The world had transformed before their eyes without warning. There was a faint red hue added to each and every object as the red moon passed over the kids with amazing speed. Ivy clutched the ground, grabbing a handful of grass. She wasn’t sure if the grass was red or if the moon was making everything turn red.

  The ground was a tapestry of red moss, grass, dirt and red vines framing it all in a chaotic way. The vines pulsed a dead life into the ground causing the red moss to spread slightly with each beat.

  “Hey kids. Over here!” A whisper sent both Ivy and Thomas in the air and straight into the table they were hiding under. The voice wasn’t menacing but was really soothing.

  “Quit making so much noise will ya? You’ll draw that things attention.” The whisper came again. This time they were prepared but no matter where Ivy looked she couldn’t see who was talking.

  “Who’s there?” Thomas called out bravely. With a scream filling the air the half decomposed body was now looking straight at the kids. Thomas let out a strangled curse as he grabbed Ivy’s hand and started to run away from that thing. They ran further into the forest.

  “I’m it.” The thing said mimicking Jinar’s voice which was enough to make Ivy stop. Was this her friend? She can’t just leave him again can she. Ivy’s hand slipped out of Thomas’s. She took a deep breath in and turned to see that the half decomposed body’s face was just inches from hers. It was in fact Jinar’s face but after seeing her friend in such a state, Ivy knew there was nothing she could do. She didn’t know if this thing was Jinar before or not, she just knew it didn’t have any intentions on letting her live.

  Ivy’s body began to rise just as Danica’s had done. The ground left her feet and the air met her face at a quicker pace. “Damn it! I knew this would happen!” The whispering voice said but it wasn’t so much a whisper now and more of a disappointed artist sighing at a flaw in his master piece.

  “She wasn’t supposed to die this way, not yet at least.” The voice screamed again, coming from the ground where Ivy had been lifted up. Ivy thrashed in the air, craning her neck trying to find the source of the voice. Ivy screamed as she was blinded by a massive light, her scream was quickly out done by the decomposing body which caused her bones to vibrate.

  Just as quickly as she rose from the ground, she fell, being grabbed a few inches from the ground. “Hey… careful it’s bright.” A man who was now holding her said, his warning seemed more like a joke as he laughed. Jinar’s body stealing monster was nowhere in sight.

  “Ivy! Let her go!” Thomas screamed. With a soft thud and a slight move of his body, Ivy’s savior turned to see Thomas lying on his back. The man laughed and put Ivy down carefully.

  Ivy looked up to this towering man, who was wearing an all white suit and had a neckless made of different styles and models of cameras. “Who are you?” Were the only words she could find. The mans only response was a quick, flashy smile before his body started to fade away like he wasn’t even there to begin with, leaving only a patch of bare dirt where the red moss had been scorched away.

  Thomas rolled off his back and shot up. He ran over to Ivy whose undivided attention was focused on where the man was. “Ivy! Are you ok?” Thomas asked looking over her body quickly to make sure there were no injuries.

  “Where did that man come from?” Ivy asked still in a daze, she was in hypnotic fascination. She had just met the only person, to her knowledge, to fight against this threat and come out on top. This is her new hero, her new idol.

  “What is that?” Thomas asked as he grabbed Ivy’s wrist and brought her hand up slowly. Ivy seemed just as surprised as Thomas to see she was now holding a small white camera. Ivy would have assumed it was brand new with how the camera shined like it was polished if it wasn’t for some fancy letters carved on one of the sides that spelled ‘Luci’

  “I’m done protecting you. Figure it out on your own for now.” Once the voice of Ivy’s new hero faded from the camera the screen turned on. A collection of photos laid out in a grid formation was all that could be seen.

  “I don’t trust this guy Ivy. He’s probably just another one of these monsters playing a trick on us.” Thomas’ protest was rudely ignored as Ivy opened the gallery of photos and began to go through them one by one. Thomas let his curiosity get the best of him as he dropped the argument for now and looked at the photos over Ivy’s shoulder.

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  As Ivy flipped through the camera it became more clear that this Luci was documenting this hellscape. Some photos were of the forest that was draped with the red tint and countless trees knocked over. There were other photos of the red masses in the sky, zoomed in to see in brutal detail of the things trapped inside them. Then there was a picture that made Ivy stop and for just a moment it made her question who this hero of hers truly was. The screen displayed the first encounter they had with this monster, it was captured when the deer with red vines hanging from its chest was eating at the back of Thomas’s shirt.

  “Thomas…” Ivy’s voice trailed away, retreating from a starstruck fangirl back to the girl who was watching hell unfold before her eyes. Just as if her hands were being controlled by pure emotion instead of logic she flipped to the next picture. It was of Thomas floating above an impossibly fractured barn and three young boys, who all looked like Jinar, standing below him looking up at him like he was an angel trying to go back home.

  Ivy didn’t dare to speak another word. The further back she went the more the tears built in the corners of her eyes. She couldn’t break her attention away from the camera so she couldn’t see Thomas hyperventilate. Ivy went to go for the next picture but Thomas grabbed her shoulder and covered the cameras screen with his hand.

