Somehow, in the midst of it all, the mists settled, and Emery found herself in a sun-lit, daybright field, moving slowly through the tall grasses, brushing flower tips with her outstretched fingers. Small furred animals hopped amongst the brambles, down in the undergrowth, and twittering birds took to the air at her every step. She was barefoot, she knew, toes pressing against soft mosses. Buzzing insects, little fluttery things with translucent wings, radiated in a drowsy hum about her head, and the sunlight grew steadily more golden and pure as it swam slowly in its haze toward the horizon. Everything was illuminated with an embrous, fiery orange. Above, the sky was clear beyond a few puffs of cloud, drifting toward endlessness, toward where it was that clouds went. Behind, only meadow, and beyond, only meadow. Left and right--she couldn't see, though she knew that somewhere, in the thick of the summer air, someone waited for her . . .

Emery's mother woke her with a start, calling her name, asking her to eat a quick dinner. The girl was unsure when exactly she'd fallen asleep, but the sun was setting, and she needed to get ready to head out with the search party. It'd been organized that afternoon, and they were all meeting at seven o'clock in the field behind the middle school. Those fields ran far back and into a wooded area that stretched the length of the whole town. Someone had found Adam's truck in the middle school parking lot, empty of him, full of things he'd never have left behind, like his phone, and his wallet . . . and his clothing. The panic had really set in after that.

Emery and Tess had gone to the police station prior to that discovery or, actually, were there when the phone call had come in. So Emery had managed to get out only that Adam had left the party early but never made it home; she hadn't gotten to the part about the stranger before she'd been interrupted. Her story suddenly became unimportant as the station began to bustle and figure out who to send to the middle school, and even though Tess had encouraged her to mention the stalker, Emery hadn't been inclined to--as she put it--"hold the police back by rambling about her personal life."

She and Tess had biked to the middle school, and even though the whole area around Adam's truck had been cordoned off, they'd seen it. They'd known it was serious at that point. No way would Adam just leave his truck. And when the added gossip had spread about all the items he'd left behind, well. That was beyond worrisome.

Emery and Tess had gathered with other friends at one of their houses, and the group had talked and brainstormed about what they could possibly do. Some had wanted to head over to the middle school and start searching the woods, but word had come from parents that the police were absolutely against anyone being near the crime scene. They were calling it a crime scene. Emery and the others had picked up on that and freaked out, but at length, they'd all been advised to head home and go about their business, that a search party was going to head out into the woods at seven PM. That the police were there now, but that barring them finding Adam, the community was encouraged to gather and help.

So Emery had forced herself to go back to her house. She and Tess had parted ways for a bit, because Tess had to visit her grandmother, anyway. The rest of that afternoon had been awful. Emery's anxiety was sky-high, and she was unsure how she'd even fallen asleep on her bed.

But she had, and that was where the dream had come in. The beautiful, beautiful dream. When she'd awakened, her heart had immediately sunk. The contentment of the dream . . . just the way it had wrapped its peacefulness, its carefreeness around her. To awaken and remember that Adam was missing was nightmarish.

Something terrible must have happened to him. Emery was sure of it. She'd desperately wanted to call Mrs. Lir but figured the woman probably had enough on her mind, so as she went down to eat some food, Emery checked her chat groups and found them awash with gossip. Who knew what of it was true and what of it wasn't? Adam had been eaten by a wild animal; Adam had been sucked into some catfishing scam and been abducted; Adam had lost it from all the school work and parental pressure and wanted to just run wild and free in the wilderness; Adam had been straight-up dragged into a spaceship by an alien beam. Most of the rumors were the worst--clearly rumors. Nevertheless, Emery couldn't bear thinking of Adam being dead or hurt. She tried to remain positive, threw her phone across the room at one point to avoid looking at it, until at last, her moodiness was sated when six thirty arrived and she was able to leave the house to do more than just sit in it.

Her parents and sister went, too. Their family arrived by car at the middle school, in a different lot than the one Adam's truck was in. By the time they arrived, it was packed with people and cars. Organizers were attempting to hand out bright orange safety vests and give flashlights to whomever hadn't brought their own. Through the crowd, Emery managed to spot Tess, and the two gleaned a few others from amongst the chaos. By the time the organizers were done shouting their instructions about safety and what to do if the seekers found anything, Emery was ready to just start running. She couldn't handle the worry, anymore. Someone had to find something . . . she was sure of it. And being one of Adam's closest friends, she felt certain it would have to be her.

