It was a damp cold, the kind that seeps through wool jackets and nibbles away warmth. Matthew shivered as the piercing chill stuck to his skin. The moon was allowing little to no light to pass through the black forest canopy. The trail was chunks of dirt and rocks clumped inside the veil of darkness. Matthew looked behind his shivering shoulder that bounced with each heavy landing of his ruddy sneakers, to see if he was still being pursued.
He saw nothing out of the ordinary shifting in the black void behind him, settling his nerves some. "Now," he thought. "All I need is a place to rest without being found so I can backtrack home in the morning." He continued walking and let his pace drop enough that his thighs itched from the heat leaving his body.
Trees without leaves let moonlight soak into the path and let Matthew view his surroundings without squinting. A small cube of yellow light caught Matthew's eye, making his heart flutter with hope. As he came closer and strayed from the safety of the path, the outline of a cabin formed out of shadow with the internal lights getting slightly brighter.
It was of decent age, the wood only beginning to splinter and the metal rods and whatnot getting it's first grits of orange rust. Before Matthew's hand connected with the door for a quiet knock, the door opened to a burly man with pale skin, a soilder-like stare and a nose like a tree branch caved out. Matthew's trembling no longer came from the cold, but from the fear of asking such a frightening person for shelter while he had nothing to give in return.