Jonas

Not scared.

Just hyper-aware.

Like my brain had flipped a switch on its own.

The kind of waking where you don't know what's wrong, but you're damn sure something is.

I sat up on the cot and glanced out the small window over the stove.

There was a light in the woods, way off, maybe a few hundred feet out.

It was faint, barely visible through the branches, but it was definitely there.

It pulsed slowly, reddish, like an old brake light stuck blinking in the distance.

Except there wasn't a road that way, not even a trail.

Just solid forest.

I stared at it, trying to figure out what it could be.

A lost hunter, maybe, but no one else was supposed to be out there, Mark would have told me.

Maybe a reflection, but from what?

There was no moon that night, and I didn't keep any lights on inside the trailer.

I watched it blink, slow and steady, one pulse every few seconds.

For nearly ten minutes, it just kept going, never moved, never got brighter or dimmer.

Eventually, I pulled the curtain shut and lay back down.

I don't think I fell asleep again until sometime around dawn.

Next morning, I hiked out in the direction of the light.

Took me about 15 minutes to reach the general area.