Xavier saw his parents torn apart by mountain demons on AT Mountain when he was a child. He has spent years avoiding the place. Now a college student, he gets dragged back on a class trip with Winnie and Thomas, and every step closer to the tree line feels like walking into the same nightmare.
He warns them plainly what lives up there. They mock him for it and push deeper into the forest anyway, filming themselves, daring each other on. When the creatures finally come out of the shadows, Xavier is the only one who knows how they hunt and what they smell. Keeping his classmates alive means going back into the place that already took everything from him.
