The forest had been quiet for almost an hour when Ethan suggested they turn back.
Nobody listened.
It was supposed to be an easy weekend trip.
Five adult college students had driven several hours from their university town to spend two nights hiking through an enormous forest in northern Washington.
Ethan, Marcus, Claire, Natalie and Ryan had planned the trip for weeks.
There was no instructor.
No children.
No guide.
Just five friends looking for a weekend away from campus.
By late afternoon, they had already covered several miles.
The trail became narrower as they moved deeper into the forest.
At 6:21 p.m., Claire noticed something between the trees.
“Is that a building?”
Everyone stopped.
About fifty yards away stood an old wooden ranger station.
The roof was partially covered in moss.
Several windows were broken.
A rusted sign hung beside the door.
Ryan looked at it.
“This place hasn’t been used in years.”
Ethan pushed the door.
It opened.
Inside was a small room filled with dust, old maps and broken furniture.
On one wall was a faded forest map.
On another was an old emergency radio.
Then Marcus noticed something sitting on a wooden desk.
An instant camera.
He picked it up.
“Still works?”
He pressed the button.
Nothing happened.
Claire opened the back.
There was one photograph inside.
She pulled it out.
The photograph slowly developed.
At first, it showed only trees.
Then the image became clearer.
Marcus stared.
“Wait.”
Everyone moved closer.
Five people were standing in the photograph.
Ethan.
Marcus.
Claire.
Natalie.
Ryan.
All five of them.
Standing together in the forest.
For several seconds nobody spoke.
Then Claire laughed nervously.
“That’s us.”
Ryan shook his head.
“No way.”
Ethan looked at the photograph.
“That’s impossible.”
The five of them were wearing exactly the same clothes.
Ethan’s gray jacket.
Marcus’s red backpack.
Claire’s black hiking boots.
Everything matched.
But they hadn’t taken any photograph.
Marcus turned the photograph over.
There was a timestamp.
3:17 PM.
He looked at his watch.
6:23 PM.
Natalie immediately checked her phone.
The GPS showed they had entered the forest at approximately 6:21.
Ryan looked at everyone.
“Maybe the camera is wrong.”
Ethan shook his head.
“Three hours wrong?”
Nobody answered.
Then Claire noticed something.
“Wait.”
She pointed toward the photograph.
“Who’s that?”
Behind the five friends, between two trees, stood a sixth figure.
A man.
He was partially hidden by shadows.
Marcus took the photograph closer to the window.
The figure wasn’t wearing hiking clothes.
He appeared to be wearing an old dark ranger uniform.
Ethan frowned.
“Could just be someone who was here earlier.”
Claire looked at him.
“Then why is he looking at you?”
Ethan stopped.
The man in the photograph was facing directly toward Ethan.
Not the camera.
Ethan.
He zoomed in using his phone.
The image became blurry.
But the man’s face was still recognizable.
Ethan suddenly stopped breathing.
“Guys…”
Marcus looked at him.
“What?”
Ethan didn’t answer.
He pointed toward the forest outside.
Everyone turned.
A few yards beyond the broken window stood a man.
Wearing a dark jacket.
Watching the ranger station.
Then he disappeared behind the trees.
The five friends ran outside.
Nobody was there.
They searched the surrounding area.
No footprints.
No vehicle.
Nothing.
Ryan laughed nervously.
“We’re leaving.”
They returned to the ranger station.
Marcus picked up the photograph.
“We should take this with us.”
Ethan shook his head.
“No.”
“Why?”
Ethan stared at the sixth person.
“Because I know him.”
Nobody spoke.
Claire asked:
“Who is he?”
Ethan swallowed.
“My father.”
The others stared at him.
“That doesn’t make sense,” Marcus said.
“Your dad died when you were twelve.”
“I know.”
“Then that’s not him.”
Ethan didn’t answer.
He had spent ten years believing his father had died in a hiking accident.
His body had never been found.
Only his backpack had been recovered.
Ethan had never talked about it because his mother refused to discuss what happened.
Now he was staring at a photograph that appeared to show his father standing in the forest.
Three hours before Ethan and his friends had arrived.
Natalie picked up the old forest map.
“Maybe we should see where this was taken.”
She spread the map across the desk.
The ranger station was marked with a red circle.
But there was another marking nearby.
A small handwritten X.
Ethan recognized the handwriting.
It looked like his father’s.
He followed the line with his finger.
The X was approximately two miles deeper into the forest.
Marcus shook his head.
“No.”
Ethan looked at him.
“We need to know.”
“No, we don’t.”
Claire interrupted.
“If that really is your father, we can’t just leave.”
Ethan grabbed his backpack.
“We’re going.”
The others followed.
Two hours later, they reached the location.
There was nothing there.
Only trees.
Then Natalie noticed a metal object beneath the leaves.
It was a small emergency box.
Inside were old batteries, a compass and a folded piece of paper.
Ethan opened it.
His father’s handwriting.
Only one sentence.
“If you find this, don’t trust the person who brought you here.”
Everyone looked at Ethan.
He looked confused.
“I didn’t bring you here.”
Marcus slowly looked at Claire.
Claire looked at Natalie.
Natalie looked at Ryan.
Nobody spoke.
Then Ryan said:
“Wait.”
He looked at his phone.
“I have the original route.”
He opened the navigation history.
The route had been created two days earlier.
By someone using Ryan’s account.
Ryan stared at the screen.
“I didn’t make this.”
Marcus took the phone.
The route had one strange destination.
The abandoned ranger station.
And beneath it was a note.
