Don't Look Back

A game to play,

In a land where they once laid,

For the brave and bold,

Giving up claim on our soul,

Oh, darken one, step from the shadows,

To chase us to our gallows,

One by one, our lives for you to take,

If we make one simple mistake,

For if you look them in the eyes,

You are destined to die,

Don’t look back.

Don’t look back.

Don’t look back…

… … … … …

The graveyard, peaceful and sombre during the day, changed in the darkness of the night. Trees cast long shadows, their darken branches reaching out with spindly clawed fingers. The buzzing of insects accompanied the rustling of leaves. The dark moon nowhere to be seen, the darkness left all but swallowed up the light from their torches.

Hina swallowed back her fear and tightened her grip on her flashlight, praying that it would help in preventing the thin beam of light from bouncing around erratically. In time with her rapidly beating heart.

She stifled a squeak when her foot landed on a twig, causing it to snap with a seemingly ear-splitting crack. She should never have agreed to such a stupid excursion. It sounded like fun during daylight hours, in the safety of their school boundaries. She had been to the cemetery many times before. As someone obsessed with the dark and macabre, the chance to participate in a test of courage in the middle of the ancient graveyard was just too good to pass up.

“Are we in the centre of the graveyard yet?” Suzy complained, never practicing patience. Always the first to complain.

“We’re nearly there,” Zarah replied from her first place of their single filed march, her voice matching her pace; cheerful and carefree.

“Do we really need to go so far?” Chia asked, her flashlight clutched in one hand as the other fidgeted with the end of her braid. “I mean, I don’t want to go so far for a five-minute fright, you know?”

Tammy shook her head. “We’d be lucky to get even that. There’s seven of us. We’re not exactly being careful here. I wouldn’t be surprised if some nosy old lady saw us and has already called the police.”

Hina pulled a twig from her long, dark hair. She knew she should have pulled her hair into a ponytail or bun. “I’ve been here bunch of times, even at night, and never encountered a cop.”

“First time for everything.” Tammy was such a worrier.

“And, here we are!” Zarah announced suddenly. A little bit too cheerfully for Hina’s liken.

Hina moved her flashlight around and recognised a few of the old headstones. Zarah was right on the money; they had reached the centre of the cemetery. She had always been really good with directions.

“God, finally!” Suzy slumped her shoulders forward dramatically.

Zarah, unbothered by Suzy’s antics, smiled playfully. Perhaps with a hint of wickedness, too. “So, is everyone ready for a life-or-death battle against the supernatural?”

Hina rolled her eyes.

The Don’t Look Back game. She knew all about it. A supposedly ghostly game, one to test courage and faith. One that was to summon a dark entity from the shadows, a creature that would hunt down those who summoned it, one by one. The only key to survival was to not look at it. The only way to end the game was for someone to reach the entrance. To step over the threshold completely and utterly.

Don’t look back. No matter the sounds, no matter the fleeting shadows from the corner of one’s eye, no matter the heated breath upon the back of one’s neck; never, ever look back.

Of course, that was the urban legend, at least.

“Can we just start already?” Senna all but demanded, using aggression to hide her very obvious unease. “We’ve only got a few hours.”

“Aww, afraid of getting grounded again?” Koko teased as she bounced excitedly on the spot. Truly hyperactive, even in the dead of night. Her energy levels were exhausting to watch.

“Want me to go over the rules again?” Hina asked.

“Don’t look back, duh.”

Hina rolled her eyes again. Honestly, it was a relief that the game was nothing more than a childish test of courage. Running through a cemetery at night was frightening enough. Still, when the return to school on Monday, they should have a lot to brag about.

“Alright, since everyone’s ready, let’s do it.”

After they picked an open spot on the ground, they moved to stand in a circle and placed their flashlights in the centre, as instructed by the guide Hina had found online. Though she didn’t believe in the legend, she still made sure to do her research. To give everyone a proper fright.

With their only source of light gathered together in front of them, it acted almost like a bonfire. Casting them in an eerie glow. Illuminating them. Placing a spotlight directly on them. Anyone or anything in the graveyard now knew they were there.

They moved equal distance apart and held hands in a circle. Since the whole expedition had been Zarah’s idea, she took the lead once more.

“Darken shadows, I call upon thee,

Come play a game with me,

Darken shadows, won’t you come out to play,

And whisk my soul away,

Darken shadows, I call upon you here,

To rip me away from all I hold dear,

Darken shadows, the thrill of the chase,

With my life, I will make haste,

Darken shadows, for you bound to this earth,

For victory comes when I pass the hearth.”

