(REWRITING) The Skylar Experiment : Coveting

1. Night Birds

November 2015

EMMA

WADING THROUGH this woodland after sundown by ourselves was a different experience, even more so when you're being chased by some obscure, persistent creeps. I've gone camping before with the extended family, but it was the equipment and numbers that made me feel safe. 

I did not feel safe now. Neither did Lauren, or else she wouldn't have asked me to get moving. Nor would she have refused to use my phone flashlight to see the ground. 

She stayed close. Her arm brushed mine, which gave me some direction among the brambles and fuzzy outlines. I'd had to pull a jacket from my backpack, and I was worried about prolonged exposure for Lauren, who was dressed as thinly as possible for the winter, but she made me touch her wet skin. It was still warm.

After a certain time, the downpour died. Uncomfortable ideas took shape while I was trying to distract myself from the peril, and I was beginning to wonder where the real peril was. 

I stared at the back of Lauren's neck. Without asking many questions, I chose to hole up in remote terrain with her. And maybe she wasn't a threat, but what about her family? What brought on this kind of attack? Revenge? 

How was she not a threat, though?

That night, the creature had been near. Its screeches and chirrups were within two miles or so. And then... nothing. How could it have skipped us? 

"What did you do, the time we went out with John and the others?"

"Peeing, like I said." Lauren navigated around a naked shrub, lifting a branch for me to pass through. 

"You're awfully confident in the woods all alone."

"I'm not alone."

"You might as well be," I snapped, then halted. "I'm worth nothing if some mountain lion decides we're dinner. And you were alone that night, completely chill, despite somehow getting a fresh stain on the sweater you were wearing before you headed for the truck." 

A bird here and there sang some hews and chat-chat-chats and tchips, some just above us. She said the wild animals posed no problem now, but I doubted it was merely due to a fear of humans. I watched surprise sharpen her eyes as she faced me. 

"I tripped and scratched my arm while I was looking for a spot."

"Yeah, like you did when you scraped your hand on the cash register and the mark was gone after you came out of the bathroom?" Oh, there it was. I whipped out the crazy theories. But I just couldn't explain it away, not like all the other things I'd seen. Like the weird glimmer in Luc's eyes when he was angry with me that easily could have been the reflection of street lamps. 

Lauren flashed a charming, teeth-baring smile. "How much did you drink?"

I rolled my eyes. "I ran just fine until I was tired, don't be obtuse." 

"Well, bears are hibernating. Mountain lions are pretty rare around here and wolves aren't that nocturnal, so I'm not sure what your concern is."

"Um, the boars? Elk? You never heard coyotes howling after midnight?"

She shrugged. "There's always tree-climbing with them."

I wanted to throw my hands up. If a wild freaking boar is charging me, I won't be thinking of climbing a tree in low visibility. My first instinct would be to cry and hope it finds a better target. As if I'd see it charging in this near-total darkness. "And what about that wild animal that's killed a man last month? You don't think about that one after John's night?"