Suddenly Lud finds himself in a forest with no one around. He tries to recall what brought him there, but he draws out blank. The haunting forest, normal looking for sure, still haunts Lud's mind as he has no idea what to do at the moment.
Lud decides to walk in one direction. Not knowing whether or not it is the right one, but as there are no signs to indicate the direction, he just goes where his instincts tell him.
He walks…
Walks…
Walks…
He walks…
Walks…
And walks some more…
Where is he going? He does not know. All he knows is that he must do something.
Hunger kicks in, but he doesn't know what to eat. There isn't any edible food around that he can think of and the sound of birds chirping is taunting him. His stomach grumbles.
He searches for food, and eventually he finds a cabin just sitting there. It looks to be in a decent condition, although moss has begun to build up on it. He decides to go and investigate his only hope for shelter as the sun is beginning to settle.
Once he gets to the door, he has to work it somewhat to get it open as it appears to be stuck. He has a nagging feeling that it isn't locked, but he has no way to prove it.
As he tries to get the door open, he hears something moving somewhere in the forest. For a moment he felt hope, but soon realized that he doesn't know what lurks out there, so he decides to abandon the door and break in through a window.
Lud finds a rock and smashes the window, causing the sound to echo throughout the forest. Worried that something will come to investigate the sound of the noise, he hurries in and looks around to see if there is anything to cover the window.
He only sees a stove, table, chairs, some plates and a vase with a flower in it that seems to be doing well.
Soon he notices that he stands on top of a carpet, so he decides to try and cover the window with it somehow. He stumbles a bit, but he manages to get the carpet standing in a way in front of the now broken window.
Somewhat satisfied, Lud now begins to look around the cabin. Further inspections show him that there are two rooms. The entrance and the room where there was a bed and a cabinet.
Lud searches for the cabinet and finds that there are several things inside.
First is a map that is nailed on the back of the cabinet. He looks at it and while he doesn't recognise the area the map depicts, he is sure that it'll help him somehow in the future.
Second thing he finds is a small knife and some matches. He picks them up and looks further.
He finds a booklet of some kind and grabs it. After looking some more, he doesn't find anything else in the cabinet, so he brings the booklet with him to the main room and places it on the table.
Lud realized that while he had found shelter in the middle of nowhere, he still hadn't found a solution to the food problem.
Having no choice, he goes back outside with little more confidence in himself as he has a knife. He looks around as it is getting dark, but it is beginning to get harder and harder to see. He doesn't get to venture too far, until he finds a stone with some weird writings on it.
There are some used candles around the stone, but as the sun is about to settle, he decides to bookit back to the one place he has found some shelter in.
Just as he gets to the cabin, the sun has gone out, making him stumble a little as he gets inside.
The inside is no better in terms of lights. It is almost pitch black and he has to navigate the unfamiliar cabin with almost no light.
He stumbles a bit as he goes to the bedroom, but he does get to lay in a bed. The bed doesn't really have much bedding, but it is better than sleeping on the cold floor.
Lud tries to rest the night away with an empty stomach, but the coldness of the room is keeping him awake. Making it not so restful night.
Lud hears owls humming and wind blowing. Some woods crack as something moves outside. "The night can't get any better" Lud thinks to himself.
Eventually the sun begins to rise after a long restless night. But when Lud goes to the main room, he sees that a raccoon type of creature has stumbled inside of the cabin. Being hungry. Lud has no choice but to try and kill the animal for its meat.
Unfortunately for Lud, he isn't really good at killing things, so it is a long arduous battle with lots of blood being shed on both sides. Eventually though, Lud wins as the raccoon type creature stops moving.
Now comes another issue. How to prepare the meat? Lud has never butchered anything that isn't academics, so butchering an animal is a new experience for him.
Through trial and error, he manages to skin the poor raccoon type creature even after many rookie mistakes. He gets the meat out and he decides to also take the heart of the poor creature and eat it too, as he knows that heart is a type of meat as well.
Now comes another issue. How to cook it? Lud has a stove that is meant to warm up the cabin, but he doesn't see any method of cooking. He decides to venture out to look for some wood to set the stove on and he hopes that he manages to think how to cook without any appliances.
