The moon shimmered through patches of sky in the foliage above. The mist that frothed around her ankles glowed a ghostly silver and rose to lap at her calves as dusk melted into night. The loud rush of the river slowly quieted to a distant hiss, and the curious babble of night creatures crescendoed as she walked. Sam was distantly aware of these facts, but her feet continued to amble forward over the rocky terrain. She needed to reach the golden light up ahead.
Sam had first spotted the ethereal glow from her window after JB had left to change into his 1760s attire. From a distance, she couldn't make out a shape, though something about it seemed almost human. She felt a wrench in her chest, a yearning for something lost or forgotten that intensified the longer she stared at the light. Suddenly, everything else ceased to exist and all that mattered was the silent beaconing from outside.
She didn't run so much as let her legs carry her out into the twilight. Somewhere in the deep crevices of her consciousness she thought she heard someone call her name, but how was that even possible when she couldn't recall even having a name…or a body…or a voice…
...
He found her in the forest, submerged in a cloud of fog, barely visible at first. The haze swirled away as he approached and there she was, poised on top of a mossy rock at the base of a whitebeam tree. Its spidery branches stretched out behind her, like witches' fingers that might snatch her away at any second.
JB called out her name, but she did not seem to hear. Her slender form remained stretched upward toward the sky like a ballerina, as if searching for something within the branches above. There was no movement apart from the soft rustle of her petticoat when a breeze snaked its way past the vast woods and into her vicinity. Her brown eyes gleamed in the moonlight, but they were glassy, vacant. She was both beautiful and terrifying. Maybe that's why it took him several seconds to amass the courage to grab her by the arm and pull her down.
She stiffened at first, then fell almost limp as she blinked up at him, brow furrowed. "What are we doing here?" The last word was high pitched and strained. Her eyes darted from him to the trees, the fog, the darkness. JB felt her tremble under his grip.
"You ran off," he said, loosening his hold on her forearm so as not to hurt her. For an instant she froze, so suddenly that he worried she might have fallen back into her daze, before jerking backward and whipping her head from side to side in a panic. It was disturbing, but he sensed she was even more unsettled than he felt.
"JB, I saw something," she said, scanning the woods for whatever it was she must have seen. "It was a sort of glowing light and it lured me here somehow. I couldn't stop following it, like it was possessing me…" her voice cracked and tears spilled from her wide eyes. She swiped them away quickly, but coughed out a few more sobs despite herself. After a couple deep breaths, she covered her face with her hands and whispered, "Sorry. I'm a mess."
JB remembered there was a handkerchief folded in his coat pocket and he fumbled for it, unsure what else to do. He handed it to her and she dabbed her eyes with it, looking embarrassed but grateful.
The walk back through the woods was quiet and cautious. They were both hyper aware that the reason they'd come to this time and place was because of a mysterious beast known for attacking and killing hundreds of people. While they had intended to investigate the nearby village tonight, they were not prepared to find themselves alone in what was likely the beast's home turf. Needless to say, it was a comfort when they made it to the river and crossed the bridge. Relieved as he was to be home, JB couldn't shake the feeling that they still were not safe. Whatever had sent Sam running blindly into the woods was no mere tracer, and he was sure it meant trouble.