The story
The thick heat of the day had been left behind, dissipated by the adrenaline of an intense day of extreme sports in the canyons and rivers of Útica. Camila and Mariana had spent hours defying torrents and crossing the green canopy on ziplines, exhausting their strength amidst laughter and the roar of nature. Seeking to cap off the adventure far from the commercial bustle, they had agreed to spend the night in a wooded and private area of the property, a clearing surrounded by dense vegetation where only they had permission to set up their camp beneath the night dome.
As midnight enveloped the mountain, the silence of the monte, the wild backcountry, became dense, almost palpable. The initial plan was simple: share something to eat in the shelter of a bonfire before sleeping. However, no matter how much they scraped matches, blew on dry leaves, and arranged suitable firewood, the blaze flatly refused to catch. Every spark died instantly, smothered by an invisible current that seemed to reject any attempt to kindle heat in that clearing.
It was in the middle of these fruitless attempts that the atmosphere changed drastically. An asphyxiating heaviness settled among the trees, bringing with it an inexplicable anguish. Camila felt the hair on her arms stand completely on end; Mariana stopped her hands and let the branches drop to the ground. There was no need to exchange a word to recognize what both were experiencing: a sharp discomfort in the chest and the icy certainty of being stared at intently from the thicket.
Suddenly, about forty meters from their tent, among the twisted trunks of the monte, a solitary spark sprouted over the brush. Before they could formulate a guess, a bonfire flared up out of absolute nowhere. Not a single shadow was spotted, no branches were heard snapping under human footsteps, nor was there a flashlight that gave away the presence of another camper. The fire simply was born from the empty earth.
That glow, far from providing comfort, defied all logic. The solitary bonfire began to grow immeasurably, raising blazing tongues that stained the treetops red, only to suddenly shrink until almost extinguishing, pulsing in a rhythmic and anomalous cycle, as if it were breathing with a life of its own. They immediately ruled out any rational explanation: they knew for certain that the area was totally private and that no one else was there.
Fear transformed into an impenetrable wall. The negative energy radiated by that living fire was so violent and oppressive that it stripped them of any impulse to walk over and inspect. Dominated by an unbearable anxiety and the mute plea to make it out alive, they lunged at the camp. With clumsy fingers and terror nailed to the back of their necks, they tore down the tent with hard tugs, shouldered their camping gear, and broke into a mad dash down the dark trocha, a rugged dirt trail.
It was roughly one in the morning when they reached the main trail, fleeing without looking back. Given how late it was, they didn't even attempt to alert the staff in charge of the place; they only wanted to put distance between themselves and escape from that corner of the forest where something invisible had cast them out.