Lud soon finds a storage for wood and luckily there is some wood in it, so he grabs them and sets the stove on with the matches he found earlier. It took several matches to light the stove, but eventually he succeeded.
While he was searching for wood, he figured that he just had to put the meat he butchered on top of the stove as he had nothing else he could put in between the stove and the meat.
Thinking ahead though, he sharpened some sticks and pierced the meat so that he would have an easier time "cooking" the food.
After some "cooking" he finally got to eat something after a long wait. Of course, since Lud didn't know anything about butchering animals, he didn't draw out the blood from the meat, so it obviously tasted terrible. The heart was also kind of hard to eat as well, but as he didn't know when he'd get more food to eat, he ate all that he could.
Unfortunately, even after the meal, Lud was still quite hungry. And not only that, after eating the "food", he was starting to get thirsty as well.
Having no choice, Lud had to venture out to the unknown woods in search of fresh water and something else to eat. While venturing out, he tried his best to remember the way back, scratching some marks on the trees so that he can follow them back to the cabin.
After a while of searching, Lud found a pretty lake. He had no time to take in its beauty however, since he only had a limited amount of time until the sun went down, so he began to think the following.
"How do I drink the water? I know that you are supposed to boil it first, but I have no bottles on me. I also am getting quite thirsty, so I have to drink something in order for me to survive. But without boiling the water, I could get all sorts of issues from the water. Diarrhea is one of the things that could kill me if I drink it as is, but if I don't drink anything at all, I'll die soon from thirst."
Thinking out his options, Lud decides to drink some of the water from the lake until he feels he has drunk enough.
Then Lud had to think about what to eat. On his way to the lake, he did see some bushes that contained berries of some kind, but as he had no idea whether or not they were edible or not, he was hesitant to eat any of them.
Having no other options, he decided to craft a wooden spear out of a sizable stick in order to try and catch fish the old fashioned way.
He spent the rest of the day trying to catch fish, but in the end, he only got two, one the size of his hand and double the first one's size.
Considering that he is completely new to this kind of thing, he took it with grace that he managed to catch even that.
He wandered back to the cabin before it got dark and he grabbed some twigs for future use.
Two terrible butcherings later, he managed to eat barely edible fish with lots of stops in the middle, as he didn't take all the fish bones out properly.
The sun had fallen, so Lud had to call it a night and go to sleep.
Even though Lud had eaten and the cabin was warm enough for him, Lud felt a terrible stomach ache the whole night. This night as well, Lud barely got any sleep.
The next morning, Lud woke to a dull ache in his gut and a fogginess in his mind. His body was stiff, and the room felt smaller, more oppressive than it had the day before. The sunlight seeping through the cracks in the cabin's walls did little to warm his spirits. He groaned, standing up and stretching, his movements slow and deliberate.
His thoughts raced in no particular order—he couldn't tell if it was hunger, the water he drank, or the unsettling quiet that gnawed at him. Lud felt watched. Every creak of wood, every whisper of wind through the trees sent a jolt of unease through him. Even though the forest had seemed empty when he ventured out, he couldn't shake the sense that something—or someone—was out there.
The isolation was getting to him.
He glanced at the map he had found, still nailed to the cabinet. It might've been useful if he could recognize any landmarks, but everything here seemed the same: trees stretching endlessly, obscuring the sky like a suffocating canopy. He thought back to the stone with the strange carvings he'd found the day before. He hadn't taken the time to inspect it too closely, but the image of it lingered in his mind, unsettling in its mystery.
"I should've paid more attention," he muttered to himself, pacing around the cabin. He was starting to talk aloud more often. The silence was unbearable otherwise, and his own voice was at least familiar, something to cling to in this strange, hostile environment. He hadn't seen a single other person since he arrived, and he had no idea if anyone even knew where he was.
Lud realized his hands were trembling. He clenched them into fists, trying to steady himself. Maybe it was the cold. Or maybe it was fear.
