Jackson laid on his bed the night before Halloween, in the year 2022. Cole was coming over to watch some scary movies, and maybe do a bit more. It’d be an hour before Cole got there so Jackson decided to start the night off with a horror story, of all things. Jackson unlike the rest of his friends loved to read and although horror was one of his least favorite genres he figured it wouldn’t be halloween without a good story.

He went to his fathers bookshelf and grabbed a book full of scary short stories. His father loved short stories because he thought it was better than having to read a big book that in the end he wouldn't have the time to finish. He opened the book to a random page and flipped to the closest title. It was called The Monster from the Mist. He thought that the title was stupid, but he saw that as a good thing. Maybe it wouldn't be so scary. He gave it a read, and what he read gave him chills. He instantly regretted the decision to scar himself and laid contemplating the story until Cole arrived. Movies with his boyfriend would make the night a lot less traumatizing.

   It was Halloween night and the year was 2026. Jackson, Cole, and his friends, Brain and Mason, were planning to explore a haunted forest. It was once told that in the year 1976 a man named Caleb Pruan’s car randomly malfunctioned in the middle of the road. His house was close by and the only thing between him and the public was, you guessed it, a spooky forest. He walked through the forest, being scratched by a bunch of branches along the way. This could be seen from his house outside security cameras, but when a random green mist flew through the air the cameras stopped. The reason behind this is unknown but Caleb never returned to his home. Now Jackson and his friends are going to explore the haunted forest that Caleb once ventured through and what better day to do it on halloween night, right?

Once he and his friends were driving across the exact street Caleb's car malfunctioned Jackson got a vision. He saw a girl. She had golden blonde hair and a smile bigger than the length of a rainbow. She had a gigantic amount of joy in her eyes. She looked at him with such amazement, like he was the love of her life. Then that look grew into a deep frown. 

“Why are you crying?” she said, with desperation now in her eyes.

Mason's car malfunctioned. He checked the engine but nothing was wrong. Jackson snapped out of what was most likely a trance and refocused. Mason offered to go find help and Brian said he’d go with. Jackson doesn’t like annoyance like this happening, let alone it happening in  haunted places. Hall knew there was a serial killer coming to get them as he was contemplating that there could be a serial killer trying to get him. He did his research on the event that happened with Caleb Pruan and he wasn’t ready to go missing like he did. Him and Cole stayed behind while his friends headed to the forest.

He was in a forest and a man appeared behind him. He had brown hair and brown eyes. 

“Hello,” he said, oddly cheerily. “I’m Cayden, are you..” 

He then paused, looked Jackson up and down, and again he started to speak, now in a hypervigilant tone.

“Are you okay,” he said. That’s a lot of blood.”

Jackson looked down and saw blood all over his white shit. Well, it was white.

“Oh my god,” Jackson yelled, panicked. “Whose blood is this? Where am I? You have to help me find my friends!”

The man was no longer there. Now Cole's lifeless body stood at his feet, covered in blood that could only be from the circle shaped whole where his heart used to be.

“Cole,” he screamed. “Cole. No, no, no.” He dropped to Cole’s body. “Cole! No, please don’t leave me Cole please. I love you so much you can’t leave me!” Tears came running down his cheeks as he let out a heart wrenching scream.

He wakes up in the Car drenched in sweat. He looked at his phone for the time. 11:06. It had been an hour and his friends weren’t back yet. Cole was nowhere to be found. He got out of the car and looked around, only to see the same girl from his 5 minute trance. She was smiling again, but this time her eyes and hair had been drained of color. She looked at Jackson and she motioned him to come follow. Only seconds later Jackson heard a scream that sounded like Brian. He rushed into the opposite direction as the girl hoping that his friends were okay but all he saw was a man. A man who looked exactly like Caleb from 1976, and he hadn’t aged a bit. 

“Where are my friends,” Jackson quivered.

He didn’t answer. After a long moment of silence he heard a branch snap. As soon as that sound occurred Caleb ran, but he didn’t make it far. As he ran he saw the lifeless bodies of a blonde girl and a man with brown hair and eyes. A green mist flew into the forest and in one blink of an eye he vanished, but the mist was still there. Out of the mist came a beast, a beast that can’t be described. A beast that will haunt whoever sees it forever. All someone could hear from the distance was Jackson's scream.