The Wrong Person Was Transported to the Horrific Lost Village

 

Haunting threw the last of the dirt over the duffel bag.

"There," she said, wiping the sweat from her brow. She took the one stack of cash she had pulled out, placed it on her, and hid it beneath her hat. "Are you sure you don't want a stack of cash too, Mari? Ten thousand is life-changing."

"I don't think I'll need the cash," is what I said, but I had snuck a stack into one of my hidden coat pockets earlier. "Anyway, cover it up with some foliage."

"Okay~"

We were a few feet away from the strange cave, Haunting having decided that the money would be too much trouble. We agreed we would play the fool, and say that the duffel bag was lost over the course of the night, and if someone else found it, then it would be their problem. We did dig through the duffel bag first, though, and found a gun with a strange magazine. I decided to keep it, citing we could need protection. The excuse for that one was simple--Kaz tried to use the gun but dropped it, and I picked it up instead. Haunting also agreed to let me keep the strange eye necklace--she was most likely feeling guilty about taking the money when I hadn't.

"Okay, Haunting, just remember that trust will be broken if people find out about that money under your hat."

She nodded. "I know, but I'll smooth it over--I'm not taking all of it, just a little to help my show... It'll be okay!"

I nodded. "Okay, so, Susy."

"Yes, she should be ready to go."

We both walked back to the cave and peeked inside.

"Susy?" Haunting timidly asked.

Susy looked up at us, as innocent as ever.

"Did you remember anything?"

"Not really."

As it turned out, Susy didn't really remember anything after her head started hurting. Did I believe her? I didn't have any reason not to at the moment. It was a little infuriating, though, because I wanted to know what Susy heard exactly. Well, whatever. I was going to keep an eye on her regardless. If Susy decided to run off again, I'd follow or restrain her as necessary.

"Okay, girls," I said. "Here's the situation. We have no idea where we are. We're going to trace our steps back to the bus. Be prepared, though. We might find Kaz's remains--"

"Poor Kaz," Susy said, a little downtrodden.

"Yes... Pray that his end was swift and painless... We'll move as quickly as the slowest person. If you feel something is amiss, let the others know. And Susy?"

Susy hid behind Haunting a little. "Yes?"

"You have to tell us if your head starts hurting, understood?"

"Yes ma'am."

Haunting and I exchanged nods, and we set off. "Try not to speak too loudly--just normal volume. I want to be able to hear whatever is going on around us. From what I gather, the daytime should be safer, so I don't expect too much."

We started our trek back. This was obvious, but the forest really looked different when lit up and when the mist wasn't clinging to everything.

"Brr..." Haunting jerked around quickly, stared down the way we came from, sighed, and faced forward again. Another minute passed, and she did the same thing again.

"Haunting, is something the matter? Do you need a neck massage?" I asked.

"No," she replied as Susy walked behind her and rubbed her neck. "Umm..." Haunting sighed and accepted that the apologetic Susy was going to give her the massage. "Anyway, it just feels like someone's watching us. I keep getting a chill that goes down my spine... It's absolutely spine-tingling supernaturo phenomenon."

Susy twisted her face and looked at me with terrified eyes.

"Hmm. You're not sensing anything, Susy?"

She shook her head. "I don't think I would be able to sense anything, Miss Mari."

"Yeah, well, that's factually untrue," I replied, much to the girl's dismay. "But, if Susy's not reacting... Haunting, what say you? Is it something worth investigating, or are you reacting to the general creepy atmosphere?"

She narrowed her eyes and scrunched her face. "My instincts as a paranormal investigator might be on overdrive... Might be getting a lot of false positives..." Haunting looked over her shoulder at Susy. "False positives are very common in my industry."

"Oh my," Susy replied, sincerely concerned.

I shook my head, meanwhile. "So it's an industry now?"

The two girls started giggling as Haunting let loose some more "fun facts" about her "grown-up job."

Haunting's enthusiasm aside, her shivers had me wondering--I had seen a strange woman myself, after all. I snuck a peek at the forest behind me, but saw nothing--just forest. 

"Hmm. It would just be forest, wouldn't it?" I faced forward again, keeping a focus on my peripherals. There was no "out the corner of my eye-type" fuckery, though. Thankfully, I had more tools than the average girl.

I closed an eye and sneakily let a tiny butterfly fly out from beneath my sleeve. It fluttered into the air as I adjusted to its vision. The butterflies had much better vision than I did, able to see in way more directions than I could, but seeing everything as a butterfly did was too mentally taxing. Thankfully, I didn't need their field of view--I just needed another vantage point. 

