It was an icy night, dusk to be exact. The breeze was being awfully mean, prickling his skin nonstop, deep into his flesh. The atmosphere and countryside were a little bit misty, consumed with darkness. It took Oliver a while to adapt himself into the gloom. He looked up to see a mass of dark cloud moved from its place, revealing the full moon which was almost orange in colour, with a speck of red colour that brought the creepy look.
He was standing on earthen terrain, before he finally realised ahead of him was nothing but a thick, scary woods. He tried to utter words, but nothing came out. It was as if everything he said was nulled by his surroundings. He can’t even hear a single sound of living creature. It was…totally quiet. He took a step forward before he finally heard the first sound. Mud splashed.
It was after rain, and he looked down his feet to see that his shoes were caked with murky mud, and the dirt was halfway up to his calves. He shivered inside his loose shirt as he looked around.
At the edge of his eye he saw a flash of dim light, probably about 100 yards away from him. It was then continued with weak vibrations he felt under his feet. Weak and steady, before it slowly turned stronger and stronger every second. He examined the sound carefully, and each vibration and sound was picked up and sent to his control center to be interpreted. At that time he winced.
Before he was able to construe, he was flash blinded by a couple of flash lights in front of him, and each was pointing directly towards his face, as if they thought the flash would actually be able to burn him. Oliver covered his face with one arm, and one leg stepped back. He felt a drip of sweat managed to run down his back, despite the fact that the coldness of the night could even freeze his blood. Then he heard loud, neighing sound, followed by nickers.
When his eyes were able to adapt themselves into the darkness and radiance, and just before he could make any guess, he saw a pair of horses towing a large, wooden carriage in front of him. The coach rattled as if it was going to flip any second on the uneven road, the wheels kept hitting small rocks and portholes. As soon as the wheels stopped rolling, the driver flung himself off the seat, splattering mud halfway his boots, followed by the passenger beside him. The coach was parked with one side higher than the other. One of them yanked the door opened and said sternly, ‘Stay right here’. Slamming the door shut, the man turned to his friend.
Oliver saw both of them was wearing capes that hung from their shoulders, with heavy boots that made loud clattering sound every time they stepped. Black leather hats and gloves completed the descriptions, but he did not see their faces. Only once through the flashes of light, he saw a scar on one of them, raised and shiny on the left cheek.
The driver took out a piece of paper from his jacket, which Oliver believed to be some kind of map. The man looked at the crumpled sheet of paper and his surrounding alternately, as if to make sure it was the right place. Oliver watched anxiously in the coldness of the night, his eyes were glued to the man who was positioning his torchlight, holding it in between his neck and shoulder as he held the paper with two hands. Once he was definite, he rolled it and put the paper back into his jacket.
‘Here?’ The other man said nonchalantly, his finger was fumbling in the darkness to switch his torchlight. Both of them now aimed their torchlights towards Oliver. The boy drew himself back, almost tripped over his own leg. What were they going to do to him? Were they going to kill him? The sound of wolves howling and the owls made the horses even more uncomfortable, not to mention Oliver as well. They stomped their feet onto the ground, making noise and blew little puffs of frost from their nostrils, ready to take off any second, with or without their masters.
His tongue was frozen, not to mention his body was jammed. He knew he was dreaming, but about what..?
‘We have to find it. It’ll worth thousands.’ The other man said, tapping his torchlight onto his palm when it started to flicker. Then it turned brighter than before. The other was frantically caressing the horses, trying to calm them. Oliver realised they weren’t looking at him. In fact, he wasn’t sure if they could see him. They were…looking at the woods behind him. One of them went behind the coach and took out a shovel. At that was when it happened.
The nearby hedges and shrubs made noises as if they were disturbed, before they became quiet again. Oliver’s eyes tried to catch something that just slunk into the woods, but he failed. It was too fast, but he just figured it might be a bunny or a wild cat. He made a side-step, into the darkness and the flash didn’t move from its place to follow him. At that moment he was relieved he was right. The shrubs moved again and something sneaked from it, as if it was trying to avoid the flash.
Oliver’s heart rate shot up. A dark figure skulked from behind the tree, into the deep darkness. He swore he saw someone as tall as him right there, leaning over watching them. Oliver gasped as he tried to recall the flash, as he was definite he saw the person had a tail on his back!
“Come on. We don’t have all night.” The other man said, probably didn’t notice the thing that just ran among the bushes.
The men went into the woods, and the dream shook, the frame was slowly disappearing as they walked away. Oliver diffidently followed, afraid he’ll vanish too. He kept a safe distance, about 15 meters from the men, although he knew they couldn’t see him. About 5 minutes after that, he saw the steady lights from their torchlights became wild, flashing here and there before it continued with loud screams.
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