Chapter 2: Flight Into the Dark
The blade slid back into the dark like a tongue retreating into a mouth. The slit in the tent hung open, a pale gash of nylon showing nothing but black beyond it. Nobody moved. I could hear my own breathing, short and fast, and Maya's hand clamped around Ethan's forearm with enough force to turn her knuckles white.
Then the scream came.
It wasn't human. That was my first thought, the animal part of my brain reaching for any explanation that made sense. But it was too articulate, too shaped, rising from the treeline in a long, keening arc that cut off at its peak. The sound of something that wanted to be heard.
"Run," Ethan said.
He didn't shout it. That was what scared me most. His voice was flat and certain, the voice of a man who'd already made his decision and didn't have time to argue about it. He grabbed Maya's hand and pulled her toward the treeline, away from the fire, away from the light that made us targets.
Niko's hand closed around mine. "Come on."
The clearing turned to chaos. The fire scattered as Ethan's boot caught the edge of the log, sending a spray of sparks over the dirt. I ran blind into the dark, my feet finding roots I couldn't see, Niko's grip the only thing anchoring me to the world. Branches whipped at my face and I felt one catch my cheek, a thin line of sting that would be blood by morning if there was a morning.
Behind us, the scream came again. Closer. It had a shape to it now, a direction, and it was coming our way.
"Where are we going?" Maya gasped.
"Anywhere that's not here," Ethan said.
The forest swallowed us. Pine needles crunched underfoot, then mud, then more pine needles. I couldn't see anything. Couldn't see Niko's face, couldn't see my own hands. Just the dark, and the sound of four people trying not to die.
I stumbled. Niko caught me, one arm around my waist, hauling me back upright without breaking stride. His breath was coming in hard, hitching pulls, but he didn't slow down.
The footsteps behind us were crunching too. Steady. Patient. The sound of someone who knew these woods and knew exactly where we were heading.
"Here," Ethan said.
It wasn't a word, it was a command. He dove off the path, dragging Maya with him, and I felt us plunge into something dense and scratchy. Pine boughs closed over our heads. The smell of sap and crushed needles filled my nose. Ethan's hand found my shoulder and pushed me down, down, until I was crouched in the dirt with my knees against my chest.
Niko pressed up behind me. I felt his chest against my back, his arms around my waist, his heart hammering so hard I could feel it through two layers of fabric. I sank against him, and he tucked his chin over my shoulder, and we held each other like we were the only two people alive.
The footsteps stopped.
The forest went quiet. Not the quiet of peace, but the quiet of a held breath, the quiet of something listening.
"Did we lose them?" Maya breathed, barely audible.
Nobody answered. Ethan's hand was on her back, fingers splayed, and I could see the outline of his head turning slowly, tracking the sound.
Another step. Closer than I expected. Twenty feet. Maybe fifteen.
The pine bough beside my face rustled. Not wind. There was no wind. Something had brushed against it.
I pressed my face into Niko's neck and mouthed the words without sound. "The lake. We need to find the lake."
He squeezed my waist once. An answer. An agreement.
Another step. The crunch of a boot on a fallen branch, deliberate and slow. Whoever it was, they were circling us. They knew we were here.
The footsteps stopped again, directly to my left. So close I could hear the fabric of someone's jacket creak as they shifted their weight.
We didn't breathe. We didn't move. The dark pressed in around us, and somewhere above the pines, the moon was hidden behind clouds, and nobody in the world knew where we were.