"I need to stay calm. Just… need to think," he muttered, walking toward the cabin door. As soon as his hand touched the knob, a sudden creak from outside made him freeze. He turned his head sharply, his breath catching in his throat. His eyes darted around the room, landing on the window he'd broken the night before, the one he had tried to cover with the old carpet.
It had shifted slightly, the edges flapping in the breeze.
No big deal. It's just the wind, he told himself. But he couldn't shake the feeling that something else had caused it. His heart pounded, a growing sense of dread tightening around his chest. He opened the door cautiously, peering out into the forest. Nothing seemed different—just the same trees, the same underbrush.
But something was wrong.
Lud forced himself outside, taking a few steps into the clearing around the cabin. His eyes flicked from tree to tree, expecting movement at any moment. His mind played tricks on him, every shadow shifting, every branch rustling unnaturally. He swallowed hard, the sound of his own heartbeat growing louder in his ears.
"Nothing's here. Nothing's out there," he whispered, trying to convince himself.
Still, the paranoia stuck to him like a second skin. Every time he looked away, he felt eyes on his back. The trees seemed to lean in, watching him, mocking him. His legs wobbled slightly as he stepped away from the cabin, heading toward the stone with the strange writing. He needed to see it again, needed some sort of explanation.
Lud stumbled through the forest, his breathing becoming heavier with each step. The trees were so dense, the air thick and humid. After what felt like hours—though it was likely only minutes—he reached the stone again.
It was exactly as he had left it, but now, in the daylight, it seemed more sinister. The writing carved into the stone looked like it had been gouged violently into its surface. He traced a finger over the marks, cold shivers running down his spine. They didn't seem to form any recognizable letters or symbols—just jagged lines and curves, like some crude, primal language.
A soft sound behind him made him whip around, knife in hand.
Nothing. The trees swayed gently in the wind, and the underbrush rustled innocently. But Lud couldn't shake the feeling that something had been there just a second ago, lurking just out of sight.
His throat felt tight, and he realized how dry his mouth was. He hadn't had enough water yesterday. His body was screaming for it. But more than that, his mind was unraveling. He wiped sweat from his forehead, forcing himself to calm down. He needed to get back to the cabin, needed to focus on surviving, not getting lost in whatever paranoid fantasies were creeping into his head.
But when he turned to walk back, he froze.
The scratches he'd marked on the trees—his way back—were gone. There was no sign of them anywhere.
Panic hit him like a cold wave. He spun in a circle, scanning the trees for any sign of the marks. Nothing. It was like the forest had swallowed them whole. His mind raced, desperately trying to make sense of it.
"This can't be happening," he whispered, his voice shaky. His chest tightened, his breath coming in short gasps. The world around him felt like it was closing in. The trees, the shadows, the air—they were all against him, suffocating him in their silence.
Lud staggered forward, blindly choosing a direction, hoping it would lead him back to the cabin. His footsteps were frantic now, crashing through the underbrush. Every sound echoed in his ears, amplified, distorted. The forest seemed to twist around him, trees shifting and closing in.
Was he going the right way? Was there even a right way anymore?
His legs burned from exertion, but he couldn't stop. Something was wrong with this place. It wasn't just the hunger or the thirst getting to him—it was the forest itself. It was alive, watching him, laughing at him as he stumbled through its grasp.
Just as his panic reached its peak, he saw it—the cabin. It stood in the distance, just barely visible through the trees. Relief flooded him, but it was mixed with something else. A sinking feeling in his gut.
Has the cabin always been this far? Had he really walked this far away from it?
Lud's hands shook as he approached, a growing dread settling in his chest. He didn't remember leaving it this far behind. Something wasn't right.
But he had no other choice.
With trembling hands, he reached for the cabin door again, praying for some small comfort, something familiar in this ever-shifting nightmare.
Inside he saw… like it all was before. The blood that the raccoon type creature and him bled days prior were still there. But something felt… off.
He looked around the cabin for what felt like hours, sure that there was something else inside.
"No" he muttered as he didn't seem to find anything new. But inside he knew. Inside he felt that something was watching him. Something mocking him. The forest outside felt so silent and empty while still so loud and full of things out to get him.