Hina felt her friends holding her hands tightened their grip as they together finished the summoning, “Don’t look back. Don’t look back. Don’t look back…”

They fell into silence, only the crickets and the rustling of trees could be heard.

…Nothing happened. And yet, Hina couldn’t help but feel something felt different. The atmosphere had changed. It felt…heavy, somehow. The shadows intensifying.

Snap.

A snap of a twig, so loud in the tense silence caused them all to shriek or whimper in fright and jump a figurative foot in the air. Their reactions broke the tension, however, and they soon began to laugh skittishly amongst themselves, clinging onto each other to hide their fear.

Zarah was the one who seemed genuinely amused. “Gotcha!”

Senna turned to glare at her. “Not funny. You didn’t even make that sound.”

“I don’t need to. Nature is noisy enough.”

Hina sighed as she reached down and picked up her flashlight. “Game isn’t over yet. We still have to make it to the entrance.”

All the other girls picked up their respective flashlights, too.

“Ah, so, now what?” Chia asked, a tremble in her voice indicating nervousness.

“Like I said, we need to cross the boundary of the cemetery to finish the game.”

“Or wait until dawn,” Zarah added.

Hina shot her a glare but didn’t respond. She was right. There was supposedly another way to end the game, and that was the survive until dawn, as the morning rays were supposedly deadly to the shadows.

But she would rather not do that. She needed to head home before her parents figured out that she had slipped out of her bedroom window. She had heard that lecture one too many times already.

There was nothing to worry about, anyway. The game was just a stupid test of courage. Others had tried it and nothing happened. Their situation was no different.

Snap.

Hina still flinched when she heard a twig snap behind her.

Senna also heard the sound. She whipped around and looked toward Hina, a scowl on her face, likely thinking that she was responsible for the noise. Before she could say anything, however, Senna’s eyes flickered to over her shoulder.

Her eyes widened suddenly, and all colour drained from her face. Her mouth opened on a silent scream, lips quivering pitifully without making a sound. Her gaze was still, unnervingly so, and focused on something over her shoulder. Something behind her.

Don’t look back.

Hina wanted to turn. She wanted so desperately to turn around. Instinct screamed at her to turn. But she didn’t. The warnings from the guide echoing in her head.

Don’t look back.

A scream suddenly erupted from Senna’s throat and with a speed that was impressive for even an athlete like her, she spun around and ran off. Into the shadows. Deeper into the graveyard.

Her actions scared the daylights out of them all and they instinctively chased after her, calling her name, asking what was wrong. But Senna’s flashlight stayed in the distance, bouncing around erratically. She had always been sportier, faster than they were. There was no way they could keep up with her.

After what felt like a few minutes, Hina had to stop and catch her breath, her chest aching with an unknown pain.

Behind her. Senna had seen something behind her.

“What was that?!” Suzy shrieked as she waved her torch at her surroundings. “Was that a joke? It was a joke, wasn’t it? It’s not funny!”

“Stop flailing your flashlight around!” Zarah demanded, grasping Suzy by the arm. “You’re only making things worse.”

Hina idly rubbed her chest, as if that would help ease her rapid heartbeat. “She’s too fast. We won’t be able to catch her. I can’t even see her flashlight anymore.”

The night was completely dark. They should be able to see even the tiniest pinprick of light.

“What should we do?” Chia asked shakily.

“The entrance,” Hina immediately replied. “We’ll head for the entrance and wait for Senna there. No point in all of us running around like idiots.”

Snap.

Another twig snap.

Suzy immediately spun around to aim her torch into the brush of trees partly to the side behind Hina, her hand trembling so bad that she was unable to keep it from bouncing all over the place.

She suddenly became very still. Rigid. Frozen to the spot. Her face lost all colour, turning a ghastly white with her eyes wide and unblinking. She then took a step back suddenly, the trembling of her hand increasing further.

“No…” Suzy murmured as she took another step back.

“What’s wrong?” Tammy immediately asked.

Suzy didn’t answer. Her gaze, her attention fixated in the darkness directly in front of her.

Hina felt her heart leap into her throat. A part of her wanted to look at that spot, too. The spot behind her. The spot that held Suzy’s terrified attention. It was instinctual, wanting to point her own flashlight in hopes of illuminating whatever it was that terrified Suzy. To see for herself.

Don’t look back.

The rest of her screamed at her not to look.

A painful, guttural scream suddenly exploded from Suzy’s lips and just as Senna had done, she turned and ran heedlessly into the darkness. Her flashlight immediately disappearing into the night.

Behind her. Suzy had looked behind her.

“Suzy!” Tammy made the motion to follow, but Zarah grasped her firmly by the arm and pulled her back.

“Don’t go! Don’t look!” Zarah hissed.

