It had always been a place of mystery to us. The sort of place you could lose all sense of time, where the rustling of leaves seemed to whisper secrets and the shadows play tricks on your mind. Vale, Ren, and Caster have spent untold hours beneath these towering trees, exploring the thick underbrush and forgotten paths that lead to nowhere but more forest and trees.

But today, it did feel different.

"Are you sure about this?" Ren asked, with a weary and curious tone, wiping the sweat off her brow, "This place feels kinda… off."

I looked over at them, Ren stood with her arms across her chest, her silver hair glinting weakly in the light filtering between the trees; her grey eyes clear and shining. Beside her, Caster was grinning, his blond hair rumpled, his freckles scattered across his nose and cheeks. The usual spark of excitement danced through his brown eyes, even in a place like this. As for me, I have dark brown hair that always seemed a little unruly and sharp green eyes that had a habit of narrowing when I was deep in thought. People always told me I looked intense, though I never really saw it. Right now, though, I probably looked just as uneasy as I felt.

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." Sighing, Ren shook her head but continued anyway.

We pushed aside the overgrown grass and pushed open the creaky door; the musty smell of damp wood and mildew invaded our nostrils. Inside, the air was thick with dust; in corners, a faint smell of rot had set in. The room was completely empty, except for pieces of crude furniture and splintered wood here and there: an old, rickety chair, a metal stove that seemed to be rusted through, and a table with splinters as though it would crumble and fall at any moment. Cobwebs hung low from the ceiling, and a low humming seemed to vibrate in the walls.

"Well, this is pretty disappointing," Ren said, kicking a stray piece of wood off the floor.

My gaze swept through the room for something—anything—that could account for the unease I felt. "Yeah, I thought there'd at least be one cool thing in here," I said back.

Caster ignored our remarks. "Still a cool spot. Perfect place to chill and get out of the heat."

I said nothing, my eyes still scanning the dark corners of the room. Whatever that strange feeling was, I couldn't seem to get it off .

"What do you think, Vale?" Ren asked.

The only warning I got was when a wave of dizziness suddenly washed over me; the room began to blur, took on a somewhat tilted feeling in my vision, and the floor beneath my feet seemed to slide under me. My breathing hastened, as did my heart, thudding against my chest.

"Vale?" Caster's voice sounded far away and muffled. "Hey, are you okay?

The world spun faster, edges of my sight darkening until my vision dissolved into darkness.

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 had 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 them a few feet away; their eyes fluttered open. They looked just about 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 don't know," I muttered, looking around. We were still in the cabin, but somehow, it felt different. The room felt. smaller; the air was thicker. And that faint hum earlier had turned into a low, oppressive sound that seemed to vibrate the walls.

I turned around, and my gaze caught something: the window was brighter, it seemed, like more sunlight seeped through now than earlier. Slowly, I walked towards the window, but what met my eyes made me freeze.

"Ren, Caster," I called out, trying to keep my voice from shaking.

Standing up and walking to the window

"What the fuck?" Ren muttered.

The forest was gone.

The trees were gone, replaced by a sea of nothingness; the sky above a grotesque orange color. Boulders and odd, fragmented buildings littered the landscape, as if from a world that had been torn asunder. The earth beneath our feet was cracked and uneven.

"Is that… Is that even possible?" Ren asked, her voice barely above a whisper.

"I don't know," I stammered out, my heart racing. "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 to himself, staring up into the faint orange sky.

Ren's eyes were wide, her face pale. "How is this even possible? We just went into a cabin. this is not real, right? this can't be real."

I had no 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 watching us.

"I don't know what is going on," I said, my voice tight. "But I think we need to figure this out… before it's too late."