Perception

LXXIX

She woke up with a start. It was cold, now, very cold, the September night already outdoing the sleeping bag's potential. But that wasn't what had woken her. An all-pervasive sense of danger gripped her straight away and she knew before her arm had had a chance to make its way to the left where Eli should be, before her nerve endings had had a moment to realise that his sleeping bag was indeed empty, she knew.
He was gone.
She bounded up, hitting her head on the roof of the tent so hard she thought it would fall over. She scrambled out of the sleeping bag and to the zip.
"Eli!" she called, louder than she should, too loud for the silence of the campsite.
Part of her rational brain wanted to say it was probably fine, he'd probably just gone to the toilet, but she knew with that certainty that she was starting to get to know that he wasn't. He really wasn't here.
There was nothing but panic, now, as her feet found her Birkenstocks and she started running. She ran to the toilet block, to make sure, knocking the stall doors open with her flat hand. The white gleam of the urinals stared coldly back at her as she ran into the open area. It was empty. Of course it was.
She sprinted back to the tent, her breaths coming quick and shallow. Empty. Up the path, then, up the gravel path to the forest, the revolving gate opening with a slight creak under the pounding of her arms.

The darkness was all around her again, enveloping her with its iron fists, and the smell of moss invaded her nostrils so violently she felt like she was drowning in it. Her hand hurt where she'd scraped it on the rough bark. It was stinging and she smelled the faint scent of iron, mixed with the earthy scents of the forest all around her. She must have been bleeding, but she had no time to look. Not that she could have seen in the pervading darkness, anyway.
"Help!" she screamed. "Where are you?"
She fled on, it was all she could do, feeling the bark of the trees under her fingers once more as she tried to feel her way around in the pitch black, keeping her other arm in front of her face to stop the branches from hitting her eyes.
Where was he?
It was only the overwhelming feeling of knowing where to go to that drove her forward now, of knowing that danger was following her, was all around her.
"Help!" she screamed again, her voice hoarse now. "Eli, where are you?"
Suddenly, out of nowhere, the voice was there, louder than ever before, so tangible she almost felt like she could reach out and touch it.
"Be quiet, Anna. You don't want to be heard. I'll lead you."
She shut her mouth so abruptly she could hear her lips close. In fact, she could hear pretty much everything as she ground to a halt and listened. The slight rustle of the leaves above her, telling her that she'd somehow managed to stumble back to the wide path. The small sound of something scuttling in the undergrowth beside her, that for no good reason whatsoever she realised was a hedgehog. She turned to the sound and saw the faint shape of a pointy nose. Was it looking at her? She breathed deeply, her hand on the bark of a tree beside her, grounding her, calming her.
Then she nodded into the darkness. She knew where he must be. She stroked her hand over the beads once, almost as a nod to the voice.
Okay, let's go. she said in her mind. I'm ready.
Without hesitation she stepped back onto the wide path.