Chapter Text
Mark was hiking with his trusty dog, Duke, on a warm summer day, as was the norm every morning. Frick's Trail because it's so close to home. Pepper doesn't like to hike but Mark doesn't want to be too long away from her. Mark and Duke did this same hike all the time. They could it blindfolded, walking backwards, not that there would ever be a need to do that. That would be very weird, indeed.
Speaking of weird, today, there was a path next to the little wooden bridge on the trail. Duke, being a dog of adventure, immediately sprinted towards the new path. Mark, being totally caught totally off-guard, tumbled along behind him. After about 50 yards, Duke slowed his pace. Mark looked around now that he wasn't hanging on for dear life. The trees here were wrong. They didn't have leaves. It was cold. Actually cold. Not like it got cloudy for a moment, but like 30 degrees colder. There were no flowers along the trail here.
Out from the right, a young boy popped out from the trees, yelling, 'Help! Help! My sister's been injured!" Mark stops the boy and asks, "What's wrong with her? Maybe I can help." The boy grabs Mark’s arm and drags him and Duke into the woods.