The butterfly landed on the trunk of a tree, and I focused on the scene behind us. My heart jumped, and a chill went down my spine.

There wasn't one, nor two, but eight pale people behind us, staring at us as we walked along, hovering along with us. They were all wearing some variation of gowns a shade paler than their almost bluish skin. There looked to be three males--hold on, five of the eight started flickering. 

I quickly looked over my shoulder, and they disappeared. I saw the exact moment they disappeared through the butterfly. They disappeared in a flash right as I turned my head. I faced forward again, but this time, only three reappeared. The five that had been flickering hadn't returned. Of the three that remained, two were female, and one was male. 

I looked over my shoulder again. They disappeared. I looked forward, and they reappeared--just those three, however.

"Mari?" Haunting asked. "Are you okay?"

"Are you getting the chills too?" Susy followed.

I chuckled. "Yeah, I think Haunting freaked me out."

Haunting nodded, trying to look sophisticated. "Yes... This environment's "Haunting-factor" is definitely a solid 8."

"Out of ten?"

"Out of twelve," she confidently replied.

"This is an 8 out of 12?"

"I've been in a murder house before, Mari!" Haunting shot back.

"Uhuh--" I bit my tongue and focused on the butterfly's alert. Something had changed. The five missing creepers had reappeared. They were standing at the base of the tree the butterfly was resting on, and they were looking up, as if trying to look for something. Their bodies started flickering again, and then, when it looked like one of the pale females made eye contact with the butterfly, she disappeared totally. The others kept looking around, though.

Curious, I decided to bite the bullet and send another butterfly out my sleeve. The scene in my closed eye split into two as I kept an awareness of both butterflies. The second landed on an opposite tree, and then I fully switched over to it. When I did, the female that disappeared had returned and was looking around with the others. She was still flickering, as were the other four.

So, in summary, this all started with Haunting freaking out. Turned out that she actually had a sense for fuckery, and I discovered eight creepers because of it. Five of those eight demonstrated strange behavior. I had to conclude that something was going on where they seemed to disappear when someone looked at them, with the bigger observation being that they could tell that someone was looking at them without actually knowing who was doing so and from where. Maybe it was an automatic response? Their searching at the bottom of the tree suggested a drive to know who was causing them to disappear, so there was a level of curiosity present... As for why they appeared at the tree's base--they only did that after we crossed said tree.

"Mari?"

"Hmm?"

I focused on Haunting again, and she looked at me with worried eyes. "Are you okay? You went silent."

"Yeah, I was just wondering about what murder house could possibly top this place."

"There were ritual sacrifices in it!" she said, getting in my face. "You could still see the bloodstains when moonlight fills the house!" She got closer. "It smelled like iron and sewage!"

"I'm not sure that the last part had to do with anything supernatural."

"But it was super scary! I vomited four times in there!" 

I grimaced. "That's a revolting thought."

"It is!" She pulled back, lifted her nose, and crossed her arms. "This place isn't that bad yet."

I nodded, told myself she was in shock, and went on my way. The two butterflies I had produced fluttered above us for a while. Now that they were out, I figured I could keep them around to gauge how much stockpiled Vengeance I was burning on a simple function with no other sources of stress. I picked behind us a few times and noted that the creepers were still following us.

"You still getting shivers, Haunting?"

"Oh yeah, definitely." She sighed and put on a smug look while looking at Susy. "This place is such an 8, Susy."

Susy giggled back, "If you say so, Haunting--" Susy let out a shriek. My whole body tensed up. I thought I would have to chase after her, but she had just shrieked and stopped in her tracks.

She pointed off to the side, her hands shaking violently. "Th-th-there were people over there! People in white!"

Haunting and I both looked in that direction but saw no one. Meanwhile, the followers were no longer there, despite none of us looking toward them.

"I--I swear they were there!" Susy shrieked.

"Hey, we believe you," I said. "This is a weird forest, okay? Susy? Okay?"

She pulled her hand back and looked toward the floor while she caught her breath. "Okay..."

"If you see anything else, you have to tell us, okay? That's the only way we're going to stay safe, okay?"

She nodded repeatedly. "Okay. Yeah. Sorry, it just scared me."

"Great. Haunting, hold her hand. We have to see what those creeps were doing. We're going to walk over there, okay?"

The two nodded, and we went. The butterflies had already flown over there, though, so I knew what we were about to see.

We walked over, and the moment we laid eyes on it, Haunting groaned and vomited behind us.

I wanted to ask her if this place was still an "8," but that would have been mean. Instead, I focused on the headless body at our feet.

"Poor Kaz," I said.