She woke up with a start. It was pitch black out still, so black it must be the middle of the night. She sat up suddenly, because everything inside her was screaming.
Get up! Get going!
She shook her head, half and half trying to stop this, to forget all about this, to go to sleep again with her head on this boy she liked so very much, to wake up tomorrow morning and go play midget golf, swim in the pool, heck; she'd jump on the bouncy cushion too. Of course, there were no such choices now. She didn't want to wake him, but she was already shaking his shoulder.
"Eli. We need to go."
He grunted, but didn't move.
"Eli, come on. Wake up." Her whisper was urgent. "I really don't want to go alone."
That did it, he grunted again and sat up.
"Go where?"
"I don't know yet. Come on."
She shot back into her jeans and pulled her hoody over her head, the pull of the electricity already running through her. Then she opened the zip as quietly as she could and crawled out into the night, with Eli on her heels. It was dark, very dark, no moon anywhere to be seen and a dense cloud cover overhead that made the night oppressive. Even the campsite lamp post, a little ways away, did little to dispel the obscurity. Her feet felt around in the grass by the front of the tent for her Birkenstocks, every sinew alive now, every sense honed like she'd never known before. She breathed deeply, willing her diaphragm to push down the rising fear. This was no time for being afraid.
They walked quickly over the path, the gravel's crunch ludicrously loud underneath their feet in the silence of the night. They didn't speak a word as she opened the wooden gate she'd seen the night before and walked onto a sandy path. It must be one of the horse trails that were everywhere in the forest. She held his hand fast as she walked, her feet planting themselves carefully around tree roots she couldn't see. Here, away from the campsite, she could see just how much difference those yellow street lamps between the tents had made. It was pitch black now. If she held her hand more than twenty centimetres away from her face it vanished.
Suddenly Eli stumbled beside her, and she held his hand tight to keep him up.
"Shit!" he mumbled, and he let go of her hand to feel in his pocket. "Hang on. I'm going to turn on the flash light."
"You probably shouldn't." she whispered back. "Just hold my hand, I'll guide you."
The path was irregular under her feet, the sand creeping between her toes. An owl cried, somewhere very close to her, and she jumped, grabbing Eli's hand tighter still. Quickly she carried on walking, propelled forward by the waves of electricity that were coming thick and fast now. Progress was slow, through the night, but suddenly they found themselves on a wider path through the forest. She couldn't see the trees overhead, but she could hear the wind rustling through the leaves. The track was wide enough for a car to drive down and she could feel the sprigs of grass between her toes. She walked on, vaguely hoping that her st. Bernard sense would be good enough to bring her back to the campsite as well, at some point. Would she even be going back? And when?
Suddenly, up ahead, a little distance down the track, there was the faintest of lights.
"Be very, very quiet, Anna. She doesn't know you're here."
A/N So... a double chapter today! I've been writing lots, so I have a few in reserve. Also... it's getting tenser, so I'm trying to give you guys the opportunity to read on a bit! We'll see how fast I can go ;-)