Power Cut - #JustWriteIt Wattys2015

Four

"Hey. Hey, Wake up."

I woke up to Harrison shaking my shoulders. I looked around and saw Jayden, Brandon and Amelia still sleeping, and could feel the chilly night air as the last dying embers of the fire withered into nothing. I turned my head to the night sky, and saw the thick swirling clouds above, blocking out the stars as the crescent moon struggled to send slivers of silvery moonlight through the thick cloudy blanket. Everything was dark. The night was still, the cool night air breezing through the leaves of the trees without a single rustle. The only noise to be heard was the sighs and moans of our sleeping friends, and out in the distance, the haunting calls of a great owl. I turned behind me and looked down the mountain towards where our little town lay, but I saw nothing. All of the town's lights were dimmed and the darkness of the night consumed it, along with the rest of our surroundings.

Harrison shook my shoulders once more, coaxing me out of my sleepy state.

"Hey, can you come over here?" I looked into his eyes and saw a mix of pleading, confusion and even anxiety. Something was wrong.

"Ugh, What is it?" I groaned, my thoughts swimming in a sea of sleepy confusion. My eyelids were droopy and heavy, and it seemed almost as if they were magnetized shut. I was exhausted, we all were. The hike up had been tiring, and we had all fallen to sleep almost before our heads hit our pillows. I didn't know exactly, but my guess it would have been about midnight, so why was he awake? I shifted my body, propping myself upright as I tried to regain proper consciousness. As I looked up at him and I could see as he registered my confusion.

"I woke up because I thought I heard something, and then I saw this. Can you come take a look?"

I looked up at him, with his eyebrows knotted together and a crease running across his forehead. He had taken off his glasses and I could see him polishing them, a habit he always did when he was concerned or nervous. If something was making Harrison this way then it must be important, and clearly he wanted me to help him. I agreed groggily, and after an almighty yawn, I stretched myself out and tiptoed quietly after him, trying my best not to wake the others. He walked further up the mountain, up a little trail beside the creek. We hadn't been up this far before

He stood by a small cliff-face with his arm outstretched, pointing into the distance.

"What do you make of that?" he inquired.

I followed his finger and out across the misty mountain ranges, my eyes clouded over with sleep. I could see a blurry splodge in the distance, but my vision was still out of focus. I yawned once again, wiping the sleep out of my eyes until the image came into focus. And then I saw it. A yellow light out in the distance, flickering on and off.

It was mesmerizing to watch, the way it danced around in the darkness, and I couldn't tear my eyes away from it.

It was calling to me.

Beckoning me.

Drawing me towards it.

A lone flickering light out in an endless sea of black.

But then a voice pierced the silence, snapping me out of its trance. "Well?" Harrison turned to me inquisitively.

Well? Well what? I thought to myself. I looked back out across the mountain towards the dancing light. Of course, the light. A single light in the darkness, its source a mystery. What could it be? What could possibly be out there? It wasn't a fire, there would have been smoke. And I couldn't see the silhouette of a building either. Besides, who would build something out here?

"Oh. Uh, um, I-I don't know. No idea, sorry."

"Hmm," He replied disappointedly. "Me neither."

He looked back out to the light, his eyes filled with a look of concentration. He didn't like to leave things unsolved and seemed to have thought that maybe I could have provided him with an answer. But I knew next to nothing about these mountains, that was Jayden's forte. Why hadn't Harrison asked him?