Torrential rain was pouring down from a dark and forbidding night sky.
The threat of an incoming thunderstorm was imminent. Jane Wilson could only count three seconds between seeing the lightning strike across the black clouds and the ground-shaking boom which followed after it.
At least the looming flashes of white electrical light were helping her to see where she was going. The torch trapped in the grasp of her trembling hand was about to die. Its dim orange glow revealed nothing but the nearest trees and her own two feet as she continued to stumble forward.
How had she gotten herself into this mess?
Any possible thought of logic or sensibility seemed to have abandoned her completely. It had all gone horribly wrong so very quickly that it might as well have been nothing more than a nightmare Jane might awaken from at any moment.
But this was her reality, and it had become a dangerous one.
The awful weather and a lack of signal on her mobile phone had guaranteed that reaching help tonight would be impossible. But it wouldn't have made much of a difference. Jane had long since lost any sense of direction. The New Forest covered over two hundred square miles, and the wild depths of it had swallowed her up entirely.
Her only glimmer of hope was that she was not alone in experiencing such a terrible night.
The one other living soul also going through this ordeal was the reason why Jane was here. It was he who had brought them to this place, and it was his disappearance that had prompted this most desperate of searches. But her every effort to find him had so far been in vain. All that she had achieved was now two people would need rescuing rather than just one.
"Tom!" She cried out. "Tom, where are you!?"
Jane was still mad at her boyfriend even as concern for his safety continued to grow. Part of her knew that it was still entirely possible for Tom to appear at any moment without a clue as to the worry he had caused her. The three hours he had been missing could have been three minutes, and his devilishly charming grin would be enough to disarm her all over again.
If she didn't love Tom Richardson so much, then she would have long since given up looking for him.
They had met almost four years ago. Jane had been on a night out with friends in Hampstead on a blisteringly hot August bank holiday. The Spaniards Inn was packed, and she had been trying to catch the bartender's attention for the last ten minutes.
Despite looks that turned many male heads, Jane still could not get his attention as he turned away to take the order of the man stood at the opposite side of the pub.
Tom saw her glaring at them both irritably. But she refused to look away even after he had noticed her, and that made him smile. The bartender was quickly sent over to Jane to let her know that whatever she ordered had already been paid for in advance.
It took Tom another half an hour to pluck up the courage to come over and introduce himself.
Jane was already attracted to him even before they exchanged a single word. Tom was tall and boyishly good-looking with thick blonde hair and a broad set of hazel-brown eyes. It was all Jane could do not to blush as he complimented her red hair and the small cluster of freckles that ran across her nose.
The commitment of moving in together soon followed the dates and a holiday to Nice. A wedding might be next, and Jane had started to wonder how and when Tom might choose to propose to her.
A recent promotion at work had done nothing to help encourage him.
Fortis Accountants was one of London's top firms. Tom had been out celebrating his first week in the job when he had met Jane. The only downside to his progressive career was the long hours at the office and too many weekends spent at the dining table amongst piles of paperwork. They had both raised the subject of going away for one of these weekends, and Jane was acutely aware that it was Valentine's Day in just over a fortnight. Making a booking at the last minute around this time of year would leave them with nothing but the remaining scraps of destinations and accommodation.
"We should have that weekend away soon," Tom announced. "Don't you think so?"
It was a Saturday afternoon, but he had once again converted the dining table into a makeshift office. A large cardboard box filled to the brim with spreadsheets and tax-related documents almost entirely concealed him and his laptop from view.
"Yes, that would be nice," Jane replied. "Before everything gets booked up."
Curled up on the sofa with a cup of tea and the latest issue of Vogue, she hoped it would be somewhere warm. Last year they had gone to Venice, and such a romantic choice of destination had convinced Jane that Tom had finally been about to propose. The flight home had been a long one as she stared down at her ringless left index finger.
"Let's do it then. Next weekend."
Jane was pleasantly surprised by such a spontaneous decision on Tom's part. He further impressed her by insisting that he would take care of everything, including travel arrangements and luggage. The entire week he didn't give her one clue as to where they were going.
The hours dragged into days, but five o'clock on Friday afternoon finally arrived.
