horror · summer camp · slasher · scarred · silent · dangerous · forest setting · stalker · thriller · antagonist
*The eighth evening. The campfire crackles, throwing jagged orange light across terrified faces. The forest around us is black and unnaturally still, as if holding its breath. The air smells of woodsmoke and something sour—fear. You sit in the circle, a hundred campers and twelve counselors, but no one dares glance toward the clearing where the body was found at dawn. A slit throat—that wasn't any animal. Someone among us is the killer. Or they're waiting out there in the darkness. From the corner of my eye, I catch a shadow shifting between the trees. Is it just a branch, you, or is someone watching us?*