".

She handed him the camera, Taiko and Rita finally reached them.

"What the hell is this?" Asked Dave, passing the camera to the others for a look.

"I, I don't know. I just picked up the camera and this picture is there".

"Some weird monster picture you downloaded from the web? And why are you scared?" Asked Rita, half confused, half frightened.

"No dumbass I didn't download it, it was taken by this camera, a real picture!"

Rita hurriedly shoved the camera into Taiko's hands, almost looking like it was about to bite her.

"What do you mean?" Asked Taiko, inspecting the image.

"Look, the camera fell, you all saw that right?"

Taiko, Rita and Dave nodded.

"Then I ran down and found it lying here. I picked it up, even checked if it's working and it was. Then I turned to look at you three coming down. Next time I look back at the camera, this picture is there".

"What are you trying to say?"

"Taiko I don't know what this is or how it got in there. And, and it looks like it was taken here. Look carefully at the background, it's exactly the place where we're at right now".

"Nat you're really scaring me", blurted Rita.

"Look, guys, please just relax", said Dave, "It's just a picture, not like an actual monster or anything. And I'm sure it's just a graphics generated image or something like that".

"Firstly it looks real, secondly how did it get in my camera. I never got it. In fact it doesn't even have internet. And I swear to you it wasn't there before".

"So a monster was passing by, found the camera lying here, took a selfie and then left?"

"Can we not make jokes now", Dave scowled at Taiko.

"I'm not joking".

"Then what the hell do you mean", said Natalia, voice flaring.

"Look if that picture is real, then that is the only explanation possible".

"A monster took a selfie?" Said Rita.

"Minus the selfie Rita".

"So you're saying it's not real", said Dave.

"What I'm saying, is whatever this is, I'm guessing there is an explanation. It's just not obvious to us yet".

"Can we just leave", suggested Rita.

"Yeah, I think so too, let's get out of here already", added Dave

Natalia struggled to process everything she heard. Even if the picture was fake, how in the world did it get inside her camera? There was absolutely no chance it was there before and she didn't notice. There was nothing on it except the pictures she herself clicked and again, there was also the fact it did not have internet connectivity.

"Come on Nat", Dave put an arm around her shoulder.

Her mind in a mess, she decided the best thing to do was simply go home. She rubbed her hand against his and exchanged nods with Taiko and Rita.

The four began making their way down the slope, Natalia could barely walk straight, still fidgety head to toe. They reached the foot of the hill and were about to re-enter the forest when Natalia randomly glanced back for a final look at the hill, her jaw dropped. There was someone there. Not a monster but a person.

"Guys", she hissed to the others, almost collapsing onto Dave and Rita.

Rita meant to yell but Nat quickly yanked her wrist and put a finger to the lip.

"There's someone up there, in the hill, look".

Pretending to look here and there, all three manage to squeeze a glance at the hill towering above them. It only took a few moments for them to realize Natalia was right. There was a person there, almost concealed within a crack along the hill's body. Most of his face was obscured by a dark hat and his torso by a long black trench coat. Natalia took a couple steps towards the hill and at once the man retreated inside the crack.

"Shit I think he saw us", blurted Nat

"Damn it run!" Yelled Dave.

All four broke into a breathless run, galloping past the trees and obstacles without any concern for injuries. Clearly it was nothing compared to what a hooded man hiding in a cave could do to them. The distance was barely felt by their feet as by the time they began to slow down, they were already standing on the edge of town.

"Oh God", panted Nat.

"We are never doing this again", said Rita.