The jungle was quiet.
Too quiet.
Daniel had been walking for nearly three hours. He had planned to reach the small village before sunset, but he had taken the wrong path somewhere behind him. Now the trees around him were thick, the air was wet, and the sunlight was slowly disappearing.
He stopped and looked around.
“Great,” he whispered. “I’m lost.”
He took out his phone, but there was no signal.
Then he heard something.
“Help…”
Daniel froze.
At first, he thought it was the wind.
Then it came again.
“Help! Please… help me!”
It was the voice of a woman.
Daniel quickly turned toward the sound.
“Hello?”
“Please! I’m stuck!”
The voice came from behind some large rocks a few metres away.
Daniel walked toward them carefully. Three huge rocks stood close together. There was a narrow dark space between two of them.
“Where are you?” Daniel asked.
“Here! Please help me!”
He moved closer.
“I can’t see you.”
“I fell between the rocks,” the woman said. Her voice was shaking. “Please… take my hand.”
Daniel looked into the gap.
It was completely dark.
Then a hand slowly came out from between the rocks.
It was a woman’s hand.
Her skin was pale and covered with dirt. Her fingers were shaking.
Daniel felt nervous.
“How did you get in there?”
“Please!” she cried. “It hurts. Pull me out!”
Daniel did not think anymore.
He reached forward and grabbed her hand.
It was freezing cold.
For one second, nothing happened.
Then the fingers closed around his wrist.
Hard.
“Hey!”
Daniel tried to pull his hand back.
But the woman did not let go.
Her fingers began to move.
Daniel stared in horror.
The hand was stretching.
The wrist became longer.
Then the arm came farther out of the rocks.
It stretched like rubber, growing longer and thinner.
“What the hell?”
Daniel screamed and pulled backward.
The arm suddenly twisted around his own arm.
Once.
Twice.
Three times.
Like a snake wrapping around its victim.
“No! Let me go!”
Daniel fell to the ground.
The thing inside the rocks pulled.
His body moved across the dirt.
He grabbed a small tree with his free hand.
“HELP!”
The tree roots broke from the ground.
Daniel was dragged toward the dark gap.
He kicked the rocks.
He screamed.
He tried to bite the strange arm around him.
Nothing worked.
Then his right hand disappeared between the rocks.
The moment it entered the darkness, Daniel felt something terrible.
The woman’s hand changed.
It no longer felt like a human hand.
It became smooth, cold and powerful.
Like a giant snake.
It wrapped around his arm inside the darkness.
Then it pulled.
CRACK.
Daniel screamed as the bones in his hand broke.
Another pull.
CRACK.
His wrist broke.
“PLEASE! STOP!”
The thing pulled harder.
His arm disappeared between the rocks.
Daniel pushed his feet against the stone, trying with all his strength to escape.
But something inside was stronger than him.
Much stronger.
His shoulder hit the narrow space between the rocks.
There was no way his body could fit.
But the creature kept pulling.
CRACK.
His shoulder broke.
Daniel screamed until his throat burned.
The rocks pressed against his chest.
He could feel his ribs bending.
“No… no… please…”
For the first time, he heard the woman laugh.
It was not a normal laugh.
It came from deep inside the darkness.
Daniel looked into the gap.
Two white eyes opened inside.
Then his body was pulled forward.
CRACK.
CRACK.
CRACK.
His ribs broke.
His legs twisted behind him.
His screams filled the jungle.
Birds flew from the trees.
Then suddenly—
Silence.
A minute later, the jungle was quiet again.
There was no Daniel.
No blood.
No clothes.
Nothing.
Only the rocks remained.
For several minutes, there was complete silence.
Then footsteps came from the jungle.
Another traveller was walking along the path.
He stopped.
He had heard something.
A weak voice.
“Help…”
The traveller looked around.
“Hello?”
A pale hand slowly came out from between the rocks.
“Please,” the woman whispered.
“Take my hand.”