The teens set off across the fields behind the school, moving briskly, spreading apart to cover more ground as the hundreds of others fanned out all along the edges of the woods for miles. Emery was suddenly reminded of her dream, as the sun was beginning to creep toward the horizon now, but the glow on this warm summer evening held no warmth or comfort. It was dense and ominous, as if she were wading through a body of water and deep creatures might, at any moment, emerge to challenge her. That feeling only intensified when she and her peers reached the woods. The trees weren't incredibly thick, and they didn't go back more than fifteen miles before hitting another suburb, but they were enough to contain deer and occasional coyotes, for children to get lost in from time to time, for people to camp in or sneak into to make out. They were deep enough for all that, and as it was late summer, the plants were thick and viney. This was no winter forest, when something could be spotted quite easily lying atop some leaves; this was a summer forest, and any searching through the abundant vegetation was time-consuming. It was no doubt why the police had wanted to organize a search party.

Their phone lights and flashlights became absolutely necessary as Emery and her peers wound their way into the trees. Their group spread out, but calls of Adam's name were frequent and seemed to echo one another throughout the forest. Liam, one of their group, came up a little close to Emery, and she saw he was wearing air pods. Smacking his arm, he paused and pulled one out, looked at her in question.

"Adam's missing, idiot. The least you can do is pay attention."

Embarrassed, Liam listened.

Emery stayed nearest to Tess, and the two of them had small conversations, about random things they thought they saw, who was around them . . . but overall, they remained quiet enough. The mood in those woods was heavy, haunting. Emery began to worry not that they wouldn't find anything but more that if and when they did, it would be something terrifying. The longer they trekked through those woods, the more sure she was that the rumors of ghosts and monsters were truer than anything else. If Adam had wandered back here in the middle of the night, and if he hadn't had any sort of light, what might have happened to him?

But at least forty minutes, maybe an hour passed without any sign of Adam, without even the slightest clue. If others to the left and right had found something, the chain of people would've delivered their message in shouts down the line. This was bad. All bad. How far back would they have to go? How long?

Tears filled Emery's eyes. She didn't know how long she could go on, not because of exhaustion but because of growing despair. The tears ran down her face, blurred her vision somewhat, and she raised a hand to wipe them, paused to calm herself as sobs threatened to overtake her. The darkness seemed to close in suddenly, and it took her a moment to realize why: the others had moved on, apparently too far forward for her to see their lights. Overhead, a bird cawed, startling her; it seemed so near. But where had the others gone? Emery spun in a slow circle and saw absolutely no one. She called out to Tess, but no reply came. What was going on? The air felt chillier, suddenly, and the darkness more intense, more black. Emery swept her hair back, as if it were hindering her vision, but really her move was one of nervous energy, as were her trembling chin and shaking hands.

And as she stood there, at an absolute loss as to what to do--whether to head back or continue forward--some noise from behind, back toward the direction from which they'd come, caught her attention. The cawing had continued at intervals, but this was something more than that, something of substance, something moving through the forest toward her.

Rooted, Emery turned her upper body to peer into the darkness behind her, and what she saw at first excited but quickly alarmed her: it was a light, like the pale greenish glow of a strange flashlight, and that's what she thought it was--the others, coming her way--until she realized that rather than behind it, three black, monstrous figures were moving in front of it. They seemed to shift in slow motion, and yet they were coming her way, she was sure of it, swinging arms next to hulking bodies, legs as thick as tree trunks stolidly approaching. And she was sure the one to the left wore a cape, a cape with, perhaps, ears atop it, and the cape rippled behind the figure. The one to the right was too obscure to make out--just taller and slightly thinner in stature, but the one in the center . . . Oh, God! The one in the center! Atop its head--antlers. Giant, twisted, many-pronged antlers that gave it the height of a giant. And these three horrifying apparitions pushed their way toward her, impeded by nothing, gargantuan nightmares striding through the mist and pale light, right toward her.

