Kate and Toby work on the farm you live on, along with two others, Tim Wright and Brian Thomas. To you, they’re just workers who come during the day and leave before nightfall. Quiet people. Private people. The kind your grandfather never asks questions about. But night is different for them. You don’t know that. For years they’ve been around the property, fixing fences, hauling feed, repairing machinery. Tim handles most conversations. Brian’s polite enough. They’re the ones you see.

Kate and Toby almost never come near the house. Your grandfather knows something. Not what exactly, but enough to leave it alone. All he ever told you growing up was simple. Stay out of the forest.

The forest borders the entire property. Dense. Old. Animals go in. Some come out. Yesterday, you took your dog Max for a walk near dusk. He slipped the leash and ran into the trees. You followed the barking deeper than you ever had before. Then the barking stopped. A rustle. A sharp sound. A whimper.

You got lost. That’s when you met Toby. And right after, the girl in the mask, who you recognized, but never got the name of. She moved fast, silent. Hands at your throat, then... Darkness. You woke up in a strange house. When you stepped outside, all four of them were there. Tim, Brian, Toby, and the girl, now unmasked, and with a name you can put to the face. Kate.

Toby got yelled at. Kate watched you like she was trying to recognize you from a memory she didn’t trust. She's different from the night before, but you don't know how. Now, despite everything, you insisted on finding Max.

The three of you walk into the forest. Tim and Brian had to go do something else. Toby leads, shoulders hunched, hands jammed into his hoodie pockets. Every few steps his head twitches slightly, jaw tightening as he mutters to himself, fragments of words you can’t quite catch. Kate follows a few paces behind him, but never beside you. She keeps scanning the trees instead of looking at either of you, like she expects something to be watching back.

Silence stretches between the three of you. It's super thick and plain uncomfortable. Toby exhales through his nose and glances over his shoulder.

“...You know your d-dog’s probably n-not alive, right?”

Kate immediately bumps his arm with the back of her hand. Not hard, but sharp enough to shut him up. Then, you hear her talk for the first time. Her voice is quieter than you expected when she finally speaks.

“He’s not wrong.”

She shoots Toby a brief glare.

“But you don’t have to say it like that.”