Lud could not stay in that cabin anymore. Something was there. Something was… No, he had to calm down. He had no other place that he could call "safe".
"But was the cabin still safe?" Lud wondered out loud to silence the silent yet loud forest outside. He didn't know what to do, so he pondered for ages as he walked around in the cabin.
"I must destroy it." He finally figured it out. He thought that the stone somehow must have put a curse of some kind to this land. It was the things that had kept the cabin pristine while still being swallowed by the forest. It had to… no… It must be the stone.
He went out to where he thought the stone was. But as he walked towards it, he couldn't find it no matter how deep he ventured. He walked, walked and walked, but he couldn't find the damned stone.
The sun was beginning to settle and he realized that he hadn't eaten anything that day. Having no choice, Lud ate the berries he found growing around the woods. Mushrooms he did not touch as "Mushrooms were the evil kind" so he thought.
Trying to go back to the cabin, he could not find a way back. Lud realized that he had ventured deeper in the forest than he realized. He must have taken a wrong turn out of paranoia. That was what happened. He was sure of it.
"There is nothing out to get me here" Lud muttered to himself, as it was getting darker and darker.
"As long as I find the cabin, I'll be fine" Lud kept spouting as he wandered around the forest. He had absolutely no idea where he was going, but he was sure that he found the cabin. "Cabin is safe" and "Cabin was home" so he kept saying to himself.
Eventually, he started to spit out blood. "The berries," Lud said. "No… something else" He kept muttering.
Lud started to cough heavily for a moment, but he did not stop from advancing. He kept coughing blood while simultaneously searching for the cabin. Searching for… the stone.
As he wandered aimlessly with barely any light out, he fell down as he hit something with his foot. When he looked back at what he hit, he saw a briefcase, used candles, a sandwich that had a bite mark, a bike and a note.
This lit Lud's paranoia even more, as there must have been something that left these things. The sandwich looked fresh, so there must be someone nearby. There had to be.
But dread came across Lud's face, "If there was someone, they want to get to my cabin."
He was ready to run as fast as he could to a direction that "felt" like the right direction, but he began to cough out more blood and he stumbled to the ground for a moment more.
As he was on the ground, he remembered the note. He read it and it had some weird symbols on it.
Paranoid, Lud took the matches he had, lit one of the candles that still could be lit up and threw the note to the flame, shouting between his coughs "Nothing…" cough cough "Nothing will bewitch me!"
With the remaining strength he had, he ran in the pitch black forest. Hitting things left and right and falling over and over as he had nothing to see but the darkness. But he continued in manic lunacy. Sure that he'll find the way back to the cabin. Nothing else was in his mind but the cabin.
Lud kept running, barely noticing the cuts and bruises forming on his legs and arms as he crashed through the underbrush. Every sound, every gust of wind brushing against the trees, sent sharp jolts of terror through him. The forest seemed alive, conspiring against him, twisting and turning the path before his eyes. His breath came in ragged gasps, his chest tightening, the metallic taste of blood still lingering on his tongue.
"The cabin… I need the cabin…" he rasped, stumbling again. His knees hit the ground hard, but Lud barely felt it anymore. His mind was far from the pain; it was consumed by fear, the growing certainty that the forest was playing tricks on him. Nothing made sense, not the stones, not the note, not even the berries he'd eaten.
Maybe I've already been cursed, he thought as he wiped blood from his lips, staring into the abyss of trees that loomed over him. He couldn't tell anymore whether the trees were swaying from the wind or something unseen was watching him from the shadows, moving just out of sight.
"Stay calm," he whispered hoarsely. "It's just the dark, just… the dark."
But even as he said it, Lud couldn't shake the feeling that something was out there. Something waiting. He reached for the small knife he'd taken from the cabin, clutching it tightly as if the dull blade could protect him. His hands were trembling uncontrollably now, sweat making the hilt slippery. He took shallow, shuddering breaths and forced himself to stand again, wavering on his feet. He blinked hard, trying to focus, but his vision swam, the edges of the forest blurring together.
