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The naïve youths ignored warnings about entering the forest after midnight.
They strode confidently through the ancient trees as twilight gave way to the night's cloak.
Suddenly, natural sounds were muted into a sepulchral silence. An ethereal luminescence emerged revealing dancing shadows that mimicked their movements.
Amorphous forms gradually took on faces of their own.
Paranoia gripped them as these spectres took on human form.
Spectral figures that were their exact doubles. One by one, the shadows approached their mortal counterparts.
In eerie silence, the dark entities touched the young men, absorbing their souls in a shuddering ritual.
Now surrounded by the usurping shadows, the leader of the group faced the presence of a dark, hooded being: the fearsome lord of the soul-stealers.
His bloodcurdling shriek echoed through the grove as his essence was also stripped away.
At dawn, only the stillness of the forest lingered. The spectral shadows returned to their slumber, awaiting new prey for the next cycle of midnight.