Tammy whipped around and ripped her arm from Zarah’s hold. “What the hell are we supposed to do then?”

“The legend says not to look behind you or look into its eyes.”

“Zarah, now is not the time to be all creepy and stuff, ok? It could be some maniac with an axe that saw us out here and decided to terrorize us, too!” Tammy retorted.

She had a point. It might not even be a legend coming to life. But a sadistic man hellbent on terrorizing a bunch of rebellious schoolgirls.

A terrifying scream echoed in the distance. A sound similar to the one that Suzy had uttered just moments ago.

Tammy immediately bolted in the direction, her concern for her friend far outweighing her fear. Always cautious, yet so reckless when it came to others.

Hina, however, could not move. She was rooted to the spot. She only watched, painfully useless, as Tammy’s flashlight also disappeared into the darkness of the graveyard.

“This isn’t funny!” Koko suddenly shouted, having remained uncharacteristically silent up onto this point. “You’re taking it too far!”

Zarah glared at her. “You think we did this on purpose? That this is some kind of a prank?”

“What else could it be?!”

“The game,” Chia whispered. “The Darken Ones.”

The game…? Could it be true? How? Why? Why them?

“No!” Koko stomped her foot onto the ground and shook her head rapidly. “No, this is just some stupid practical joke!”

She turned on her heel and bolted in a random direction before anyone could say or do anything.

“Damn it, Koko!” Zarah snapped.

“I’m leaving,” Chia suddenly uttered as she took a few shaky steps backwards. “I can’t stay here. I need to leave.”

Much like her friends before her, Chia just turned and ran. Ran blindly into the darkness, in a different direction from the others.

They had scattered out in all directions, going each and every way. Complete separate from each other. Doing things on their own.

“Idiots!” Zarah seethed. “Letting their minds get to them.”

Hina felt the urge of reminding Zarah that it was her that put such fears into her head but opted to remain silent. She could scold her later. When they all met up at school on Monday.

Zarah turned to her sharply, her features pale but her face twisted into an exasperated glare. “Follow and find those idiots. I’m going back to that spot. I dropped my phone there.”

Phones! Of course!

Hina immediately plunged her hair into her back pocket and pulled out her phone. Her fingers trembled as she typed in the password and felt a sense of relief when the screen flashed to life.

Her hopes were immediately dashed as she realised there were no signal. Not a single bar.

As Hina meddled with her phone, Zarah had turned and walked away, muttering under her breath about how annoying and stupid their friends were. Leaving Hina completely alone.

Hina fought the urge to scan her surroundings with her torch. It was a strong instinct, especially with each rustling of leaves. The sounds were normal. Natural.

With tense shoulders, Hina kept her gaze fixated on the darkness directly in front of her and moved forward. Slowly, cautiously, she just needed to move. One foot in front of the other.

She had been in the cemetery at night before. Even alone. Yet, never during a dark moon. She had always had the light of the moon to guide her.

The forest around her, the grey stones of the graves and tombs had never felt so…ominous.

Maybe Zarah was right. Maybe the girls were stupid. Maybe she was stupid. Gotten carried away, lost in the fright and hysteria of their surroundings. All they heard was the snapping of twigs. The rustling of leaves. That was normal. They were outside, in an old cemetery hidden in a dense forest. Of course, it was terrifying.

It was simply the atmosphere.

Who.

Hina tensed and clutched at her chest. An owl. It was only an owl. She…did not realise they had owls in the area.

She tried her best to ignore the pain in her chest from her fright induced high pulse and kept moving forward. She also tried to ignore the shifting shadows cast by the towering trees. She ignored how the twisting branches seemed to reach out toward her; a silent threat promising danger should she stray.

It was all in her head.

It was all in her head…

A bend in the path ahead of her made her slow her pace. She felt unexpectedly breathless as she manoeuvred the turn, her head still and gaze forward. No looking to the side. No turning her head. No glancing over her shoulder.

As she entered a small clearing, one she vaguely recognised, the beam of her flashlight fell upon an old grave. Something was different, though. There was something that shouldn’t be there.

Koko.

She…was bent over a fence that guarded one of the graves.

A fence that had spikes lined atop of it.

Husami felt, she actually felt the colour drain from her face as she stared wide-eyed at the scene before her.

Koko wasn’t moving.

“K-Koko?”

Hina’s legs felt like lead and jelly at the same time, trembling with each step she took forward. She…had to check on her. To see…to see if she was alright. How badly she was hurt.

Hospital. They had to get her to a hospital.

“Koko?” Hina shakily whispered as she reached her friend.

