The hush of the night along the slopes of Mount Aruna suddenly felt profound and hollow, the triumphant screams from the abyss having long since swallowed the last echoes of Gani’s voice. Upon the narrow, razor-sharp stone trail, only two human beings remained to battle death itself—Rian and Maya.

They were entirely on their own now.

Gone were the youthful banter, the bickering over logistics, and the steadfast presence of Gani leading the vanguard. Their legs were mapped with deep gashes from sharp rocks and puncture wounds from thorny brush. Their jackets and pants hung in shreds, soaked through with a vile mix of cold sweat, tears, and black mud. Their minds lay completely shattered into dust after watching Dika, Sita, and Gani ripped away by the dark one by one in less than twenty-four hours.

"Maya... hold on, we've got to be close to the lower trail marker soon," Rian whispered in a raspy, thread-thin voice. The boy wrapped a tight arm around Maya’s waist, supporting his friend as she dragged herself forward with steps that barely cleared the dirt.

Maya offered no reply. Her lips were stained blue, her eyes swollen and raw from weeping without a pause ever since Gani hurled himself into the canyon. They possessed no strength left to run; all that remained were heavy, dragging footsteps, leaning against one another, crying in silence beneath the crushing weight of the absolute gloom.

"Rian..." Maya murmured weakly, her voice trembling on the razor-edge of despair. The girl halted for a second, staring with vacant eyes into the dense thicket of pine trees lining the trail. "Gani... Dika... Sita... we actually left them behind, Yan... this is all our fault..."

"Stop it, May... don't talk like that..." Rian choked out, fresh tears spilling over to soak his jacket collar. A crushing guilt compressed his chest with every breath, haunting each leaden step they forced forward. "Gani chose to sacrifice himself so both of us could make it out... we have to live for them, Maya."

"But it feels... it honestly feels like it would've been better if we'd just fallen into that canyon instead of carrying this psychological agony, Yan," Maya sobbed openly, pressing a hand against her tight, aching chest. "I swear to God, I can't take any more..."

Amidst their stumbling march and heartbreaking tears, psychological exhaustion and hallucinations began to claw at their fading consciousness, pushing them past the terminal limits of human endurance.

From deep within the brush on the left side of the trail, the sound of slow footsteps suddenly broke the quiet.

Krotak... krotak...

Rian and Maya stopped dead in unison, their heads shaking violently as they whipped around toward the dark undergrowth.

"Please... wait up for me..." Dika’s voice drifted faintly from the brush, sounding raspy and wracked with pain. "Why'd you guys leave me all alone in this dark forest? My legs hurt so bad..."

Maya’s eyes blown wide, instinctively moving to step toward the source of the sound. "Dika...? That's Dika's voice, right, Yan? Dika's still alive!"

"Don't, Maya! Don't listen!" Rian panicked, violently yanking Maya’s arm back to force her away from the brush. "That's not Dika! That's just our minds playing tricks on us!"

Yet before Rian could finish, another voice echoed from the cliffs on the right side of the trail.

"Rian... Maya... how could you be so mean not to wait for me..." Sita called out softly, carrying the weeping cadence of a terrified young girl. "It's so freezing out here... please, hug me..."

"Sita...?" Maya’s tears fell faster. Her knees buckled, and her body slumped down into the dirt, entirely drained of strength. "They're calling us, Yan... they're hurting..."

"They're ghosts, Maya! Snap out of it!" Rian yelled in total desperation, trying to haul Maya back to her feet.

Not long after, from the dark path ahead, Gani’s voice rang out with his characteristic, commanding firmness. "Rian, move faster! The lower trail is right around the corner!"

The voices of their three lost friends called out continuously from every direction, taking turns calling their names, pleading, weeping, and casting blame—inflicting a psychological torture that drove Rian and Maya to the brink of absolute madness.

"Cover your ears! Don't listen!" Rian sobbed hysterically, clamping his hands tight over his ears with shaking fingers.

Battered by compounding exhaustion and deep shock, Maya’s body finally gave out. The girl collapsed limply, sliding toward unconsciousness upon the muddy earth.

Rian dropped to his knees with frantic speed, scooping Maya into his arms and propping his friend up so she could sit slumped against a massive boulder bordering the trail.

"Maya... stay with me, please... just a little longer..." Rian whispered with mounting terror, patting Maya’s icy cheeks.

As Rian dipped his head to adjust Maya’s seating position against the earth—illuminated by the dim, dying sliver of a crescent moon cutting through the pine canopy—his eyes accidentally caught the ground beneath them.

Rian froze.

His breath caught in his throat, and every drop of blood in his body flash-froze.

Stretched across the dusty earth beneath their boots was the shadow of Rian kneeling to support Maya.

Yet that shadow wasn't alone.

Right beside the shadows of Rian and Maya stretched a third silhouette—a pair of towering, massive human legs standing with terrifying rigidity, pressed flush against Rian’s back without a millimeter of space between them.

An unseen entity was standing hunched directly behind Rian, staring down with unseeing eyes straight toward Maya, wearing a wide, invisible grin.