Day 2,399

We only saw them after we made it to the hill at top of the hiking trail and could see clear over the forest to the lake about 12 miles away. I went to take a photo of it and as I lined up the shot I saw dozens of the trees turn around to stare at us. My friends noticed around the same time, all taking a step back from the hill's edge before realising there were more trees behind us - now all watching us watching them watch us.

Their eyes were like nothing I'd ever seen before, they were bulbous and rough and with every slow blink I noticed how they looked just like ordinary burls that we'd seen on countless trees countless times before. I wondered if they'd all been eyes and every one of those trees had looked at me when I wasn't paying attention.

I was broken out of my thoughts by the rest of our group deciding that we couldn't spend the night and couldn't call out an air ambulance for something this unbelievable. They chose to try and walk back and as much as I argued against it - we were utterly defenseless and had no idea what these things were capable of - I was told to shut up and walk or get left behind.

After what we went through I've never been so glad to be this short. Arms came down at us from the canopy, claws the size of thighs sliced clean through Javid and Erina before pulling them back up out of sight. Their blood seemed to follow us all the way back to the car park... or maybe their killers did.

Saf and Maya were killed not long after. We didn't see them die but we heard their screams rise and fall and I know they still haven't been found. They aren't looking in the right places- they need to check the trees, I know they'll be tangled up in branches or crushed under roots.

In the end it was just me and Mo gasping for breath and desperately trying to unlock the car with hands that were too scared to work but we managed. We survived and our friends were murdered and we had to say we were attacked by random people because who would ever believe that there are monsters hiding among the trees?