Her throat tightened as she reached out a hand, placing it gingerly on her shoulder. But her fingertips brushed against the tips of the spikes, and she whipped her hand back. They were…cold.

She was cold.

Koko…wasn’t moving. She made no noise. No erratic breathing. No gasping for breath. She was completely still. She…she must have tripped and fell onto it. On to the fence. An accident. All because she freaked out and ran.

B-but those spikes. It…it looked like she was dropped onto the fence. From a height.

No, that was ridiculous. There was no way something like that happened.

Hina stumbled backwards. There…there wasn’t anything she could do for Koko. It was too much. She couldn’t move her on her own. She would make things worse if she tried. It was far too dangerous.

Help. She had to find help.

Tears prickled at Hina’s eyes as she slowly manoeuvred herself away from Koko. With shaky legs, she moved forward. Gaze focused, head still, flashlight toward the ground.

Creak.

She unwilling stopped frozen in her tracks. That sound, it was not a snap of a twig. It was something else. Something she couldn’t quite put her finger on.

Creak.

There it was again. It was…rhythmic.

She needed to ignore it. Just ignore it and move forward.

The sound grew louder as Hina crossed the small clearing. It wasn’t normal. It couldn’t be. Against her will, she lifted her torch ever so slightly when she reached the other side of the clearing.

And froze.

Tammy…

Tammy’s body swung silently from a branch of a dark, gnarled tree. Only the creak of the rope scraping against the bark could be heard. She looked…pristine, nearly. Not a wrinkle in her clothing, not a hair out of place. Just…just her neck angled to the side, her eyes glazed over and vacant.

The creaking…

Hina shook her head as tears flowed unimpeded down her cheeks. No. No, not Tammy. Not Tammy, too…

She didn’t do that. Tammy would never do that to herself. There was no way…

Hina had to run. She had to escape. She had to…get help, somehow.

Her chest burned and she knew that she was on the verge of hyperventilating. It was hard to breath, but she needed to. In and out. Just look forward. Just move forward. One step at a time. She had some idea where she was. Just head to the entrance.

Everything should be fine. Everything would be fine.

Snap.

Hina’s body tensed so tightly, so rapidly that it hurt.

Don’t look back.

Another sound followed. A rapid rustling noise. From the brush beside her. Breaking of twigs, the rustling of leaves, and the hollow, empty sound of something…rolling across the grass.

Something hit her foot.

She didn’t want to look. She shouldn’t. Just keep eyes forward and move forward. One step at a time.

Against her will, her gaze shakily moved downwards. To the ground at her feet. The beam of her flashlight remained forward, but its ambient light allowed her just enough to see and recognise the…thing that laid at her feet.

It was Senna’s head.

Her severed head.

She, it stared up at her. Eyes wide but dull and vacant. Her features twisted and warped into an expression of frozen agony.

A scream of raw terror erupted around her, resonating through the darkness and warped shadows. She stumbled backwards, her feet kicking at the dirt and her arms flailing to get leverage to simply get away.

It was then that she realised that she was the one screaming.

No, no, no, no, that could NOT be real!

I-It…was an illusion. A delusion. A trick of the light. No, of the shadows!

Hina ran.

She ran forward, into the ever-deepening darkness of the graveyard. The desperate cry for her…for her remaining friends intermingled with her screams of horror and fear. She screamed out for them to answer, to run. That it wasn’t a game, it wasn’t a joke. They needed to run, to flee, to do everything they could to live.

Hina barrelled into another clearing of old graves and tombstones. Her feet skidded over the slick, dewy grass as she tried to stop herself. She was in the clearing, that clearing. That place where it all started. Where they committed the ultimate act of stupidity.

And where Zarah was.

She…she was splayed out a top of an old grave. The one where they performed the summoning. Her arms stretched to her sides, her vacant eyes staring up toward the sky, her mouth parted on a silent scream. An expression of utter terror frozen on her face.

Her chest…her chest had been ripped open; her very own heart sat atop of her torso.

The utter horror Hina felt was unfathomable.

She ran. She bowed her head forward and just ran. Ran through the graves. Through the shrubs and vines. Through the gnarled, twisted trees. Her torch meant nothing to her.

She just ran.

Don’t look back.

“H-Hina!”

Only her friend’s voice pulled Hina from her single-mindedness and she came to an abrupt halt. Despite her desperation, her desire to see one of her friends again, she manoeuvred herself around slowly.

“Chia? Chia, over here!”

The loud sounds of running feet and snapping branches terrified Hina, the thought of her falling into a trap of some kind running through her head. But a figure, one she immediately recognise brought a wave of relief.

“Chia!” Hina all but screamed as she lunged forward and hugged her tightly. Desperately.

