Chapter One: The First Disappearance

The sky was heavy with dark clouds, obscuring the moonlight and leaving the small town engulfed in a quiet darkness, yet filled with something hidden. In this town, everything seemed normal, until "Jack," the seventeen-year-old teenager, disappeared without a trace.

On Friday evening, Jack and his friends were having a small party at the edge of the forest. The music was loud, and laughter echoed between the trees. Driven by a sense of adventure, Jack accepted a simple challenge proposed by one of his friends: to enter the forest alone at night and return with something to prove he had been there.

"Don't be a coward, Jack!" said "Ryan," gently pushing him toward the dark entrance of the forest. Jack smiled, trying to hide his nervousness, and answered with false confidence, "I'll be back before you even notice I'm gone."

Jack disappeared among the trees, and his voice faded with each step he took into the darkness. His friends stayed at the edge of the forest, talking and laughing, but time passed quickly, and soon signs of concern began to show on their faces.

"Over an hour has passed," said "Amy," looking worriedly toward the forest.

"Maybe he got lost?" suggested "Mark," though he wasn't entirely convinced.

When they finally decided to go in and search for him, they found something strange at the entrance: Jack's hat, lying on the ground as if it had been dropped in a hurry. There were no traces of him, no footsteps or signs pointing to where he had gone. Only complete silence.

Suddenly, the wind began to howl, as if warning of something to come. "This doesn't feel right..." muttered Amy, while Mark shakily lit the flashlight he was holding.

They hadn't gone far before they saw something strange: a carving on the trunk of a nearby tree. It was a series of incomprehensible symbols, appearing very ancient. Beneath them, there was another inscription written in a modern script:

"The shadows took him... and they will take you all."

They quickly retreated, terrified by what they had seen. "Jack might be messing with us... right?" Ryan said, trying to calm himself. But his heart told him that what had happened was deeper and more dangerous than it seemed.

When they returned to the town, they decided to tell the police. But the next day, when they returned with the investigators to the forest, there was no trace of the carving or the hat. It was as if the forest itself had swallowed the evidence.

The following night, "Amy" sat by the window, staring at the dark forest in the distance. She saw a shadow moving between the trees. For a moment, she thought it was Jack, but when she looked closer, she felt a cold shiver run through her heart. The shadow was too large, and its shape was inhuman.

The first disappearance was the beginning of a storm no one

would be able to stop.