In the distance, he thought he saw movement—just a flicker of something darting between the trees. His heart leapt into his throat. He wasn't alone. Something was following him. Watching him. Lud's eyes widened as he forced himself to run once more, fueled by sheer panic. He didn't care anymore where he was going, only that he had to keep moving, had to stay ahead of whatever was stalking him.
He stumbled over a fallen branch, the impact sending him sprawling face-first into the dirt. As he lay there, breathless and dazed, he heard it. Faint footsteps behind him. Soft, deliberate. Too slow to be an animal, too calculated. He strained his ears, heart pounding as if it might burst from his chest. The footsteps stopped, as if whoever—or whatever—it was knew he was listening.
"No… no, no, no…" Lud whimpered, clutching the knife to his chest as he scrambled to his feet. His legs felt like they would give out at any moment, but he pushed through, forcing himself forward.
Then he heard it—a whisper. Faint, barely audible, but there. Words he couldn't quite make out, carried on the wind. His throat tightened as he glanced back, seeing nothing but endless blackness and twisted trees. But the whispers didn't stop.
"Who's there!?" Lud shouted, his voice breaking with desperation. "Show yourself!"
The only response was the eerie rustle of leaves, the shadows flickering in the pale moonlight. Lud's head spun as a wave of dizziness hit him, forcing him to lean against a tree for support. He wiped his brow with a shaking hand, noticing for the first time the alarming heat radiating from his body. His skin felt like it was on fire.
The berries…
His stomach twisted violently, and he doubled over, retching into the dirt. His vision flickered in and out, the world growing darker, more distorted. The trees seemed to move on their own now, stretching and curling toward him like gnarled fingers. Or maybe they always had. Maybe it was all part of the forest's twisted game.
Stumbling forward, Lud's hand grazed something hard and cold—a structure, familiar in shape. The cabin. Relief flooded him as he realized he had somehow found his way back. But as his eyes adjusted to the dim light, his blood ran cold.
The cabin… wasn't the same.
The door was open, creaking on its hinges as if it had been left that way for years. Inside, the furniture was overturned, broken, the carpet he had used to block the window shredded and stained with old, dried blood. The flower in the vase was wilted, blackened as though it had been dead for far longer than the days he had spent here.
Lud's breath caught in his throat. This couldn't be right. This wasn't his cabin. Or… was it?
He stepped inside, the floor creaking ominously beneath his weight. The air was thick, suffocating, the oppressive silence weighing down on him. His mind raced, but his body felt heavy, slow. Every step forward took more effort than the last.
From the corner of his eye, something moved. Just a flicker—quick, barely perceptible—but enough to freeze him in place.
He turned slowly, knife raised, ready to defend himself from… from what?
There was nothing there.
Lud's breath hitched, his heartbeat pounding in his ears. He was losing his grip. He knew he was. But what else could he do? What was real and what wasn't anymore?
As the cold grip of terror closed in around him, he backed toward the door, unable to tear his eyes from the shadows gathering in the corners of the room. Every instinct screamed at him to run again, to leave the cabin behind.
But where would he go?
And then… there was a sound behind him. Faint. A creak of the floorboard, like a footstep.
He froze.
He turned around and saw a regular looking deer. He shouted "Who are you?!" As if the deer could answer.
The deer was startled and soon fled back to the forest. Lud had a sudden urge to go and kill it, but he had no strength in him, he fell down and passed out.
Morning came, with the sunlight filtering through the trees and casting long shadows on the ground. Lud woke up feeling the cold earth beneath him. His body ached from exhaustion, his throat dry and raw from coughing blood the night before. He squinted against the light and groaned as he pushed himself up onto his knees. For a brief moment, everything seemed… normal. The forest was quiet, but it wasn't the oppressive silence from the night before. The trees swayed gently in the breeze, the birds chirped in the distance, and the world felt less menacing in the daylight.
He dragged himself to the edge of the clearing, where he could see the cabin standing still and undisturbed. Lud leaned against the rough bark of a tree, staring at it, trying to shake off the lingering paranoia. The whispers, the shadows, the strange things he'd found in the woods—all of it seemed like a bad dream now.