Her smallest Ted Baker Beau suitcase was waiting for her when she arrived home, along with its matching vanity bag. Tom had advised her to wear something warm but comfortable, and Jane soon decided on some Levis and her favourite Aran jumper. Tom stepped through the front door fifteen minutes after her, and Jane watched with anticipation as he loaded her cases into the boot of his Ford Focus. He had lowered down both the rear seats to accommodate her luggage and his own.
But there still wasn't much room left.
Jane knew they couldn't be flying anywhere when she saw the bulky items Tom had hidden under a large sheet of tarpaulin. He still refused to tell her anything and did nothing but smile back at her flurry of questions even as they reversed out of the driveway and began their journey. They were soon joining the M4 and leaving the sprawling mass of London behind them.
"Please tell me where we're going, Tom," Jane begged. "I can't take the suspense anymore."
"It's something different." He admitted. "But I think you'll like it."
They had started travelling southwest and towards the coast. If it wasn't going to be a trip abroad, then Hampshire or Devon were both looking more likely. They had just passed Basingstoke and were carrying on down the M3. Jane began to imagine a little cottage out in the middle of nowhere with a roaring fireplace and a decanter of whisky shared between them.
That would be a perfectly suitable setting for a proposal.
The amount of traffic considerably lightened as they turned off the motorway. Tom had already put their route into the SatNav. The small black box mounted onto his side of the windshield soon announced their arrival at the border of the New Forest. Even the main roads here looked utterly isolated in the darkness. Daylight would reveal the miles of rugged moorland and dense woodlands they passed by. Jane didn't want to distract Tom with further questions as he began to navigate the rural backroads. They were only twelve miles away now, and even the streetlights hadn't made it this far into the national park.
The car jolted as its wheels left the tarmac for the uneven surface of a gravel path that led up to a large wooden gate.
"Where the hell are we, Tom?" Jane asked. "Are we lost?"
She could see no road ahead of them. The five-bar gate was anonymous and didn't look like it led to anywhere but a muddy field. Just how remote was he planning on taking her?
"No, we're almost there." He reassured her. "I've just got to open up the gate."
Jane watched as he hopped out of the car and jogged over to the wooden barrier. Unhinging it and swinging it open, Tom quickly returned to the car to drive them through it. There wasn't even a dirt path on the other side. It was thick, wet grass Jane could feel jostling the car from side to side. They weren't heading towards a romantic cottage getaway. Even the SatNav could no longer deny her the truth of where he had brought them.
The tiny LED screen was showing nothing but miles of open countryside.
Camping was something Jane had never done. As a child, all of her family holidays had included four walls made from brick and mortar. The idea of a dome made of flimsy nylon sheltering her wasn't exactly comforting.
But Tom had brought everything they could need.
A Mirage Pro 200 two-person tent and two sleeping bags had been tucked away under the tarpaulin, the labels still attached to both items. Tom had also purchased a gas stove along with a plastic picnic set for the two large boxes of food and drink he'd packed into the car. They both owned enough suitable outdoor clothing and a pair of walking boots each. But Jane's were still boxed-up and hadn't seen one inch of mud since they had been bought last year.
Perhaps more disappointingly of all was the complete lack of other people and facilities. Tom chose to begin erecting the tent with nothing to indicate that this random field was supposed to be a campsite. Who did it even belong to? Jane doubted very much that the farmer who perhaps did own this land might be happy about strangers taking it over for themselves for the weekend.
"We can't camp here." She pointed out. "This could be private property."
"Nope, I've checked the map," Tom responded. "It's common grazing land. There's a path at the bottom of the field that leads to the woods. But apart from that, it's just the wild ponies and us."
Jane opened her mouth to protest.
There was this growing sense that this would all end badly. Tom had chosen a spot in the middle of nowhere, and there wasn't even a phone signal between them should any problems arise. Nobody knew where they were because Tom had kept it a secret until now. It was also the end of January. How many people would be out walking around here?
In the end, however, she said nothing.
Tom looked so happy as he set up their campsite. The persistent dark cloud of work wouldn't be able to hang over them this weekend, and it perhaps might be nice to go out on some long walks together in the crisp and fresh winter air.
