All thoughts of finding a path driven from her mind, Heather threw herself back down the small hill, careening forward with her arms held up to ward off the blow she was sure must be coming. Now, she was certain that several things were after her – creatures that ran on four legs, that could smell her fear – and they were on all sides, chasing her down. Drink from the river, she thought wildly, drink from the river and become a wolf.

The ground dropped away below her and before she could react Heather sprawled headlong into the wet and busy earth. All the air knocked out from her, she could do nothing but lie there for a long moment, the mud seeping into her jeans. She’d fallen partly into a bush, and the leaves were pricking her through her coat, as though she lay in broken glass. The noises had stopped, but as she picked herself up and looked around, the sense that she was being watched had increased tenfold. Eyes in the forest, watching.

‘What do you want?’ Her voice wavered, untrustworthy. ‘Who are you?’

Silence. It was a deeper silence than that which she had experienced before; no small animals moved through the undergrowth, no night birds called – even the wind seemed to have stopped. Something was listening. Much to her own surprise, she realized she was still holding her phone; when she’d fallen, some instinct had caused her to clasp it close to her chest. She held it up, activating the screen, and slowly turned the small oblong of light back and forth, all around her. The empty forest looked back at her, full of distrust and lies.

‘I know you’re there,’ she said. Anger, familiar and comforting, began to seep through her limbs. She was cold, wet, and frightened, she had been scratched all over and her right knee had taken a serious knock, and all because someone was playing silly buggers in the woods. ‘Say something, or piss off. All right?’

There was no reply, but in the corner of her eye Heather caught the slightest movement in the shadows. She spun the light towards it but, whatever it had been, it was gone. However, it was possible now to see the path, and even beyond that, the clearing that led to their cottage.

She headed that way gladly, wincing as various cuts and bruises made themselves known. The cottage stood in its own cocoon of silence, soft lamplight glowing at the window. Heather was still some distance from it when she thought she saw the figure again – someone was standing at the back of the cottage, near one of the bedroom windows. She gasped in a breath, ready to shout, but in another heartbeat the shape was gone again, if it had ever been there in the first place.