She passed her friends on the trail. They were already dead.

okay I wasn't going to post this but it's been messing with me so here goes.

I'm currently studying abroad in Shanghai, and a Korean friend of mine told me this story. she heard it in Chinese so some details might be slightly off, just a heads up.

so there's this girl, let's call her A. she and her friends planned a group hiking trip. ten people total, five girls and five guys. A's boyfriend was one of the guys, and the rest were just friends, no other couples.

they get to the mountain and RIGHT as everyone's about to head up, A suddenly feels sick. like actually can't climb sick. so the other nine go ahead and she waves them off from the bottom.

she waited. and waited. and waited. no one came back down.

eventually the anxiety got to be too much and she dragged herself up the trail even though she felt awful. the mountain wasn't that tall so she figured she'd run into them pretty fast.

and she did. sort of.

she ran into the GIRLS coming down. all four of them, heading back. but no guys anywhere.

she asked where the guys were and they said oh they're still at the top enjoying the view. A felt better but decided to go up and find her boyfriend herself. so she said bye to the girls and kept climbing.

made it to the top. the five guys were there.

but something was WRONG.

they were all white as sheets. just standing there, totally frozen. not taking pictures, not getting ready to leave. just. standing there.

A went up to her boyfriend and he looked genuinely shocked to see her. he told her the girls had gotten separated from them near the summit. and this particular mountain had a history of people getting lost or dying after their group split up, so they were all freaking out.

"what are you talking about," A said. "I literally just passed the girls on my way up."

nobody believed her.

"that's impossible. they would never just go down without telling us. and we've been searching this whole area, there's no way they came up here without running into us. and if they saw YOU they definitely would've called."

and the more A thought about it. the more she realized they were right.

because if the girls had actually been heading down... why hadn't they mentioned the guys were panicking? why didn't they say hey we got separated, go check on them? why was everything so... normal when she talked to them?

A told the guys she'd meet them at the bottom and basically ran down the mountain.

no girls on the trail. not a single one.

not at the bottom either.

she ran into a nearby shop, hands shaking, and the TV was on.

the news was covering an accident. on THAT mountain. TODAY.

"Four women and five men were found dead after going missing on Mt. X. All bodies were discovered in the same location..."

and then the ticker at the bottom started listing names.

her friends' names.