“Suzy…Suzy’s dead,” Chia whimpered into her shoulder.

Hina pulled back and took her by the shoulders. “Dead? What do you mean? What happened?”

Chia didn’t answer her. Not her question. She instead shook her head slowly. “I looked. I looked behind me.”

No…

Hina took a stumbling step backwards, her hands falling away from Chia’s shoulders.

“Wh-what did you see?” she asked against her will, the words just tumbling from her lips in a shaky whisper.

“Shadows. Dark shadows. And eyes…red eyes. All I could see…were those eyes.”

The Darken Ones…

An arm suddenly reached out from the shadows next to her, an arm so dark that it seemed to devour light, and wrapped long, gnarled claws around her head. Chia’s wide, frightened eyes peered at Hina through the small gap between the fingers. Time slowed as the flashlight in her hand dropped to the ground with a mute thud.

With an inhuman speed, Chia was whipped into the darkness, her body as limp as a ragdoll.

Hina just stood there. Eyes forward at where Chia once stood, her flashlight toward the ground. Even as she heard the sounds of rustling leaves, of breaking branches, of a sickly wet sound followed by the…crunch of something hard.

That…that was all of them. All her friends. Six friends. All gone.

Hina was the last one left.

She ran.

Don’t look back.

She had to escape. She had to beat the game. She had no choice. She had to live. To tell others the truth.

It wasn’t a game.

Don’t look back.

Hina felt herself be pulled backwards when something became entangled in her long hair. She reared back, her boots scrapping across the ground as she staggered. The thing in her hair suddenly tightened, a raw reminder that something did not just become entangled in her hair.

It had grabbed her.

Don’t look back.

With a whimpering cry, she threw herself forward and felt strands of her hair rip from her scalp. It hurt. She was probably bleeding. But she didn’t care.

She just ran.

Don’t look back.

Hina uttered a strangled scream when she felt something pointed, something sharp rake at her back in a fury. She felt the material of her shirt rip, felt as her skin tore, felt the blood as it mingled with her sweat. She felt it all. So hyper-sensitive, yet so numb.

Don’t look back.

The entrance…it was so close. Keep running. She just needed to keep running.

Something slashed at her ankle, forcing her to trip and fall onto the ground. She landed hard on her chest and stomach. It took her breath away. Her ankle burned. Was it still there?

Don’t look back.

They were trying to make her look. Trying to make eye contact.

No. keep looking forward. Don’t look.

Don’t look back.

Hina dug her fingernails into the hard, gravelly soil and dragged herself forward. She felt her nails break and splinter, she felt the dirt and soil push into her wounds, she felt the gravel tearing at her flesh. Inch by inch, she kept moving.

Don’t look back.

She felt a weight upon her back. A heated, pungent breath against the back of her neck. Something was on her back. Something was leaning over her. On her. Taunting her. Telling her to look over her shoulder.

But she refused.

Don’t look back.

She could see it. The entrance. A stone archway, the steel gates bent back and broken. An opening. A way out.

Don’t look back.

Moving hurt so much. It was so difficult.

But she wouldn’t stop.

Just a little further.

Don’t look back.

Blood, sweat, tears, and dirt mixed together on Hina’s face as she crawled forward. Eyes fixated on the stone archway. Closer. It was moving closer toward her.

The grass and stony soil gave way to rugged cement. Remnants of an old pathway. One that started or ended at the entrance.

Almost there.

The weight upon her back suddenly lifted, allowing her to draw in a sharp intake of air. But she kept moving. She had to keep moving.

Don’t look back.

A sudden feeling of…lightness washed over Hina, and she unwittingly stopped moving. With her gazed fixated forward, it took her a moment to realise where she was. She…was halfway down the path.

She…she had crossed the boundary!

Hina collapsed onto the pavement with a strangled sob. Her whole back ached with a pain she had never experienced before. Her limbs heavy. Her body shuddering from fright and from the desperate, violent adrenaline she had experienced.

The sun’s early morning light began to filter through the clouds, through the leaves of the trees.

Dawn. She was…safe? She was truly safe?

Although it hurt, though her body ached and screamed for rest, Hina lifted her head…and looked behind her.

…Nothing.

There was nothing there.

No shadows. No red eyes. Not towering figure. And…none of her friends.

It…was over.

Somehow, her phone remained in her pocket. With an exhausted and trembling hand, it took her minutes to manoeuvre the thing and lifted it close to her face. As she squinted through the tears and dirt, she felt her heart skip a beat.

On the screen were the rules to the game. Yet somehow there was an extra one at the bottom. Words she was certain was not there before.

Do not play with friends - there can be only one winner…