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“Sea otter,” Xen muttered from beside him.

That looked nothing like a fucking sea otter.

“I was making rounds yesterday when I heard a phone ringing,” Choi stared at the ruins behind Evan, and a look of agitation flew past his wrinkle-ridden eyes. “This is a hotspot for homeless folks wandering at night, but when I peeked from the window, there was no one inside. Found this phone lying near the door. Townspeople come around here for sightseeing often, so I took the phone to keep it safe until someone came to pick it up,” Choi frowned. “But when I took it back with me, I had this...strange urge to look through it. I don’t know what came over me.”

That was really a shocker to anyone who knew Choi because he was the epitome of a gentleman slash friendly neighbor slashI mind my own businessfellow. Unlocking someone’s lost phone was a privacy breach, something more upsetting to Choi than losing his finger to a hyena attack.

“What did you see?” Evan asked.

“Why don’t you check it out yourself?”

The phone didn’t have a lock, any contacts, or any photos. Nothing but one lonely video sitting in the otherwise empty gallery. Xen came up behind Evan as he pressed the “play” button.

At first, only a pitch-black screen greeted them, with faint rustlings in the background accompanied by the buzzing of cicadas. The clip was clearly recorded at night. Evan’s eyes squinted at the screen, not even blinking for a moment as he waited for something to pop up onto the screen and scare the living spirit out of him. After a good minute of silence, when his patience ran dry and he was about to shut down the video, a light flashed across the screen.

Evan brought the phone close to his face as what looked like a firefly fluttered into the dark night. It wouldn’t have been weird if the said firefly wasn’t ten times bigger than the naturally occurring insect and so bright it shed light on the trees and the ground as he floated onward. It was all but an orb of purple light. By some coincidence, the phone was positioned at the perfect angle to record the firefly moving towards the far end of the forest, where three triangular shapes lit up in the dark.

The loggers’ tents.

The firefly stopped before one of the tents. Some faint voices could be heard in the background, their words too muffled to comprehend, but it didn’t take a genius to recognize the distress in their tones.

When the firefly neared the first tent, its light flickered ominously. Two silhouettes stood up inside the lit tent, stone still like they’d been frozen. From their stature and build, they were definitely men. The two silhouettes turned as if facing the front of the tent. Outside, the orb flared brighter.

Then something strange happened.

As if sand blowing away in the wind, the silhouettes of the two men scattered.

Evan paused the video, rewound it, then played it again. But he saw the same thing. Those two men simply turned into nothing. One moment they were there, and the next, they weren’t.

Another two shadows stood up in the second tent, then another pair in the third. It seemed as though they had been stirred awake from their slumber in the middle of the night by something, and then, all of them vanished. The firefly seemingly glowed brighter with each disappearing figure before floating out of the video frame.

Evan handed the phone back to Choi, his brows furrowed. “Did you report this to the cops?”

“Yes,” Choi pocketed the phone with a sigh. “But they took one look at the video and decided this was the church's responsibility, not theirs.”

Evan almost rolled his eyes.Fucking cowards.

“And what did the church say?”

Choi shrugged. “Didn’t go to them. They’d probably just try to put a wrap over things like they’ve tried to do for years.”

“What do you mean? Put a wrap over what?”

“You don’t know? I thought you might have heard from the church.”

“Well…the Blackwoods and the Church don’t really get along,” Evan ran a hand through his hair, recalling the side-eyes he’d received all his life from the priests. “Never mind that. Tell me more about what they’re trying to hide.”

They walked towards a few chopped wood logs erected upright as temporary stools and took a seat as Choi explained, “Some decades back, there was a strange rumor going around about the Old Oak, saying it was haunted. Well, not exactlyhaunted,but that there was a spirit residing in it. It was way before you were even born, so it’d make sense if you don't know.

“Those days, I caught many “explorers” trying to sneak towards the oak at night to catch a glimpse of the spirit and make offerings. Even though I turned most of them away, some managed to go around the barricades, cross the riverbank, and reach the Old Oak. I found hundreds of fortune talismans tied to the branches. Some even offered animal sacrifices in hopes the spirit would grant them their wishes.”

“Anddidthe spirit grant their wishes?” Evan asked, then quirked a brow. “Was there even a spirit?”

“Who knows?” Choi shrugged. “But it eventually came to an end when the people sneaking to the oak started disappearing.”

Out of the corner of his eye, Evan noticed a subtle movement, but when he turned around, no one was there. In fact, the one who was supposed to be there had also vanished.

Evan’s eyes snapped around to spot a red-clad figure, but to no avail. He turned back to Choi with a frown. “Were they ever found?”