2. Road Trip

The relief for having dissuaded the night outing is doubled when the missing Jason appears. However, the young man's demeanour gives him reason to pause.

Stepping casually near him he says softly (so the others cannot hear, "Jason. We got scared for a minute, not seeing you around... Everything all right, pal? Seen something upsetting?"

JOCELYN Jocelyn places a hand over the charred remains of the fire. It’s cold and dry - definitely not recent.

The trees in the area are thin and well spaced. These don’t look anything like the ones in Jason’s drawing. Still, this location is creepy.

After she captures the carvings in the stones, Jocelyn retraces her steps. They disappear into the undergrowth, but she’s able to rely on skill and experience to pick up her trail.

Luckily, she wasn’t trying to obscure her movements on the way here, otherwise this would have been much harder. Still, it’s a challenge to trace her progress.

Picking her way back proves difficult. Sharp stones pierce her damaged feet. Dry branches and thorn bushes tear at her legs and arms.

She finally exits onto an old dirt road only a few hundred yards from the standing stones. She can make out a farmhouse in the distance - not the MacLearan place, though.

Her trail continues ahead, but it’s impossible to say how far away she is from her friends.

What the devil? Ellis asks himself in surprise. He immediately grabs up his observation log and scribbles in notes on what he saw: location, direction, color, as well as their behavior and likely landing area.

Feeling suddenly alone and vulnerable under the wide night sky, Ellis quickly and quietly packs up his equipment and heads for the safety of the farmhouse. He shoulders his stuff down and looks back over his notes with shaky hands.

He sees Jason Trent lying on his cot and walks up gently. "Did you also see something strange?" he asks the young man, hoping it will get him to open up a bit.

Not quite home and dry yet, Jocelyn thinks to herself. She looks around a bit while she decides what to do. There are some flints by the trail, so she grabs one of those and makes a mark in a tree beside where she emerged from the woods. For good measure, she grabs a vine and ties it around the trunk.

Then she ducks back behind a bole to relieve herself so she can think straight.

"Everything is perfectly normal," she says out loud to herself, once she is done, "that's a perfectly normal farmhouse there." Jocelyn has read a gothic horror or two in her time, but she puts those thoughts out of her mind and starts to stride towards the farmhouse.

"Perfectly normal to be out in the woods in my nightie with my toe half ripped off", she says, "most normal and humdrum indeed."

"Yes, of course... We're going in the daylight, the more eyes, the better."
He observes the young man.

JOCELYN
The decaying two-story farmhouse sits in the middle of the desolate yard site. The cracked, dry dirt bakes in the morning sun. An old, beat up farm wagon lays in the side yard, loaded with hay gone grey with age. No horses in sight.

A porch, sagging with age, runs the full length of the front of the house. A rusty screen door, and dirt caked window provide a limited view inside. The dark kitchen is cluttered with pots, pans, plates and cutlery. No one is visible. The occasional buzz of a fly is the only sign of life.

Beside the door, a large wooden cross has been nailed directly onto the siding. A length of rope has been wrapped around the railing, from one end to the other. Heavy knots have been tied into the rope every foot or so. Cloves of garlic and small bundles of purplish flowers hang from the screen door frame. You can see similar bundles hanging inside the front window.

The area is quiet. If anyone is home, they are deep inside the house or may be sleeping.

A horse's neigh breaks the silence. It came from the barn visible behind the house.

Marcus also retires for the night, his dreams populated by strange shadows and ever-shifting lights moving in the black depths of the woods...

"Oh dear," Jocelyn says at the sight of the garlic, the sound of her own voice comforting her a touch.

JOCELYN
The state of the farm is uninviting to say the least. It wasn't until you reached the porch that your concerns eased somewhat.

You have studied cultures that have used wards to fend off evil. The garlic and cross are most likely used to defend against vampires. The flowers - most likely wolfs bane - used to hold back werewolves. The knotted ropes are believed to entrap and beguile spirits.

Whoever lives here is highly superstitious. Based on the creatures they are warding against, it's possible they have eastern European roots - or read too much pulp fiction.

MARCUS
You have a fitful sleep - tossing and turning deep into the night. You finally fall asleep right about the time Jocelyn creeps down the stairs and exits the farmhouse. You start awake at the soft bang of the back door closing.

You find yourself not in bed, but laying in a flowerbed. The immense night sky is full of twinkling stars and a huge gibbous moon rises directly above you. The moon is somehow sinister in a way that you cannot properly explain.

As you rise from the flowerbed, the flowers make a rustling noise, and as you stand, you realize the rustling noise continues. Turning around, you see the flowers seem to shudder of their own volition.

Backing away in fear, you find your gaze is taken towards the dark woods. Ugly shapes and creeping shadows move between the tree trunks, somehow almost human but twisted and smaller. Suddenly, a myriad of glowing eyes appear in the tree line, blinking and feral.

The rustling stops and from deep within the woods you hear a man's cry, long and painful.

You hear your name shouted aloud, twice - the second time so loud it wakes you. You are in your bed, sweating, confused, and frightened.

"Guten Abend!" Jocelyn calls, reasoning that many immigrants from Eastern Europe will know some German.

She steps up on to the porch. She is almost certain that the house is long empty, but you never know. She opens the screen door and knocks. She waits, then tries the door.

MARCUS & ELLISYou wake up the next morning to the smell of bacon and eggs cooking in the kitchen.

"Breakfast." Robert Blaine calls out, appearing at the kitchen door. "It's nothing special, but will get us through the morning."

Clarissa looks around at the group while filling her plate. "Where's Jocelyn?" She asks, looking over at Marcus and Ellis. "It looks like she made her bed and came down early, but I don't see her anywhere."

JOCELYN
Movement in the back of the house.

Someone crosses a hallway near the back. You only catch a shift of light in the dim light.

"Who's there." Someone calls in a heavy Romanian accent.

A match flares to life, pushing back the darkness. You see a short, grizzled, rough-looking man for a brief instance. He lights a cigarette.

The match is extinguished, leaving a bright cherry floating in the darkness. The smell of smoke wafts down the hall towards you.

"Oh hi!" Jocelyn says, trying to sound light and breezy. "My name's Jocelyn, sorry to barge in on you like this."

"Say, do you have a lamp?"

Marcus slowly walks to the breakfast area, welcoming the smell of coffee. A bad headache, and an unsettled feeling are the leftovers from the nightmares that populated his dreams.

Walking to a window facing the back of the house, he shields his eyes against the morning glare and looks out.
His gaze holds on the flowerbed, then goes to the treeline. It is so mundane and unremarkable in the daylight, yet... The images of his nightmare still linger in his mind...

He shivers, then turns to reach for a cup of coffee, nodding in thanks at Blaine. His eyes are looking around the table for Trent, when Clarissa steps forward to announce Jocelyn's absence.
"Are you sure she went to bed last night? Has anyone seen her doing that?" he asks Clarissa nervously.