In the world of mortals, there are very few unordinary things that happen. However this was the exception. In the cold forest, there was a group of hikers heading up the mountain who had stopped to set up camp for the night. There were six in the group, Talia, Caron, Jared, Jasmine, Cameron, and Rose. Each were given a specific task for setting up the camp. Talia and Caron were setting up all the tents while Jasmine and Cam went to gather fire wood. Jared and Rose were setting up the fire and making sure the area was secure. It was about 5:45 in the afternoon when they finished setting up camp. Everything was in place and they were all sitting around the fire in a circle.
Rose and Jared had decided to go to sleep early so they went into their tent. The others sat around the fire telling stories while the night passed. Around 11:00 the rest of the group went to sleep. The night passed silently, no wind, no wolves howling, no sounds but the turns of restlessness. Talia was laying in her tent staring at the starry sky trying to fall asleep. The night seemed like it took forever to pass. She sat there for hours. Looking at the same stars, not moving. The same moon, not going down. The same silence. More time passed and she began to worry. She knew that the night should be ending soon, but the moon and stars had not shifted. So she unzipped her tent and stepped out. She looked around as she walked over to Jasmine’s tent.
“Jaz?”
“Hmmm”
“Jaz wake up,” as she unzipped the tent door.
“What, Girl? Can’t you see I’m trying to sleep?” as she turned over to look at Talia.
“There’s something wrong. Look outside. It’s… it’s still dark.”
“Girl, duhhhh. Go lay down. You trippin’.”
“At least tell me what time it is,” she said as she pointed at Jaz’s phone.
“It’s 8:21, go lay back… wait, what?” she looked back at her phone then back at Talia. “What the, bruh, how is this possible?” she crawled out of cams arms and out the door. “It’s so dark bruh wtf. Let’s go wake everyone else up.”
Jaz woke up Cam and Caron while Talia went to wake up Rose and Jared.
The startled campers each got up. Confused as to why their friends had woken them up, they all gathered around the fire that Talia had started.
“Talia, what’s wrong babe?”
“Look at your phone Caron, check the time. It’s morning. Why hasn’t the sun come up yet? Hmm?”
As the group all looked up at the sky that had still not shifted. The stars that had still not disappeared, a chill went down all of their necks. Until finally Jared spoke.
“Let’s get going, maybe it’s just some weird paradox type thing.”
They packed up camp and started hiking again. They followed the river up the mountain for what seemed like hours. They stopped on a ledge that had a beautiful view of the river and lake at the bottom of the mountain, so they decided to set up camp there. Jasmine felt something watching her so she turned to the trees. Her eyes were already adapted to the dark and could see quite well, for as far as she seen nothing. Nothing and yet she could still feel the burning of someone watching her.
