"Jason, slow down!" Clark gasped, breathless. "That hot spring isn't going anywhere, but I might!"
"I know, I know," came Jason's voice from behind a thicket of branches, "But the light! It's perfect for photos. Trust me, you'll thank me later!"
Clark sighed, rolling his eyes. As a photographer for geographic magazines, Jason was always in search of untouched landscapes, hoping to snap a perfect shot before anyone else. Clark had agreed to this so-called "hike," but now, all he could think about was how many times he'd been dragged into these trips, only to end up hauling Jason's gear and finding spots he'd learned about from who knows where.

"If it weren't for the money, I wouldn't have come," Clark muttered under his breath. Then, suddenly, Jason stumbled and fell with a loud thud.
"Damn it! What did I say? Slow down!"
Jason quickly jumped to his feet, brushing off his boots as if nothing had happened. "It's fine, just a couple of small boulders..." But as Clark looked around, he noticed that the strange red markings on the ground had been disturbed.
"Interesting," Jason remarked, snapping a photo with his phone. "Good material for a sidebar."
Clark felt uneasy. "This doesn't seem natural. Those marks—looks like someone did this, not nature. And the nearest village is ten kilometers away."
Jason shrugged it off. "Probably just old hunting signs, painted red. Let's move on."

As they continued walking, the sun began to set, casting long shadows across the forest floor. Clark could feel the weight of the day starting to get to him. They were lost, and Jason didn't even seem to notice.
"Jason, we're lost! This is crazy!" Clark shouted, his frustration boiling over.
Jason glanced at his GPS, unbothered. "We're fine. We're only a couple kilometers from the car. Trust me, if we find that hot spring, it'll make up for everything. National Geographic will be all over it!"

But as time passed, Clark's anxiety grew. They hadn't arrived at the spring, and the forest was getting eerily quiet. No birds, no insects—just the sound of their footsteps. Then, without warning, Jason stopped dead in his tracks.
"Clark, listen!" Jason whispered, his face lit up with excitement.
Clark paused, straining to hear. From the distance came a strange, low groan, almost like a voice, but not quite.
"What... what is that?" Clark asked, his voice tinged with nervousness.
Jason's grin widened. "It's the spring! I told you it was real!"

Clark shivered. "This can't be happening..." But the sound only grew louder, like a rhythmic, almost musical hum, as if beckoning them closer. Jason, clearly hypnotized by the noise, darted toward it without another word. Clark hesitated for a moment but followed him, despite his growing fear.

They soon arrived at a small, black pond, its surface eerily still. The water was not clear, as Jason had hoped, but a deep, inky black, absorbing all the light around it. Strange ripples moved across the surface like shark fins.
"Jason, we need to leave," Clark urged, his voice shaking with panic. "This is wrong! It's not safe!"
But Jason was already undressing, eyes fixed on the pond. "This is it, Clark! The Black Singing Hot Spring. It's real! This is what I've been searching for!"

Suddenly, the water surged violently. Jason stumbled, and before Clark could react, he was yanked into the pond by an unseen force. The water swallowed him whole, and everything went still. Clark rushed forward, his heart pounding, but it was too late. Jason was gone—no struggle, no sign of life. The water was calm again, as if nothing had happened.

Clark stood frozen, unable to breathe, as a low whisper echoed in his ears. It was the same haunting sound, now filled with mocking undertones.
"Jason..." Clark whispered, his voice barely audible. He turned, desperate to escape, but the trees around them were no longer swaying in the wind. Instead, they were slowly bending toward him, as if something was rising from the earth.

A sharp, agonizing roar cut through the air—a sound so alien it seemed to come from the depths of the earth.
"CLARK!"

Clark spun around, panic flooding his veins. There, emerging from the black water, was Jason—or what had once been Jason. His body was now dark, his lips cracked, and his eyes empty, glowing with an unnatural scarlet light. His face was twisted, like he had been consumed by something terrible.
"Jason?" Clark's voice trembled, unable to believe what he was seeing.
Jason's voice was hollow, distorted. "Come... Come, Clark, you'll understand soon enough... They are waiting for you..."

Clark backed away, terror clawing at him. "You're not Jason! What are you?!" His mind screamed in denial.

Jason's movements became jerky and unnatural, like a puppet being controlled. "They need you, Clark," he hissed, his voice growing deeper. "They're hungry..."

Behind Jason, the water began to bubble again, churning as grotesque, otherworldly figures began to rise from its depths. They had human shapes but were twisted and unnatural, their forms writhing and stretching toward Clark. A powerful, unseen force surged from the water, pulling Clark toward it.

Desperate, Clark turned and ran, but the ground felt like it was sucking him in. His feet were heavy, each step harder than the last. The earth beneath him seemed to have become a thick, sticky trap, as if something was pulling him into the abyss. But he kept running, fear driving him forward.

Finally, he broke free, stumbling into the open. When he looked back, his blood ran cold. The pond was gone, replaced by a massive, bottomless crack in the earth, like the planet itself had been torn apart. Jason—if it was even him anymore—stood at the edge of the fissure, surrounded by grotesque, shifting shapes. They were all singing, calling to him in a language he couldn't understand.

"You can't leave," they said, their voices blending together in a terrible, hungry chorus. "I'm hungry..."

Clark's mind began to unravel. He couldn't escape, couldn't even think straight as the scene in front of him blurred and spun. His vision faded, his consciousness slipping away. Finally, his body collapsed to the ground, and everything went black.