But he couldn't shake the memory of the deer. That regular-looking deer, staring at him with those glassy black eyes before fleeing into the woods. He had no reason to think it meant anything, but it gnawed at the back of his mind. He couldn't understand why, but something about that deer felt wrong, felt off. As if it was watching him.
Lud stood up, brushing the dirt from his clothes. He felt dizzy, but it was a manageable dizziness, a lightness in his head that he attributed to hunger. His stomach growled, reminding him that he hadn't eaten properly. He turned toward the cabin, thinking that maybe inside he could find something—anything—to ground himself again.
He stepped through the doorway, and for a moment, everything was as it should be. The furniture was still overturned, but the air was fresh, not suffocating. He moved slowly, checking every corner, as if half-expecting something to leap out at him. But there was nothing. Just the stillness of an empty cabin.
Lud closed his eyes and exhaled slowly. Maybe he was just losing it, he thought. Maybe all of this was just a reaction to the isolation, the fear, and the exhaustion. He took a deep breath and reached for a can of food from one of the shelves. As he turned to grab a tin opener, he froze.
The light.
The sunlight coming through the window—it had changed.
In the blink of an eye, it had gone from early morning to late afternoon. The warm golden hue now cast long, eerie shadows on the floor, stretching out toward him as if they were reaching for him. His heart skipped a beat, and he spun toward the window, confused. Had he been standing there longer than he realized? Minutes? Hours?
"No... no, this isn't right..." he muttered under his breath, his pulse quickening. He stumbled out of the cabin and looked at the sky. The sun hung low, the orange hues of evening settling in. His mind raced. He was sure it had been morning just moments ago.
Panic surged through him again. Time was slipping. He was losing control, and he could feel the paranoia creeping back into his thoughts. Without thinking, Lud found himself walking back toward the forest. Toward the place where he had seen the deer.
"It's the deer," he mumbled to himself. "The deer... it's watching me. It knows something. It was there... it's all because of that deer."
His footsteps quickened as he ventured deeper into the woods, the trees closing in around him. His breathing became ragged, and the dizziness returned in waves. The shadows grew longer, and the familiar feeling of being watched settled over him like a heavy cloak.
Lud's eyes darted around, searching the woods for any sign of movement. But the forest was empty, silent. Too silent. He could feel his mind unraveling, his thoughts spiraling into madness again. Every crack of a branch, every rustle of leaves felt like it was something hiding, watching, waiting for him to fall apart completely.
"Where are you!?" he shouted into the trees. "Where are you hiding!?"
His voice echoed in the forest, unanswered. Lud pressed on, his hands shaking as he gripped the dull knife from the cabin. He was certain now that the deer was behind everything—the lost time, the whispers, the strange symbols on the note. It all traced back to that moment, to those glassy black eyes staring at him in the cabin.
And then, he saw it.
The deer, standing perfectly still among the trees, barely visible through the underbrush. Its head tilted slightly, its eyes locked onto Lud. The same blank, emotionless gaze.
"You…" Lud whispered, his voice trembling. "You did this."
He took a step forward, but the deer didn't move. It just stood there, watching him with those dark, lifeless eyes. Rage and fear twisted inside him, and Lud raised the knife, his grip unsteady. He charged at the deer, his mind consumed by a wild, desperate need to end this. To end whatever it was that had been tormenting him.
But as he reached the spot where the deer had stood, it was gone.
Lud stopped in his tracks, panting, his heart racing. He spun around, searching the trees, but there was no sign of it. The forest was quiet, empty.
He felt a sudden chill as the light began to fade again, and with it, his grasp on time and reality. It was happening again—the minutes, the hours slipping away from him. He stood there in the clearing, unsure of how long he'd been standing, unsure of anything anymore. The woods felt endless, and Lud could no longer tell which way led back to the cabin, or if the cabin even existed anymore.
He collapsed to his knees, his body shaking with exhaustion and fear. The forest closed in around him, the trees whispering in a language he couldn't understand, the shadows growing darker and darker until they swallowed him whole.
Lud lay there, staring into the fading light, as the cold night descended.
He wasn't sure if he was alive or dead.
And he wasn't sure he cared anymore.