The Four Faces

16th December, Saturday. A lively Saturday morning was perfect for trekking. Samuel had it all planned: He would leave for the mountain at 7 AM; Would reach the destination by 9, and then begin the trek with his friends. Hopefully, things will go as planned. Samuel wasn’t able to sleep through the night as he was too excited for the trek. He somehow managed a 45-minute sleep and left for the Wildlife Park at 7. He reached the spot at quarter to 9, earlier than everyone.

All of his friends reached the park at 9:30, and the mountain that they were going to trek on, was about a kilometre away. They walked to the mountain slowly and started off for the mountain soon thereafter. The mountain was way too tall to climb upon, and it eventually took them ages to reach the top of the mountain. They all unpacked their bags, and put a large tent so that they could sit and peacefully have their meals. They played board games, had conversations on different topics, and finally, took a break from everything and had a short nap. A tired Samuel was happy to see himself on the top of the mountain and happily lay down inside the tent. After about 15-20 minutes, suddenly his phone started ringing loudly. It was an unknown number, but Samuel still picked it up.

“Hello,” said Samuel sleepily.

“Is this Samuel Kyle Hughes?” said a young, fresh voice.

“Yes this is Samuel Hughes speaking,” he replied.

“Are you on the top of Hill Climb Mountain here in Wildlife Park?” said a little tired voice.

“Yes, I’m here trekking. Why do you ask?” Samuel questioned.

“Can you come down to the Forest? I’ve got something for you” said a high, cold voice.

“How much time do you have? It took me ages to get to the top of the mountain” Samuel replied grumpily.

“You don’t worry about it. You’ll arrive just in time” said a voice that probably no one had heard before .

“Okay, I’ll be there soon,” replied Samuel in a convincing tone.

A sleepy and tired Samuel left the top of the mountain, and surprisingly, he reached the forest sooner than later, but he was so sleepy that he didn’t even realise what had happened. He kept walking in the forest. It had been hours since he was walking, and he suddenly bashed into a tree, immediately waking up from his sleep. He was in the middle of nowhere, and was now scared of the animals in the forest. He tried to look for help, but there was no sign of life. He didn’t even remember why he was in the forest in the first place.

He walked a little while before noticing a small house. It was vacant and as it was so cold, he walked in there with no second thoughts. The house was not even the size of his bathroom. He knew he had to adjust for just a night, and would definitely find his way back in the morning. Just one night, and everything would be normal once again.

Samuel was starving and wanted to eat something. Unfortunately, he didn’t have any food, as he had left all his food at the top of the mountain. And his eyes suddenly noticed a half-eaten burger. He literally JUMPED on the burger and snatched it from the ground before anybody else could get it. The burger wasn’t too bad as Samuel had expected it to be. He lied down on the floor of the house and tried to get some sleep.

Exactly opposite to his tired self was a wall with four photo-frames. It was a late realization for sure, but he hadn’t noticed despite being there for almost an hour. The four rectangular frames had different images of the same number! It was intriguing to see how different those images were but after looking at it one by one, it seemed scary.

In the first frame, there was a handsome, young face in a blazer, probably leaving for work, and it was definitely a pleasant sight to watch. The second frame didn’t have great scenes, with the same face being in a slightly bad condition. Forget the blazer, his living state was worse than that of a homeless man. He could hardly make out any similarities between the two frames.

The third frame was even scarier than the second one with the face now being in an even worse state. Seemed like he hadn’t had a meal for months, and it wasn’t the greatest of sights to have a look at. Despite his young age and previously excellent physique, everything felt like an alternate universe: exactly opposite of what should’ve happened. The story of the frames hadn’t ended yet; the final frame had an end to the timeline of the mysterious face. The face was dead. Reduced to ashes. The four photos felt so real as if they had gotten the face back to life. With the fear and nausea of having watched a very dark series of images, it wasn’t easy having a good night’s sleep alone for Samuel.

Samuel woke up the next morning with little hope of not being creeped up by those images, and safely returning back to his friends, until one of the most scary and confusing things happened: the three frames weren’t actual frames but a window. The four frames weren’t photos but four people staring at Samuel the whole night. The mysterious call, him being lost in the forest has some sort of connection. Before the late realization could cost Samuel something important, he vanished out of the forest, and the mystery of the four faces remained unsolved forever.