Trekking up the hills was tiring. Karan and his friends climbed on till noon. Upon reaching the camp site, they realised that there was no one in the area. Tents were set up, and it looked like lunch was about to begin. But the place was excruciatingly bare.
"That's strange",Karan remarked, looking at the scene in front of them. "Nobody just leaves food like that".
"Unless there was a bear",Sudeep murmured, placing the firewood down.
"Nonsense! There are no bears in these parts!", exclaimed Akash, doing the same.
Nevertheless, the trio decided to search for the rest of the group, in case something unfortunate had befallen upon them. They packed food,water, and first aid; walking down the beaten path that was laden with the groups' footsteps.
Our heroes were in the thick, cramped forest around the hills, when Akash caught a moment of shimmer in the periphery of his eye. Calling out to the others, he bent down to get a proper look at the object.
It was a phone in a pastel pink phone case.
"It's Shweta's!", exclaimed Karan. "She usually glued ti her phone. How could she have left it like that?"
"Look!",pointed out Sudeep, to a set of shoe prints veering off of the path. " My guess is, everyone went over that direction. See all the different tracks!"
The trio walked, following the direction of the tracks, also looking around in case of any animals. The forest was deadly quiet as they walked on.
Then, they heard it.
A soft melody was floating around in the air. There was a hypnotising quality to it, certainly a music aficionado's greatest dream.
Needless to day, the trio were entranced by the music, so much so that they involuntarily were pulled towards where they thought the music originated from.
They were at the edge of a cliff, when the music had abruptly stopped. The moment the music ceased, they snapped into their senses. They then looked down, to see that they were right above a roaring sea standing on a cliff that was quickly crumbling into dust.
The trio tried to turn around in an effort to run, but it was in vain. The entire cliff side had collapsed in by then. Karan, Sudeep, and Akash were falling into the raging sea.
Karan looked up, in time to see a large shadowy figure; looking down upon them with a sharp, toothy grin. He closed his eyes, tears welling up, waiting for the inevitable.