The Figure In The Darkness

The night was still and peaceful.

Eden curled in her sleeping bag, the fire outside reduced to a calming red glow, the moonlight coated the clearing in a pleasant silver glow. For the first time since entering the mountains, Eden felt completely at ease and her body surrendered to sleep without resistance.

After a few hours of a peaceful, dreamless sleep, something startled her awake, at first she thought it was the sound of the wind whipping through the trees, she opened her eyes blearily and froze.

A shadow stretched across the canvas of her tent, tall and broad shouldered the thing stood, unmoving. Her eyes widened in shock, all she could do was stare at the shape that seemed to have appeared out of thin air.

The silhouette lingered, its head tilted slightly as if it could see her through the fabric of her tent, studying her. The outline was unmistakably human in shape, but also somehow distorted, as if it wasn't completely solid, the outlines of the shape coiled like smoke. Eden stayed completely still, straining her ears she heard the sound of soft, even breathing.

Eden pressed a trembling hand over her mouth, urging herself not to make a sound, terrified that the figure would hear her and try to enter her fragile shelter. But the thing didn't move, it didn't speak, it simply stood there, a black shape standing outside the closed entrance to her tent. Minutes crawled by sluggishly, the silence thick with tension. She had the reckless urge to unzip her tent and throw it open, to prove to herself that It was no more than the shadow of a tree, or a trick of the light. But part of her knew, had known since the moment she saw it, it was him, the one from her dreams, who whispered her name like a prayer.

She lay awake for what felt like hours, every muscle screamed in protest from her prolonged frozen position, the effort to stay still was becoming unmanageable. The silhouette remained in the same position, Asif standing guard over her, like an animal would guard its prey, the pull in her chest pulsed like a heartbeat.

At some point, hours later exhaustion overcame her fear, her eyelids grew irresistibly heavy and she fell into the black hole of sleep.

When the pale light of dawn woke her that morning, the shadow was gone, Eden sat up and stretched, her throat dry as sandpaper and her body stiff from the uncomfortable tension of the night, she smiled to herself "These dreams are getting way too vivid" she chuckled and opened her tent.

That's when she saw them. Just outside, laid neatly in a carefully formed hill, was a pile of wildflowers. White and purple blossoms plucked from the forest floor, the same ones she had been admiring at her waterfall, their petals still damp from the morning dew. The arrangement was too deliberate to be chance, these flowers had been left here for her to find.

Beside them rested a stack of freshly cut firewood, smooth even lengths of birch and oak, set down in almost tender precision, Eden leaned out of the mouth of her tent, looking at her foreign objects, this wasn't an attack, it was..... a gift.

Her breath caught in her throat as her mind began to race, she struggled to figure out what she felt, fear and confusion, most definitely, but also something else, that she didn't want to admit to herself, something that heated her cheeks, even in the cold morning air. She reached out and lightly touched the petals of the topmost flower, a shiver rushed through her, almost as though she had touched the very hand that had placed them there.

She snatched her hand back, a faint tingling running from her fingertips, up her arm and creating goosebumps up her neck.

"No, she whispered shakily. "No, no, no"

But when she allowed herself to look back down at her gifts, her heart ached with torturous longing.

She sat with the flowers in her lap for a long time, beside the fire that burned with her gifted wood, she turned the stems slowly between her fingers. The petals were cool and fresh, the scent of them so fragrant they seemed to pulse with intoxicating scents of forest and perfume, the sight of them, the tiny deliberate gifts left for her had lodged something tender and stupidly hopeful under the fear she had felt last night, was it the silhouette? it must have been. She shoved the thought away forcefully.

She bundled the flowers into the corner of her pack and shouldered it, each of her movements felt sluggish after her restless evening. The trail cut away from the wide open clearing into a winding ribbon of stone and roots, she set off, the forest gently closed around her.

The hours blurred as she enjoyed her uneventful and peaceful hike, looking for her final campsite, before her dreaded return home. all she heard was the steady rhythm of her feet, the occasional cry of some unseen bird, the sun shifted in the sky, creating streaks of golden light against the trunks of trees, her spirits were immeasurably lifted form the gifts she had received, like something cared, the flowers she carried felt like a hand on her shoulder, support she desperately needed, but also couldn't shake.

It was a damp patch of moss and a hidden root the disrupted her leisurely hike, one second she was stepping over a low trunk, the next her foot had caught on the stray root and she pitched forward. Her hand struck out instinctively to protect herself, and hit something hard and sharp, she rolled over and managed to protect her head. Pain exploded in the side of her hand and wrist, as she lay on her back, she carefully sat up and brought her hand to her eyes, hot, slick blood slid down her hand, dripping from her fingertips.

Adrenaline made her clumsy as she removed her pack and tried to open it one handed, she fumbled through the contents, looking for her trust first aid kit... but it wasn't there, she completely emptied and repacked her bag with one hand but there was no medical supplies to be found, not even a plaster.

"S**t" She swore through clenched teeth, furious with herself, she never forgot things like this.

She let out an exasperated sigh, as she sat on the earth, trying to stop the blood from the deep cut in her hand, she couldn't go on like this without dressing the wound, an open wound whilst hiking and camping was a perfect way to get a bad infection. She swallowed hard and stood, considering whether to turn back to the clearing to spend her last night.

A faint rustle from the undergrowth behind her made her pause, she turned around slowly, scanning for animals or perhaps a fellow hiker. The forest answered with only stillness, silence pressed in on her from all sides. When she looked back towards the place where she was sitting moments before, something small and pale caught the golden light of the sun.

Sat atop the very root that had tripped her, tucked into a small hole that wasn't there a moment ago, was a small, wrapped bundle. A scrap of old cloth wrapped tight, tied with a length of vine. She stepped closer, her breathing shallow and excited.

She reached out and took the package in her hand and unwrapped it, inside where exactly what she needed, gauze, a bandage, a small individually packaged antiseptic wipe and a blister pack of pain killers. Everything smelled faintly of damp forest, and something else, smothing that reminded her of a dying fire.

Her fingers were clumsy as she cleaned the cut, the sting of the antiseptic wipe making her recoil slightly, she placed the gauze and wrapped the bandage tight and snug around her hand and tied it off. She swallowed two of the tablets with a generous gulp of water, she had a feeling these were more for her sore muscles than the cut itself, as if the shadow knew how uncomfortable her night had been. The medicine dulled the ache of her body.

She sat back on her heels and help her bandaged hand in the other, she looked around the trees, hoping they might give her a clue as to her mystery guardian. The forest however, remained mute and ordinary, but the knowledge of whoever had helped her threaded through her like a needle. She smiled in spite of herself, she didnt know what to feel anymore.

"Thank you" she whispered to the empty air.