"I swear something just moved."
Logan stopped in his tracks, breath fogging in the cold night air. His flashlight beam trembled slightly as it cut through the trees. Nothing. Just snow, shadows, and silence.
Tasha sighed behind him. "It's probably a squirrel," sighed Tasha, rolling her eyes, hands stuffed deep in her puffer jacket. "Or, you know, your imagination again."
"No, seriously." Logan turned, eyes wide. "It was fast and low to the ground. I think it had... antlers."
Liam groaned from the back of the group. "You're sleep-deprived, man. Every little sound is freaking you out. Let's just keep moving and stop trying to spook everyone."
The four of them - Logan, Tasha, Liam, and Jade, were supposed to be enjoying a camping trip in Mille Lacs County, Minnesota. Away from life's distraction and responsibility. Just pine tree, snow, and a campfire.
At least, that was the plan—until Logan insisted, they investigate "something weird" he saw just beyond the tree line.
Jade, ever the peacemaker, stepped in. "Okay, but seriously. Can we just go back to the fire? My feet are getting numb, and I don't think we should be out this far from camp."
Then it happened.
A sharp rustle in the brush snapped the group to a halt as something quick and deliberate approached. A blur of brown fur, long ears, and unmistakable antlers burst from the undergrowth, froze in the beam of their flashlight just long enough to be seen, then vanished into the darkness.
"What the hell was that?" Tasha whispered.
Logan didn't answer. He kept his flashlight trained on the brush where the creature had vanished, slowly sweeping it back and forth. The beam danced across foliage and snow-covered roots, but there was nothing there. No movement or tracks, just the dense silence of the woods.
Liam backed away from the spot, bumping into a tree and muttering under his breath. Jade stood frozen beside him, arms wrapped around herself, her breath shallow and visible in the cold.
The only sound now was their breathing and their hearts, pounding hard in their chests.
"...Did we all just see that?" Jade asked quietly.
"A rabbit," Tasha said slowly, her voice oddly flat, eyes still scanning the trees. "With... antlers."
Logan turned back toward the group, his voice hushed but certain. "A Jackalope. That had to be a Jackalope. I wasn't seeing things."
"No way," Liam cut in, shaking his head. "There is no way that's the real thing. It had to be a joke. Like the chupacabras and flying saucers. Someone's screwing with us."
"You think someone's out here gluing fake antlers to wild rabbits and letting them loose in the middle of the woods?" Logan asked, eyebrows raised.
Liam shrugged, still visibly unsettled. "People do weird stuff for attention all the time. They probably want their prank to be on the news. If it wasn't us tonight, someone else will see this 'Jackalope' and blown it up online."
Tasha frowned. "That thing didn't act like a prank. It moved fast, way too fast. The antlers look solidly attached to its head; superglue doesn't hold up that well. You can't fake that."
"People fake this kind of things all the time," Liam replied. "This is just... next level. Doesn't mean it's real."
Jade let out a slow breath, her voice tight. "Okay... so what now?"
"We go after it," Logan said immediately, lifting his flashlight. "We need proof. Video, photos—something."
Tasha raised an eyebrow. "You seriously want to chase that thing?"
"We have to," Logan insisted. "No one's going to believe us otherwise. We get it on camera, and this becomes more than just a weird story around a campfire."
"I don't care if people believe us," Jade said. "I care if we freeze to death or end up on a missing persons list."
"It's just a little further," Logan said, already angling his flashlight toward the dense woods. "It couldn't have gone far."
"Dude, we're barely dressed for the campsite, let alone tracking mythical wildlife through the forest," Liam said, arms folded tight. "And what if it's not just weird? What if it's dangerous?"
Logan turned to face him. "We all saw it. That wasn't some rabbit with antlers glued on—it moved like a real animal. It wasn't confused or clumsy. It knew exactly where it was going."
Liam didn't argue that. He just frowned and looked off into the trees. "Still doesn't mean we should chase it."
There was a pause.
Then Tasha sighed. "One quick look. Ten minutes tops. If we don't see anything, we head back. Agreed?"
Jade hesitated, glancing around the dark trees that seemed to press in tighter by the second. "This is a bad idea."
"Definitely," Liam muttered. But when Logan started walking, they followed.
The trees closed in around them as they stepped deeper into the wood, flashlights cutting narrow tunnels through the dark. Snow crunched under their boots. Every shadow looked suspicious. Every sound made them flinch.
None of them said it out loud, but the silence between them carried the same thought:
What if we actually find it again?
And somewhere ahead, hidden in the blackness, countless red eyes watched.