Mateo lost track of Kristy and Priya almost immediately. The full moon helped guide his way up the hill, but there were just too many trees shading the moonlight—too many dark patches in the crowded woods to really see where he was going.
Off to his left somewhere, Carl was doing a smart thing and constantly yelling into the night. Yeah, because the last thing he wants is to be alone in the forest with that thing coming after him! Mateo felt exactly the same way.
“Over here!” yelled Carl. “Everyone! Over here!” His voice was getting louder. Mateo skirted a stand of giant redwood trees and ran up and over an outcropping of rocks. “Over here!” He had to be almost on top of Carl. He scurried up a steep ridge.
“Hey everyone!” Carl was on the ridge, his back turned to Mateo. “Everyone, up . . .!”
“I’m here,” said Mateo.
Carl jumped a couple feet off the ground. “Aaaagh!” He turned toward Mateo, bending over and clutching his chest. “You scared me half to death.”
“Sorry.”
Suddenly Kristy crashed through a thicket of younger trees.
“Thank God!” said Carl.
She ran over to them, panting. “What the heck was that thing?” she shouted. “What the heck is happening?”
“It was a spirit,” said Carl. “You heard Priya. It was one of those spirits she told us about. It was driving the truck, and clearly it wants our souls.”
“Wait a minute.” Mateo looked behind her. “Where is Priya?”
Kristy scanned the group. “Don’t say that. Don’t joke around.” She looked over her shoulder. “I thought she was with you.”
“I’m not joking,” said Mateo. “I saw you following her. But I lost you guys the minute we hit the woods.”
“Priya!” shouted Carl. “Over here!”
“Priya!” Mateo and Kristy joined in. “Priya!”
Then Mateo heard something. “Stop!” he yelled. “Guys. Quiet.”
“What is it?” asked Carl.
“Help!”
They looked at one another. “That was Priya,” said Kristy. “Oh my gosh, that thing must have caught her. You guys!”
“Help!” The shouts were definitely coming from Priya. She needed them. She was in trouble.
“Let’s go!” yelled Mateo. He took off toward Priya’s voice, Kristy and Carl right behind him. “Priya, keep yelling!”
“Priya!” shouted Kristy. “We’re coming!”
Mateo led them lumbering blindly through the woods. Unfortunately, this was no wilderness hike on a well-worn trail. It was impossible to run straight in any direction. They dodged right around some redwoods, left past a large pocket of water. After about six or seven twists and turns they had no clue from which direction Priya’s yell for help had come.
“Why are you stopping?” asked Carl.
“I’m lost,” said Mateo. “Which way was she?”
“Over there.” Kristy pointed left.
“No.” Carl pointed straight down a ravine. “It was that way.”
“Priya!” shouted Mateo. “Priya! Where are you?” Without another call from her, Mateo was pretty sure they’d be poking around in these woods all night.
“Priya!” shouted Kristy.
“What’s that?” In a clearing past some trees, about the length of a football field away, Mateo saw a beam of moonlight shining down, illuminating something in the grass. Could it be?
“This way!” shouted Mateo, and they took off toward the clearing.
As they got to the edge of the trees, it was clear. “It’s Priya!” said Kristy. “Thank goodness. Priya, we’re coming for you!”
“Stop!” shouted Mateo. He put on the brakes. “Kristy, stop!” He flung his arms out to prevent the others from running into the grassy meadow. It was definitely Priya in the clearing, but there was something else there too. It floated in the air directly above her. “Wait,” said Mateo. He pointed at what he saw. “What is that?”
Now the others could see what Mateo was seeing. Priya was lying on the ground, back to the tall grass, face toward the sky. She appeared to be asleep or in some kind of a trance. About ten feet above her hovered the other thing Mateo had seen. It was white, and it floated and billowed in the sea breeze.
“It’s the spirit from the truck,” said Kristy, a little too loud.
“Shh,” said Carl.
“I don’t think so,” whispered Mateo. “It’s white.” Though it was the same shape and size as the spirit that had emerged from the pickup back at the overlook, he got the feeling it was a different spirit.
Which means there’s more than one, he realized. Great.
“We need to do something,” said Kristy.
The spirit drifted, inching ever closer to Priya’s motionless body.
Mateo couldn’t just sit back and let this creature do whatever it wanted to his friend. I have to try something. He took a couple steps into the clearing. Priya was still a good hundred feet away. He stopped and shouted, “Back off!” Mateo stood as tall and steady as he could, feeling the throbbing of blood in his veins. Relax and stay strong. Don’t show any weakness. “Back off, you freak!”
The thing turned toward him. Mateo took an inadvertent step backward. The face was visible now, and it was awful, like something he’d seen in horror movies. The face was a white skull, but the outline of the bones shimmered and shifted behind the hood, like the face was made of fog or smoke. Then the skull morphed to reveal sharp, wolf-like fangs, and then it contorted into an abhorrent, screaming face with a misshapen, alien forehead.
The spirit’s twisting, glowing eyes locked on Mateo, and a horrible shriek split the air. Mateo dropped to the ground, his open palms slapped around his ears. Kristy and Carl fell to the ground behind him. The creature shrieked once more, and the sound tore right through him, his eyes bulging behind his closed eyelids.
As quickly as the horrific scream had pierced the silent evening, it stopped. Mateo got to his feet. The creature had focused again on Priya. Kristy and Carl stood up and sidled alongside Mateo.
An eerie, haunting moan emanated from the spirit as it edged closer and closer to Priya’s body. “What’s going to happen to her?” asked Kristy. “Isn’t there something we can do?”
Before Mateo or Carl could answer, the white spirit dropped to a mere inch above Priya and became a long, narrow plume of smoke. The smoke coiled into her nose and mouth, like a snake burrowing into a crevice, and then, like a snuffed candle, the white spirit was gone. Gone inside the body of their friend.
They rushed to Priya.