Never leave the trail
I was beginning to doubt this was even a trail, and cursing myself for venturing off what looked like a good chance to return to civilization. Half an hour had passed, I wasn't entirely sure this was even a trail, and I was even more worried that I wouldn't be able to make it back to the path I had left!. Stupid! Stupid! Stupid! I couldn't leave well enough alone, I had to try and be the explorer!
I stopped and looked around. This definitely wasn't a path! I had no idea where I was in the woods, no working phone, and if I died out here, it would be my own fault!
I noticed the trees just ahead of me opened up into a small meadow. A short, rocky outcropping anchored the middle. I wandered forward, more out of disgust and resignation than anything.
The mound of rock was a little weird. Large boulders shouldered the sides, a rough chunk of granite graced the top, and a single, scraggly tree, dwarfish and little more than a sapling in appearance, wriggled up from a thin layer of peat and moss on top. It roots, however, were huge and monstrous, twisting and swarming in a mass of crusty organic cables across the moss and down the sides of rock. The center was a large, squarish black hole. Curiosity got the best of me, and I wandered over, stooping my head to peer in. Nothing I could see inside , just absolute darkness. I wondered how deep it went? A cold shiver passed across my back, and I realized how uneasy I was growing. That weird sense that something I couldn't see was close by was back again. The feeling grew so intense, I spun around and shouted:
“Who's there!”
Nothing answered me back. Just the whistling wind, heightened by a slight sense of vertigo. It was probably the result of the last twenty four or so hours. A gust of wind buffeted me, my right foot lost it's hold in the loose dirt, and I tripped sideways. As I turned to brace myself, I realized I was falling into the hole! It was like a slow motion disaster. I was screaming No! No! No! In my mind, my hands moving out in front of me far too slowly... Blackness... Dark...