  “We should keep moving. I don’t think it will stay this safe here for long.” Thomas’ voice was shaken and rattled out changing in pitch as he tried to hide how he was truly feeling.

  “Yeah… you’re right.” But Ivy didn’t drop the camera, she still kept it propped up with both of her hands. She didn’t want to admit it but the camera was whispering her name. Calling for her to keep looking through the pictures, that somewhere in that gallery was a deadly secret of how this all started. It wasn’t the voice of her now questionable hero but a deeper voice that oozed with malice.

  “Albert said we have to keep ‘the alter intact’ what do you think that means?” Ivy’s breath was full of pint up tension as she asked this question. She knew it was a bad idea to keep messing with a camera that wasn’t even hers and the stuff on it was to dark.

  With tears being held back, Thomas’s shaky hand wrapped around Ivy’s and they started to walk down the road away from Jinar’s house. “I’m not sure what the alter even is. But the way he said it implies that something wants to destroy it so we should hurry. We can’t find it by just standing here.” He couldn’t let her see how much he was crying bow so he kept a few paces ahead with her in tow.

  The tree house, that they all used to call a second home, came into view through some falling trees. It stirred up mixed emotions for Ivy and Thomas. Part of Ivy wished they could just climb up that ladder and play pretend like they used to. This was their sanctuary that they were staring up at but it was different now. It looked exactly the same but there were four small silhouettes sitting in the tree house. Faint laughter sent chills down Thomas’s spine. The tree it was built on was swaying back and forth like a metronome, unfailing and always on beat. Those dreams of Ivy’s melted away, with each pass more boards that weren’t nailed down fell until it was just another barren tree.

  Thomas turned away right before the last board hit the ground. He was shocked to see Ivy holding the camera up. A flash so bright it almost blinded Thomas signaled Ivy’s lack of empathy. She took a picture of the aftermath and showed it to Thomas.

  “It’s not real, look.” Thomas could barely find the strength to look at the screen but to his surprise he saw it was still there in the picture, the trees were green again and the sun could be seen bursting through the branches. Finding his courage again Thomas turned to see the tree towering over them still empty.

  Ivy and Thomas were both silent. “I swear I took the photo after it all fell!” Ivy protested in disbelief. She raised the camera again and snapped another photo of the empty tree that had now begun spinning like all the other trees.

  Ivy opened the gallery of the camera and both her and Thomas brought their faces close to the screen to see what it had to say.

  To their surprise the tree wasn’t even in this picture this time, none of the trees were. It was a flat horizon with just trunks, that were neatly cut sticking out of the ground.

  “No… this can’t be right!” Ivy said taking another photo. It wasn’t surprising anymore that the camera produced another picture of the barren landscape.

  “Let’s just keep moving.” Thomas said, his voice almost monotoned. Ivy looked at the messy pile they all used to find safety in one last time before she followed Thomas.

  As they continued down the path Ivy continued to stare at the three photos she had just taken, examining them closely trying. She flipped through the settings of the camera but they were in a language she didn’t know so she had no idea what any of them did. Once Ivy got to the last photo she took she realized there was a figure crouched behind one of the tree trunks. She dropped the camera. The camera let out a blinding flash as it hit the ground.

  “Ivy!” Thomas screams slipped out of his mouth before he could even think if they were fulled out of frustration with her fascination of the camera or worry that something happened. Once he saw her body shaking he knew something was off.

  “He’s in there…” Were the only words she could get out that made sense. Her shaky hand pointing at the camera.

  Thomas grabbed the camera and looked at the last photo Ivy had just seen. At first he couldn’t see anything out of the ordinary and then the body caught his eye, it was Jinar.

  “What?” Thomas let the words slip as he flipped to the previous two pictures and noticed Jinar was in them as well. He was barely visible in them but it had to be him. Then Thomas went to the photo that was just taken and saw Jinar in it once more but this time it wasn’t like the others. He wasn’t hiding but laying right in front of where the camera had landed. His eyes were gone and replaced with dark voids that oozed blood. His smile was impossibly large going up to the corner of his eyes.

  Thomas couldn’t take it anymore. He wound up his arm behind his head and threw the camera as far as he could off the path. As it fell the echos of plastic hitting wood echoed and then a few flashes went off. Thomas let out a scream he had been holding in ever since the deer was eating his shirt.

  “Thomas…” Ivy’s arms wrapped around him, she was trying her best to calm him down but once he looked down and saw the camera with the name ‘Luci’ carved into it at his feet he lost it. The two began crying uncontrollably as the camera took a photo of them once more.

  “Help… help me…” Jinar’s voice could be heard coming from the camera. Ivy lunged for it and looked at the screen hoping that maybe it was a video she had missed that would show them where Jinar was. All she saw was a screen that wouldn’t turn on anymore. It was just a reflection that showed her tear stained face and the disfigured Jinar standing behind her.