Emery tried to scream, but her voice caught in her throat, and she felt certain these creatures or beings or monsters or whatever they were would trample or murder her when seemingly out of the air itself another figure appeared, this one just as difficult to discern.

The newcomer, shorter but by no means small, leapt at the antlered form, looked to have a . . . no! Emery was sure she was seeing things . . . a sword? And yet it was swinging something over its head, swinging at the monster in front which faltered, made strange movements as if attempting to steady itself, but within moments, it along with its antlers had split into ribbons of night that vanished into thin air, and its counterparts quickly followed suit.

At once, the light behind them faded, and Emery, having dropped her flashlight somewhere in her terror, couldn't see the face of the newcomer, the swordfighter, as it hurried to her and took her arm. "They'll return. We must go."

And with that, it took off running, pulling her into motion behind it. They ran, and they ran, and it seemed to Emery that the running was easier, was more like flying, as long as this person had hold of her. The voice had belonged to a him, she was sure, and the hand that held her felt strong and firm, like a man's hand.

"What were they?" she managed to call out to the figure before her, of whom she caught a brief glimpse as they passed under a clearing (the long, flowing hair stood out).

"Dark, Death, and Evil. And they'll return, having found you."

"Me? Wh-what could they want with m-me?" Whether she stuttered from breathlessness or fear, Emery couldn't tell.

"Only bad."

He stopped, suddenly, and Emery practically ran into him. They stood in a fortunate shaft of moonlight, cutting through whatever clouds and trees might have obstructed it. He was a good foot taller than she was, and he was dressed strangely, like . . . someone from a Renaissance fair. He wore a long tunic, belted with a strip of leather with an enormous clasp in the shape of a boar's head. Something like a dagger was hanging from his belt. And his shapeless pants tucked into boots that wound in straps up his legs. He wore a cloak of crimson red, visible now in the light. But most striking was his physical form. He was large and muscular, long blond hair poofing down from his head onto his broad shoulders, some of it pulled back and tied, most of it not. His bearded face revealed someone in his twenties or perhaps even early thirties; it was worn but youthful, and most intriguing of all, his eyes appeared to be different--one bright and clear, the other dark as night. As Emery tried to work out what on earth could be going on, he whooshed aside his cloak and returned his sword to its scabbard. She realized, then, that he'd been running with it the whole time.

"Wh-what is this? Who are you?" She felt she'd been asking that a lot, lately.

"There's no time, Lady. I must return you to your people."

Lady? Had he been flippant? It'd sounded more a term of respect, the way he'd said it. But she didn't feel herself to be a lady. "My--my people--"

"Those of the many lights."

"The search party. They--they went far ahead of me--"

He appeared distracted, looking around, crouching to possibly examine something on the ground, rubbing a bit of earth between his fingers, gazing upward and then back for reasons unknown to her. Emery stared in absolute amazement, wondering if maybe she'd run into a troupe of live action role players. What other possible excuse could there be for these costumes? This absurdity?

"This way. We're near." He reached out a hand to her.

Something in Emery wanted to take that hand, but another something kept her from doing so. "I--I can follow you myself, as long as you don't run."

He studied her with his clear and dark eyes, perhaps judging whether he should just grab her again, but ultimately, he nodded. "As you wish. I don't sense the brothers, but keep close."

"Sure, yes," Emery promised. "I will." And she did. The stranger moved swiftly enough, but now that she'd regained her self-assurance, she kept up with him. They hustled for maybe five minutes before she suddenly saw in the distance, through the trees, blots of brightness that must certainly be flashlights. Even more reassuring, Adam's name echoed from somewhere to her left and right as the searchers called for him. Ecstatic, Emery ran several paces past her guide and clasped her hands in joy and relief. "Oh thank you!" she called to the stranger, spinning toward him, but upon doing so, she realized he'd disappeared. Disconcerted, Emery gave only a brief side-to-side glance before she jogged off toward her peers. There was no way she'd lose them again by wasting time.

Natalya was the first member of the search party she ran into, and when she did, Emery hugged her. Natalya was surprised but not upset, especially when Emery explained that she'd thought she'd lost them. The two girls held on to one another in the darkness and moved to catch up to the others, at which point Emery and Natalya and Tess and Liam and all their friends decided to link arms in an effort not to lose anyone else.