The road was dark, winding through the trees like it had something to hide. Clouds obscured the half moon and most of the scars, yet moved at a steady pace across the sky. This caused the landscape to be cast in strange, eerie shadows, so surreal that they seemed living breathing things.
Vincent, however, was without worry. Many times he had walked this desolate path, and arrived home safely half an hour later. Criminals dare not venture out here, and animals had plenty of forest to themselves to bother coming near human habitations. Ignoring the gloom and dark, heavy feeling of the night air, Vincent slipped on his worn wool trench-coat and began his walk home.
The ground was damp, but not wet, a result of a morning rain followed by a warm but overcast day. Vincent noticed that it was especially quiet tonight. No crickets could be heard, no bullfrogs from the nearby creek. Neither was there any traffic sounds in the distance.. though this wasn’t unusual for this road. The place where Vincent worked wasn’t near town at all, and the town’s population itself couldn’t have been more than maybe 1,500 people. The town itself wasn’t near any highly-trafficked thoroughfare, and so it was unlikely that someone would even get lost and wind up on this road.
The quiet tonight, though, was not due to the normal factors.. not due to the small town size or weather… no. Tonight, the road was empty because somebody wished it that way. Vincent was oblivious to the pair of eyes that watched him from the edge of the woods. Of course, Vincent was oblivious to most everything anymore. He only knew his work, his home, and himself. Little did he know what the watcher in the trees had planned for him, or how it would change his life.