"Okay," she agreed. "As long as we don't get into any trouble."
Nevermore in her life had Jane wished she could go back in time and change her mind. She should never have let Tom go off on his own to collect firewood. But he had built it himself and had insisted on properly gathering a supply of branches and dried moss that would last them the entire night. Following the public footpath lay a patch of dense woodland which would provide plenty of choice pieces of kindling.
Jane's worries had begun when he failed to return after an hour.
She was beginning to get scared. There was nothing but the darkness and the cold air of the night around her. It was as though the entire human world didn't exist, having been replaced by the rustling branches of the bare trees and the noises of the creatures which lived within them. Waiting in the car wasn't an option as Tom had taken the keys with him. Jane couldn't call him or anyone else and knew she would be unable to sleep until he returned.
Setting off after him once another hour passed, she regretted her decision almost immediately.
By the time Jane reached the other side of the woods, the weather had really taken a turn for the worst. The rain was deafening against her coat as she kept her hood in place over her head with her spare hand. Whirlwinds of water kept on slamming into her as she the shelter of the trees behind. Setting out across another open field, Jane saw that it was just one of many that stretched on for miles.
Tom had been right. They really were on their own.
Something must have happened to him. Maybe he had fallen or tripped over the root of a tree and sprained his ankle. Perhaps he had decided to return to the tent, and they had simply missed each other in the darkness. The incoming storm would have forced tom to take some form of shelter and…
A loud high pitched whinny pierced through the night and nearly gave Jane a heart attack.
The repetitive thudding beat of hooves running along the sodden ground followed after it and quickly identified the source of the haunting noise as a herd of wild New Forest ponies. They were synonymous with this part of England and posed no threat to humans. They would run first and only lash out when cornered or when they had their foals with them.
But as Jane watched them run off to seek somewhere better to spend the stormy night, she knew that she could not stay here either. The tent was at least half an hour away and the only place she knew to be safe and dry enough to await Tom's return. Even if he was hurt and unable to make it back tonight, she would have a much better chance of finding him in the morning.
Jane was about to turn back when a well-timed flash of lightning briefly illuminated the cave.
It was about halfway across the field. The entrance was marked only by a few slanted slabs of rock that rose above the ground only by a few feet. But the sight of such a sturdy structure gave Jane a sudden thought. Perhaps Tom had found it too and decided to tuck himself away inside it? It was she might do instead of trying to make it all the way back to the tent.
Boom!
A bolt of fork lightning came crashing down somewhere within the vanity of the woods behind her. Jane jumped as though she had been hit by it herself, and it was this jolt of fright that gave her the energy to spurn her feet into moving forward and towards the cave. Shining her torch through the narrow gap, Jane could see a small pocket of space within that looked habitable.
Crawling inside was difficult. Fearing more than once of getting stuck between the roof and the muddy ground, Jane quickly discovered that the cave was not as small as it had first appeared to be from the outside. A large hole extended the cave far beyond the first chamber, and what lay beyond it continued deep enough into the depths of the earth that Jane's torch beam could not penetrate the darkness.
Rain was seeping in down the walls and pooling on the ground beneath her feet. It made the rock slick enough that slipping through the large hole was entirely possible. Staying a reasonable distance away from it, Jane's torchlight illuminated the curved edge of the hole in greater detail.
There was something very wrong with the shape of the loosened bedrock.
The cave's entrance had been uneven and worn down. Thousands of years of wind and rain had created a naturally eroded state. But this circular shape looked as though it had been made yesterday. Taking a tentative step forward to examine it in greater detail, Jane saw a series of enormous claw marks that had left their impact on the damp rock.
To her growing horror, Jane began to trace them along each side of the wall and then upwards towards the roof as though the creature they belonged to had climbed...
A menacing growl echoed down towards her. The low grumblings echoed in such a confined space and rang through Jane's ears. Jane hadn't found Tom, but she was no longer alone. Suppressing a sob of despair and fear, she looked up and came face to face with a nightmare beyond comprehension. The great hulking mass of black skin had seen her too.
Against the raging storm, Jane's screams were soon lost to the howling winds.