The flickering campfire cast eerie shadows across the dense forest of Whispering Pines. A group of four friends, shrouded in blankets, huddled close. Their laughter echoed through the trees, starkly contrasting the silent darkness around them.
"Come on, Mike, don't tell me you believe in the ghost stories about this place?" Sarah teased, nudging her friend.
Mike, a burly man with a nervous laugh, glanced around. "You haven't heard about the Whispering Widow? They say she haunts these woods, looking for her lost husband."
"Oh, cut it out! There's no such thing as ghosts," scoffed Sarah.
The night grew colder, and an uneasy silence settled over the group. Suddenly, a faint whisper seemed to drift on the wind. It was soft, barely audible, but distinctly a woman's voice.
"Did you hear that?" whispered Emily, her eyes wide with fear.
"It's just the wind," Sarah said, though her voice trembled.
The whisper grew louder, a mournful wail that seemed to come from all directions. The friends huddled closer, their eyes darting through the trees.
As the night deepened, the whispers became sobs, the sorrow palpable. The friends sat frozen, too terrified to move. Suddenly, a figure emerged from the shadows: a woman in a tattered wedding dress, her face obscured by a veil.
"Who are you?" Sarah stammered, her bravado gone.
The figure pointed a bony finger at Mike, her voice a chilling whisper. "You...have his face."
Mike's blood ran cold. "I don't know what you're talking about," he stammered.
As they turned to flee, the ghostly figure let out a piercing scream. The ground shook, and the trees seemed to close in around them. Panic-stricken, they ran through the forest, the widow's wails echoing behind them.
After hours, they burst out of the trees, gasping for breath. The campsite was empty, with no sign of their belongings.
"Guys, where's the car?" Tom shouted.
Sarah's face drained of color. "We didn't drive here."
The friends stared at each other in dawning horror. Emily broke the silence with a chilling realization:
"How long have we been dead?"
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