Scarlett Thornwood's Arc

Chapter 5 of 5

The red flames at the hollow died all at once. Every candle snuffed in a breath. The welling blood stopped catching light, and the drag trail vanished under black. Scarlett reached for Dominic and found his sleeve. "I can't see anything," she said. The dark pressed close and wet. Somewhere above, wings flapped heavy and slow. Red eyes blinked open in the trees, then more beside them. "Don't run," Dominic said. His voice stayed flat, but his hand gripped her arm hard. Leaves rustled near the ground, wet and moving, circling. Scarlett turned toward every sound and saw only the red eyes, closer now. Her grandfather's words came to her. Stay quiet. Listen. She held still and breathed slow, counting the flaps of wings, tracking where the eyes drifted. Then a new light showed far off through the trunks. Amber, warm, nothing like the candle flames. It swung as it came, a lantern carried by hand. The eyes above them scattered. The wet rustling pulled back into the deep woods. The light grew until Scarlett saw the man behind it. He was old, white-haired, in a red plaid shirt and suspenders. His boots were caked with red mud. A thick lantern hung from his fist, wax dripping down its frame in long trails. He raised it and saw them and stumbled back a step. "Who's there?" His voice cracked. "Nobody stands out here. Not in the dark." His free hand pressed flat against his chest. "What are you doing? You don't stand in these woods with no light." "We were following a trail," Scarlett said. "The candles went out. We lost it." She kept her hands open where he could see them. "A man was dragged through here. We're trying to find him." The old man lifted his lantern higher and studied her face, her red hood, her orange eyes. His own eyes were pale and clouded. "Dragged," he repeated. He did not ask more. He looked at the empty trees where the eyes had been. "You heard them, then. The wings." "We heard them," Dominic said. "Gregor Redwood," the old man said, the way a man names himself to prove he is real. "My cabin's close. You come with me now. You don't last out here once the light's gone." He had already turned, lantern swinging, not waiting for an answer. Scarlett looked at the black hollow behind her. The trail was gone. The creature was gone. Chasing it blind would only get them killed. She caught Dominic's eye and he gave a small nod. They followed the old man's light. Gregor walked fast for his age, boots sucking at the red mud. Dogs began to bark ahead, then howl, high and frantic, as if they smelled what rode the dark. "They do that every night now," Gregor said, not turning. "Since the mud went red. Keep close." The cabin's windows glowed ahead, and Scarlett stepped out of the woods for the first time all night.