Think about Nicole and Tom

Before you turned your full attention to your crush, you thought again about Nicole and Tom. They were probably shivering already, heads bowed against the wind. It was a problem of their own making, but you still felt bad for them. At least, you felt bad for one of them. Poor Tom was going to have his work cut out for him facing off against an irritated Nicole all by himself.

You wondered if they were still bickering. . .

In the cold dark of the night, two figures hurried down a sparsely lit path. From one cone of amber light to the next, they sped. The figure in the lead was much taller and broader, always lumbering ahead of the second, who was shorter and smaller in every regard.

"Hey, slow down!" Nicole shouted from Tom's heels, Matt's coat nearly spilling open around her as she half-jogged in her rivals wake. The little green dress she had worn was cute, but it certainly wasn't designed to run in, and now with every step she found it riding annoyingly up her thighs. If it wasn't for Matt's coat and her own frequent readjustments, she'd probably have been flashing her butt and panties to the whole forest.

"At least I wore pumps," she thought, thankful that she had eschewed the kitten heels beside her closet for something more sensible.

If Tom heard her yell, he didn't show it. Head down, shoulders hunched, hands in pockets, he marched on. Looking at him from behind, Nicole felt like a young reporter trying to chase down a brash wrestler or boxer for an interview.

"Tom, you know, walking fast won't make up for me twisting your arm?" She teased him, but it did nothing to effect Tom's pace.

"Okay, I get it," Nicole sighed, "you can walk faster than me. Longer legs mean a bigger stride, what an accomplishment. Big tall Tom can beat 5 foot nothing Nicole in a foot race. You win, congratulations." Her words dripped with sarcasm, even though she was half out of breath as she said them. Tom still didn't rise to it, however, choosing instead to just keep walking.

"Fine, don't talk, the silent treatment, two can play at that game, just you watch, I'll stop talking and just look at the scenery." Jamming her hands in her borrowed pockets, she turned her focus to her left and right.

On both sides, the dark woods stretched away, behind and ahead of her, and deeper well beyond the reaches of the streetlights. Bare and twisted limbs snarled overhead, reaching around the path like gnarled fingers around a throat. The chill October wind rattled the trees, setting the branches aquiver and making the shadows dance.

Just looking at the shifting patterns of sticks and shadows on the ground made Nicole dizzy, like she'd had another 5 drinks. Raising her eyes was no better. The constant breeze and the lights above that she constantly moved past made the black ghosts of the trees appear to be in constant motion. With every step, she felt like she saw movement form the corner of her eye, only to whip her head and see just a bough or shadow.

The trees surrounding her felt more and more like a tunnel, closing around her, whilst things moved in the dark.

Suddenly, she felt like maybe having some light conversation would be nice. Even with Tom.

"So, what do you think Sarah and the others are doing right now? You looked like you were having such a nice conversation with Miranda, it's a shame you had to leave. Oh well, good thing she's got John to keep her company," she needled at him like an acupuncturist, finally drawing a response in the form of a one eyed glare over his shoulder. That did put a smile on her face. For some reason, an angry 6"2 footballer was considerably less scary to her than the unknowns of the forest.

When Tom turned to face ahead, Nicole opened her mouth to keep prodding, only to be cut off by walking into a brick wall. At least, it felt like a brick wall, hitting Tom's broad back at a walking pace was unforgiving.

"Owww," she groaned, pulling her face off Tom's leather jacket and rubbing her nose. "That's just childish," she added, blonde brows furrowing as she glared at the back of Tom's head. She expected him to turn and smirk or laugh at her, but Tom instead stayed still, facing resolutely ahead.

"What is it now?" Nicole asked his back, "instead of just the silent treatment are you gonna stop walking too? Too scared to go for a walk in the woods?" Since Tom kept ignoring her, Nicole stood on to her tiptoes to lean around him, intending to get in his face.

"What are you-" The words died in her throat as she leant over Tom's shoulder, and saw what he saw. There, ahead of them on the path, was a figure. Not a walking figure, just a stationary one. They were so far away that they were little more than a black silhouette against the amber lamplight, but something about them made Nicole's blood run cold.

They stood with their arms stiffly at their sides and their legs shoulder width apart, and they weren't moving. They weren't walking towards Nicole and Tom, or away. They just stood. As if they were waiting for them.

The more Nicole stared, the more scared she felt.

Her eyes began to play tricks on her. First she thought the stranger's legs were too long, then their arms seemed too short, and then around the figure's head she swore she saw the shadows of hair that hadn't been there before, twisted locks in the blackness that must have fallen to their shoulders.

Despite her dislike for him, Nicole found herself clinging to Tom like he was a life preserver. The leather of his jacket creaked under his fingers, the only other sound that she could hear besides the rushing of blood in her ears. She could see Tom's breath, billowing in front of his face in rapid bursts, from over his shoulder. With horror, she noted no similar effect from the stranger.

For what felt like hours, but might have been seconds, the three of them stood in a sickening stand off. Nicole and Tom daren't move, and the figure still didn't seem to want to. There was a moment, a flash of hope like a shooting star, where Nicole thought that the figure was just a statue. It could have been some weird prank or stolen Halloween decoration, left there by drunken revelers, but that wasn't the case.

They, it, the thing before them, raised a hand slowly in their direction. Nicole could feel her already pounding heart quicken even further. She wanted to scream, but all that came out was a whine like an animals.

Tom and her stood, dumbstruck, as the figure's arm raised up like something rising from the dead. Their arm outstretched right at them. Their finger pointed at the two of them like an accusation for a moment, before the light over the thing went out. Darkness enshrouded it where it stood, fading it into the night as surely as if it had disappeared. Now Nicole wished that she could see it again.

Was it running at them in the dark?
Had it slipped off the path to creep towards them?
Was it about to slither from the shadows in a shape she couldn't even recognize?

She wrapped herself around Tom now, her arms clinging to him like he was a rock in a stormy sea. She stared where the thing had been, until her eyes stung. She couldn't blink. The fear of what she'd see when she reopened her eyes kept her from closing them. Tears began to well up in the corners of her eyes, but still she could not close them.

Instead of something coming from the darkness, something worse happened. The darkness spread. Another streetlight between themselves and where the figure had been went out, put out like a blown candle. It had been five lights away, now there were only three still lit.

Then two. The darkness, and whatever lurked within, was advancing on them.

Nicole turned to run, one hand holding Tom either for safety or to pull him with her. Too late. The lights behind were gone already. They were in a tiny oasis of light, surrounded on all sides by the boundless night. Looking forward again, Nicole saw yet another light go out.

Now, there was only one.

In a tiny circle of light, like the last flickering star at the end of the universe, Nicole leant over Tom's shoulder to look again. She felt like a child watching a horror film from over her dad's comforting arm, but now the fear couldn't be turned off by a remote. The light above them held for a while, Nicole's adrenaline pumping more and more, faster and faster, before the inevitable happened.

The last light died. Nicole ran. If Tom pulled away from her or was pulled away by something else, she couldn't tell. She didn't think. She couldn't. All she could do was run. In moments, she was off the path, tearing through bracken and undergrowth. In seconds, she was lost, blundering into the woods like a wounded deer. Thorns grabbed at her, branches whipped her, and through it all she pushed on.

She'd rather have been torn to pieces by the forest than to face that thing again.