“Hello? Is...Dex...Declan Foray there?” I asked, heart in my throat.
“No. He’s not,” the woman answered slowly.
“I—I’m sorry. I must have gotten the wrong number.” I looked around me and pulled my coat in closer against the darkness.
“It’s not the wrong number, dear. He can’t talk right now,” she drawled on, her voice sounding rather...wicked.
Ridiculous, I told myself. You dial the wrong number because it’s dark out, and you’re in the middle of a storm in the woods, and you get some old woman on the line who just wants to talk.
“You’re right. I do want to talk,” the woman continued. “That’s why I called.”
Had I just said that all out loud? I put my head to my forehead. It was clammy with cold sweat.
“I called you,” I said, barely above a whisper. “I’m sorry. I was calling for my friend Dex and I got the wrong number.”
I quickly hung up and stared at the phone for a few seconds. It was my familiar iPhone, filled with music and useless applications, but it felt alien to me.
I was about to press the home button to dial my uncle when my sight began to dim. I looked to the lamp; the flame was going out.
“No!” I yelled and plucked it off the tree. I frantically turned the knob, hoping it would release more gas or wax, or whatever was inside. If it didn’t, in a few seconds I would be alone in the dark again.
My actions did nothing. But just as the flame was almost extinguished, I saw something move out of the corner of my eye.
I looked to my left. There was another lamp further down the road. It flickered just as the one I was holding went out for good.
I didn’t know how it happened to be alight like that. I didn’t know if there was someone down there who turned it on. Perhaps that person had been hiding in the trees the whole time, watching me. Maybe it was the old woman on the phone.
I shuddered at my morbid thoughts. I could either stand in the dark thinking about it, or I could move towards the light. At least in the light I could see what was trying to kill me. I know there was no indication that someone was trying to kill me, but whatever was going on was not normal, to say the very least. And my imagination and adrenaline were on maximum overdrive. I could almost feel a hand reaching out of the dark behind me and grasping my....
I didn’t finish that thought. I ran toward the next lamp until I was plucking it off the tree.
It was the same as the other lamp. The tree was the same as the previous tree. Had I ran around in a circle?
No, that was impossible. Thinking about it made my head spin. Lack of thought would serve me well and preserve my sanity.
With the lamp dangling from one hand, I decided to follow the road while I could and get the fuck out of there.
I plowed forward through the heavy woods of wet fir and dying oak trees, musty smells rising up with each step I took. The path ahead shook with the sway of the lamp. The way curved and I was soon able to make out the depression that could have only been created by tires. My internal navigation system was placing me as heading northeast, which was the direction of Uncle Al’s and exactly where I wanted to go.
I didn’t even care if I left Dex alone on the beach. For all I knew, he could be back at the house waiting for me. Or not waiting for me and playing video games. Or back at his motel room talking to his hot girlfriend on the phone.
That last thought made me angry and I was happy about it. It was better to stew like a jilted teenager over Dex than it was to fully grasp the terrifying situation I was in.
I ran for what seemed like a couple of minutes, the road steadily curving into the dimness. Then, like before, the flame started to go out again.
“Oh, for fuck’s sake!” I screamed, the strength of my voice surprising me. It was embarrassing in a way, yet I still hoped that someone was nearby to hear it.
I shook the lamp back and forth, screaming, “Fuuuuuck! Fuck you, lamp!”
Terror and temper at an all time high, I took the lamp and threw it as hard as I could against a tree. The glass smashed everywhere and flickers of flame splayed out onto the leaves and roots. For a minute there it looked like the whole tree would go up in flames; something that wouldn’t be all that bad. A forest fire would at least attract attention. But in the end, the leaves were just too wet and all light faded.
Tears formed at the back of my eyes. I wanted to crawl up into a ball and cry my eyes out. My heart was stressed, my limbs felt numb, and I wasn’t sure how much more horror I could take. I was lost in the woods, in the dark, with nowhere to turn.
The blackness was disorienting as well. Dizzy, I put my hand out for a tree to support me. But my hand hit something that was more soft than solid. Soft and warm. Like wool. Like a sweater. Like someone wearing a sweater.
My hand was on someone’s chest.
I screamed, retracted my hand, and started booking it down the path as fast as I could.
I was running blind. The ground was undulating and I could have smashed face first into a tree at any moment, but somehow my feet kept moving, one foot in front of the other. Before I knew it, I felt the wind in my face, the taste of salt in the air and wet grass beneath me.
Though it was in the opposite direction of where I was certain the road was leading, I was on the plateau again, where the lighthouse should be. I kept running until my feet started to slip; I instinctively knew I was near the edge.
I stopped, not a moment too soon, and put my weight back on my heels. If the wind wasn’t there, whipping off the waves and pushing me back, I probably would have gone over.
I could see the gleam on the crests of the waves below and grasped the height of the cliff as it dropped beneath me. I took in the deepest breath I could and said a silent prayer, willing myself not to think about what had just happened. Now that I was out of the woods, so to speak, and had found the coast, all I had to do was follow it with the ocean to the left of me, and there was no doubt I would come across my uncle’s house.
I exhaled and turned north, ready to jog back.
A light came on beside me. It slowly flickered to life in the empty dark.