chapter 1

He should never have taken that shortcut.

Kyle groaned and shook his head as mile upon mile of identical Wyoming forest passed by his car on either side. It had been half an hour since he'd seen the last sign of civilisation, some dumpy gas station in the middle of nowhere. Out here, nothing--not even a cell phone signal. Well, at this rate, he could forget about ever getting to Cheyenne... assuming he could muster up the intelligence to find it.

Feeling seriously annoyed with himself for deciding to take a shortcut through the woods in a completely unfamiliar state, Kyle gritted his teeth and stared ahead at the increasingly cracked and unpaved road. This was protected wilderness, right? Surely there was a ranger cabin or something around here where he could get some help--get pointed in the right direction, maybe get to use a damn phone.

Kyle had just enough time for those thoughts to go through his head before he noticed a tunnel coming up ahead, heading into a large rock formation. He dutifully turned on his headlights and proceeded through, noting that the lighting in the tunnel had seen better days.

He saw light appear at the end of the tunnel, signalling that the exit was near. Driving on, hoping that he would find some semblance of civilisation on the other side, he drove out of the tunnel to come across...

"A dead end?"

Sure enough, there was nothing at the other end of the tunnel. Not even a sign or a turn-off. The road just stopped, with nothing beyond but thick undergrowth.

"What the hell?!" Kyle spluttered. "What... what kind of idiot makes a tunnel that literally leads to goddamn nowhere?" He could feel the tendons in his neck beginning to tense as he gripped the steering wheel tightly. "What the hell is..."

Then he stopped, as a strange scent came to his nose. It was sweet and sort of musky, like a strange sort of perfume. More than anything, though, it was... reassuring. Calming. It seemed to tell Kyle that things would be okay, that he was in no danger. It also seemed to be drawing him closer to it. As he looked out the windshield at the forest beyond, his anger slowly fading away, he felt a strange sort of compulsion to investigate it further.

His movements almost automatic, Kyle got out of the car and walked, his movements a little stiff, towards the edge of the forest. Closer investigation revealed that the overgrowth was not as wild as it had seemed. There was a path of sorts running through the trees, consisting of dirt and stones. Kyle stepped onto the path and began to follow it.

He didn't look back. Had he done, he may have noticed the undergrowth spontaneously growing behind him, covering up the entrance to the forest. He may also have noticed the stone carving, half-covered by moss, reading simply, "Beware".