The low hum of the rented eight-passenger van blended with the upbeat, early-college pop tracks blasting from the portable speaker. At 3:15 AM, the intercity highway leading toward the foothills was quiet, virtually empty save for the occasional vegetable truck rumbling past in the opposite lane.

Behind the wheel, Gani kept his eyes locked on the wet asphalt reflecting the vehicle's high beams. Up front, Dika pulled double duty as an amateur navigator and makeshift DJ, gripping the Bluetooth connection like a lifeline.

"Man, this song! I swear, during freshman hazing, the seniors forced us to squat on the rectorate lawn and make duck faces while this exact track was blaring!" Dika cheered, singing along off-key and waving a hand in the air.

"Turn it down a bit, Dik. My ears are about to fall off," Maya protested from the middle row, though a fond smile tugged at her lips. Seated right next to Rian, she zipped up her nylon windbreaker as the cold seeped through the frosted windows. "Besides, hazing memories are the most humiliating chapters of my life. Why do you always have to dig them up?"

"Because the humiliation is what makes us miss it, May!" Dika fired back, twisting around in his seat to grin through the dim cabin light. "Think about it. Who was the one sobbing their eyes out because they were ordered to carry a cardboard dinosaur head? And who was the mastermind behind that prank?"

Rian burst out laughing, nudging Maya gently with his elbow. "Oh, I remember that clearly. Total meltdown in the corner of the grass field. Meanwhile, the actual mastermind was sitting right next to me eating fruit jelly."

Maya let out an indignant huff, pretending to glare at Rian though her cheeks flushed pink. "Hey! That was structural senior oppression against innocent freshmen! Gani’s my witness! You hid me behind the committee tent, didn't you, Gan?"

Gani glanced back through the rearview mirror, offering a faint smirk. "I just wanted to avoid paperwork if a freshman actually fainted on day one, May. Because if you passed out, your logistics report would’ve ended up back on my desk."

"Ugh, so unromantic!" Maya teased, though warmth lit up her eyes.

In the very back row, Sita sat silently, resting her forehead against the cool glass of the window. She watched the dark shapes of trees blur backward past the glass, illuminated by the passing headlights. While she didn't join in the banter, she absorbed every burst of laughter echoing through the cabin.

"Still, it's wild to think about," Rian said, his voice softening as he shifted the mood. He adjusted his posture so his shoulder brushed lightly against Maya's in the middle seat. "Four years went by in a flash. From ignoring each other in that massive freshman lecture hall, to pulling all-nighters at the dorm trying to finish thesis proposals, to finally sitting side-by-side in graduation gowns last week."

Maya turned her head, catching Rian's profile in the dim dashboard glow. Her gaze held a quiet, lingering tenderness—feelings she had kept hidden for a long time, wishing time inside the car tonight could slow to a crawl. "Yeah, Yan... It feels like just yesterday we were stressing over calculus equations, and now we're forced to worry about job applications and paying bills."

"Which is exactly why you need to enjoy this moment while it lasts," Gani chimed in from the front, his tone steady. "Once everyone gets swallowed by office routines or moves to different cities, getting five of us together like this is going to be impossible."

"Relax, Captain Gani! Our friendship is timeless, as long as our snack stash holds out and Dika doesn't do anything stupid," Rian joked, jabbing a finger at Dika's seat.

"Hey, this trip is going to become campus legend once we conquer Mount Aruna!" Dika declared proudly, spinning the dial on the speaker to queue up another campus anthem.

Warmth filled the cabin once more. They began singing along together, wildly off-key, laughing at mistimed lyrics and reminiscing over silly crushes, broken hearts, and campus canteen meals that had witnessed the sweat and tears of their undergraduate years. Maya stole several quick glances at Rian, making sure he was right there beside her, savoring these final grains of sand before the real world severed their paths. Up front, Gani scanned the road ahead with sharp focus, acting as the steady anchor protecting the small group.

By 4:20 AM, the temperature outside had plummeted, frosting thick white patterns across the windows. The nostalgic playlist faded softly into the rhythmic hum of the engine cutting through the winding mountain ascent.

The van rolled deeper into a dense forest canopy. A thin shroud of mist began drifting across the asphalt, turning the van's headlights into twin cones of dense white vapor.

On the left side of the road, a large, rusted corrugated iron sign stood crookedly among the wild brush. The embossed letters, peeling away with age, carried an official warning:

MT. ARUNA CENTRAL CONSERVATION ZONE. END OF PUBLIC ACCESS.

Gani slowed the van's pace, downshifting to tackle the steep incline ahead.

Yet, right as the vehicle's front bumper lined up with the rusted sign, the anomaly struck.

Click.

The van's right headlight blinked twice in rapid succession, followed instantly by the total blackout of the dashboard electronics in a fraction of a second.

Snap.

The engine's low rumble was cut short, and absolute, pitch-black darkness—void of a single stray beam of light from the outside world—swallowed the entire cabin, instantly killing their laughter and singing into a suffocating silence.

"Huh? Did it stall?" Dika muttered in confusion, blindly patting the dashboard for the hazard lights.

Before anyone could speak, the headlights blazed back on with blinding intensity.

But the laughter in the cabin was entirely gone. Maya instinctively dug her fingers into Rian's jacket sleeve, while Sita in the back row held her breath tight. Right outside the passenger window, caught in the sudden glare of the headlights, stood the twisted silhouette of an old tree resembling a giant hand with long, gnarled fingers clutching the dirt—as if welcoming them into the forbidden territory of Mount Aruna.