The moment we stepped into the new clearing, I felt it. Like the air was thicker, heavier with possibility—and danger. A thin circle of luminous blue light shimmered across the clearing floor like an ancient seal. The glowing edge pulsed with a faint hum, almost like a heartbeat. It was beautiful, terrifying, and unmistakably… alive.
Bobby stepped forward first, gadget in hand. "It's not a portal," he whispered. "It's something else. Like a… stable node."
"Stable node?" Ambrose raised an eyebrow. "Are we in WiFi range of another universe?"
Bobby didn't laugh. "It's like a dimensional router. A hub. Instead of ripping holes in spacetime like the earlier one did, this one's… clean. Balanced."
"Balanced," Jacob repeated. "Like it was built?"
That thought settled into the silence between us like dust on glass. Someone—or something—had built this.
Ambrose circled the edge of the glow, keeping a wary distance. "This feels like walking into a boss room in a game where you forgot to level up."
I couldn't stop thinking about what the old man had said: "The forest doesn't open until you're ready." Was this what he meant?
Jacob crouched beside a stone with carvings, tracing them lightly. "Same pattern from the tree last time."
"And here too," I pointed to a patch on the ground—swirls, concentric rings, jagged lines like fractured lightning.
"I've already seen what happens when we drift too far apart," Ambrose muttered, his voice oddly quiet. It caught me off guard.
"What?" I asked.
He looked up. "Nothing. Just… let's not split up again, yeah?"
Bobby stepped into the glow cautiously, aiming the scanner. A low hum emitted from his device before the screen flickered. For a moment, everything went black. Then it surged back to life with a harsh beep.
"That's… not supposed to happen," Bobby said. He stared at the screen like it had betrayed him.
We all stood in silence, each of us processing this place in our own way. Ambrose squinted into the center of the circle. "Did anyone else just… see something move in there?"
Jacob tensed. "Don't do that."
"I'm not. I swear. It looked like—me."
A ripple passed through the light.
Jacob turned to Bobby. "How do you even know this thing is safe?"
"I don't," Bobby replied, almost too calmly.
"You built a machine to find this," Jacob snapped. "You've been obsessed. And now you want to walk us into another dimension based on a theory?"
"I'm trying to understand it. I'm trying to help."
"No, Bobby," Jacob said, stepping closer. "You're trying to control it."
I stepped between them before the tension snapped. "Enough. We're here. Together. That still means something, right?"
Jacob's shoulders sagged. For a moment, I saw past his anger—the fear underneath.
"I just don't want to lose any of you to this place," he said. "That's all."
The silence that followed was different. Heavier. Honest.
We made camp just beyond the circle, keeping it in view. None of us wanted to be too close. None of us wanted to admit why.
Later that night, Ambrose sat on a rock, staring into the shimmer. I joined him, offering a bottle of water.
"You okay?"
He gave a tired grin. "You ever stare into something so long you think it starts staring back?"
"Too often lately."
He glanced over. "You think any of us come out of this the same?"
"No," I said truthfully. "But maybe we come out better."
"I'd settle for alive."
We didn't talk much after that.
Back in camp, Bobby adjusted the placement of his scanner. Jacob silently handed out energy bars. We were still a team—but I felt the cracks.
That night, we waited.
But the siren didn't sound.
That scared me more than anything else.