LORI
Jason walked like the forest was his personal hallway and I was supposed to keep up. The further we got from campus, the quieter it became, until it was only our footsteps and the sound of twigs snapping under our sneakers.
The air smelled like damp leaves, earthy and cold in my lungs. He moved ahead of me with infuriating confidence. I side stepped branches, my sleeve catching once on a thorn, my sneakers crunching over patches of frost. He didn’t slow down, not even when the trail disappeared into a mess of undergrowth, he pushed through it until the trees thinned and the moon spilled silver light into a clearing I’d never seen before.
It was wide and open with grass damp underfoot. Jason stopped dead in the centre, turned to face me, and finally spoke. “Here’s where we start.”