“6:21 PM.”
The exact time they had arrived.
Ethan looked around.
Someone had planned the entire trip.
But who?
Then they heard a camera shutter.
Everyone froze.
Click.
Another shutter.
Click.
Claire whispered:
“Did someone just take our picture?”
Marcus turned around.
Nothing.
He raised his phone and activated the flashlight.
The beam moved across the trees.
Nothing.
Then Ethan saw something.
A small white rectangle hanging from a branch.
He walked toward it.
It was another instant photograph.
He pulled it down.
The image slowly developed.
It showed the five of them standing around the emergency box.
The photograph had been taken only moments earlier.
Everyone stared.
Then Marcus noticed something.
“Look at the background.”
Behind them stood the same sixth figure.
Closer this time.
Much closer.
He was standing directly behind Ethan.
Ethan turned around.
Nothing.
He looked back at the photograph.
His father’s face was clearer now.
And he was holding something.
A small metal key.
Ethan suddenly remembered something from his childhood.
His father had always worn a key around his neck.
A key Ethan had kept after his disappearance.
Ethan reached inside his jacket.
He pulled out the old key.
It was identical.
Claire stared at it.
“What does it open?”
Ethan didn’t know.
Then the forest lights disappeared.
Not literally.
The sun had simply gone down.
Darkness covered the trees.
They decided to return to the ranger station.
But when they reached the trail, they realized something was wrong.
There were two paths.
They had only used one.
Ryan checked the GPS.
His phone showed they were standing inside the ranger station.
But they were clearly outside.
Marcus looked at his screen.
“It’s not working.”
One by one, their phones lost signal.
Then Claire heard something.
A voice.
Very faint.
“Ethan.”
He turned.
Nobody was there.
Again:
“Ethan.”
This time he recognized it.
His father’s voice.
He followed it.
The others tried to stop him.
But Ethan disappeared between the trees.
A few minutes later, they found him standing beside an old wooden door built into the hillside.
It was almost completely covered by vines.
There was a keyhole.
Ethan pulled out the key.
It fit.
The door opened.
Inside was a narrow underground room.
Old files covered the walls.
Photographs.
Maps.
Names.
Dates.
And dozens of photographs of people standing in the forest.
Marcus picked one up.
“Who are these people?”
Ethan looked at the dates.
They were from different years.
All of them showed groups of hikers.
Every photograph had one thing in common.
A sixth person appeared somewhere in the background.
Claire looked terrified.
“What’s happening?”
Ethan found a file with his father’s name.
Inside was a single handwritten report.
His father hadn’t died in the forest.
He had been investigating disappearances.
People had been entering the forest and never coming back.
Some were eventually found.
Some weren’t.
But every missing person’s photograph contained the same unidentified figure.
The ranger had believed someone was deliberately luring hikers into the forest.
He had spent years trying to identify the person.
Then he disappeared too.
Ethan turned the final page.
There was a photograph.
His father standing beside the old ranger station.
And beside him was another man.
Ethan recognized him.
Ryan.
Ethan stared at his friend.
Ryan slowly stepped backward.
Marcus looked at him.
“Ryan?”
Ryan’s expression changed.
He whispered:
“I didn’t know you’d find this.”
Claire moved away from him.
“What did you do?”
Ryan looked at Ethan.
“I didn’t bring you here to hurt you.”
“Then why?”
Ryan reached into his backpack.
He pulled out another photograph.
“This was sent to me three months ago.”
Ethan took it.
It showed his father.
Alive.
Older.
Standing outside the same underground room.
On the back was a message:
“Bring Ethan.”
Ethan stared at Ryan.
“Where is he?”
Ryan looked toward the tunnel.
“He’s been waiting for you.”
Ethan stepped forward.
Then stopped.
Because something had just appeared on the wall.
A fresh photograph.
It showed Ethan standing inside the underground room.
But the photograph had been taken from behind him.
Someone was standing directly behind Ethan.
He turned around.
Nobody was there.
Then the lights inside the room switched on.
At the end of the tunnel stood an older man.
Ethan couldn’t move.
His father.
Alive.
The man looked at him.
For a moment, neither spoke.
Then his father said:
“I knew you’d come.”
Ethan’s voice broke.
“Why did you leave me?”
His father looked at the others.
Then back at Ethan.
“Because I wasn’t the one who disappeared.”
Ethan frowned.
“What does that mean?”
His father slowly pointed toward the wall.
There were hundreds of photographs.
Every missing person.
Every group.
Every year.
And one photograph at the center.
Ethan walked closer.
His face went pale.
It was a photograph of himself as a child.
Standing in the forest.
Beside his father.
And beside them…
was the same sixth man.
His father whispered:
“He’s been following our family for thirty years.”
Ethan stared at the photograph.
“Who is he?”
His father looked toward the tunnel entrance.
Then said:
“That’s what I’ve been trying to find out.”
A camera shutter suddenly sounded behind them.
Click.
Everyone turned.
Another photograph slowly slid out of the old instant camera sitting on the table.
Ethan picked it up.
The image began developing.
It showed all six of them.
Ethan.
His father.
Marcus.
Claire.
Natalie.
Ryan.
Standing inside the underground room.
But there was something wrong.
The photograph had been taken from outside the room.
And the sixth figure wasn’t Ethan’s father.
It was someone standing directly behind the camera.
Someone they couldn’t see.
Ethan slowly turned the photograph over.
There were four words written on the back.
“NOW YOU ARE SIX.”
The lights went out.
And when they came back on…
Ryan was gone.
