But today, something was… different.
"Are you sure about this?" Ren asked, her voice filled with weariness and curiosity as she wiped the sweat off her brow, "This place feels kind of... off."
I glanced at the cabin ahead; it was relatively small, weathered, and tucked away behind a veil of vines and overgrown bushes. The wood was dark and cracked with a strange stillness in the air around it.
"Yeah, it's just an old cabin," I replied, though my own words felt hollow in the thick silence around us. I wasn't sure why, but my gut churned as I stared at the dilapidated structure. There was something about it that made my skin crawl.
"Come on, let's go check it out; it'll be fun! Who knows, we might even find some long-lost treasure, Caser said optimistically.
"Haaa..." With a sigh, Ren shook her head but followed anyway.
We pushed through the overgrown grass and opened the creaky door, and the smell of damp wood and mildew invaded our nostrils. Inside, the air was thick with dust, and a faint smell of rot lingered in the corners. The room was empty except for pieces of crude furniture here and there—an old, broken chair, a rusted metal stove, and a splintered table that looked as if it would crumble and fall any moment now. Cobwebs hung low from the ceiling, and a low hum seemed to vibrate through the walls.
"Well, this is pretty disappointing," Ren muttered as she kicked a stray piece of wood off the floor.
My eyes scanned the room for something—anything—that could explain why this place felt so unsettling. "Yeah, I thought there would be at least one cool thing in here," I replied.
Caster ignored our remarks. "It's still a cool spot. Perfect place to chill and escape the heat."
I didn't reply, my eyes still searching the dark corners of the room. I couldn't shake that strange feeling no matter how hard I tried.
"What do you think, Vale?" Ren asked.
Before I could reply, a sudden wave of dizziness washed over me; my vision blurred, the room seemed to slightly tilt, and the ground beneath my feet felt like it was moving under me. My breath quickened, and my heart raced in my chest.
"Vale?" Caster's voice was distant and muffled. "Hey, are you alright?"
The world spun faster, the edges of my sight darkening, until everything around me dissolved into blackness.
I don't know how much time had passed—minutes? Hours? I didn't know, but my head was throbbing, and my chest felt heavy.
'What happened?' I thought to myself, trying to recollect why I had knocked out.
I blinked a few times before pushing myself up from the cold. dusty floor, I rubbed my eyes trying to clear the fog.
"Ren? Caster?" I said in a low, hoarse voice, barely above a whisper.
I turned to see both of them a few feet away, their eyes fluttering open. They looked just as disoriented as I felt.
"Vale?" Ren's soft voice called out as she pushed herself into a sitting position, shaking her head side to side as if trying to clear it. "What happened? Where are we?"
"I have no idea," I muttered, staring at the surroundings. We were still in the cabin, but it somehow felt different. The room felt… smaller; the air was thicker. And the faint hum from before had turned into a low, oppressive sound that seemed to vibrate the walls.
As I was looking around, something caught my eye; the window seemed brighter, like more sunlight was passing through than before. I slowly walked towards the window, but what I saw made me freeze.
"Ren, Caster," I called out, my voice slightly trembling. "Look outside."
Standing up and walking over to the window
"What the fuck?" muttered Ren.
The forest. It was gone.
The towering trees were no longer there; there was now an endless stretch of barren land, the sky overhead a sickly shade of orange. Jagged rocks and strange, broken structures dotted the landscape, like remnants of a world torn apart. The ground beneath us was cracked and uneven.
"Is that… Is that even possible?" Ren asked, her voice barely above a whisper.
"I don't know," I replied, my heart pounding. "But something's wrong. We didn't just pass out… We're not in the same place anymore."
"This doesn't even look like our world; there's no way this is real." Caster muttered, staring up into the faint orange sky.
Ren's eyes were wide, his face pale. "How is this even possible? We just went into a cabin. It's not real, right? It can't be real."
I didn't have an answer. I didn't know what had happened. But I could feel it. This place—this shattered world—wasn't just some random location. There was something… alive. Something is watching us.
"I don't know what's going on," I said, my voice tight. "But I think we need to figure this out… before it's too late."