This is a side-fic to my longer story Paradox. It pretty much stands alone, so you do not need to have read that to understand this.
The world is filled with fog, it wisps through the trees, glints silver in the moonlight, twists things, fills them with light. The sky is cloudless above him, but he cannot see the stars, only the full low moon, smiling down at him.
His path through the forest is framed tight by sweet-smelling shrubs, the scent wraps around him, comforts him. He's searching, sometimes in the distance he can see a shadowed form darting between the white-barked trees, but he cannot reach them in time, no matter how fast he runs. So he's stopped running, his lungs still burn though, it feels good to breathe deep of the chill night air.
He's been here for so long, he thinks, time has stopped mattering, he is searching, but he cannot remember for whom he searches. He knows they are important to him though, so important. The forest swallows him in the dark, the fogs rolls against him, it feels like waves. It brings him down deeper. He isn't afraid, lets it take him down, he knows he'll find them, find the one he's looking for.
Trees replaced with houses, beautiful crumbling facades, like so many masks, like lies of happy middle-class families. The sweet scent of shrubs is still clinging to his clothing, to the familiar plaid tweed of his coat, he looks up from his sleeve, remembering. Arthur, he had to find Arthur, lost here, his Arthur. He'll find him, there is no hurry, no rush, he'll find him, Arthur cannot hide from him, never could.