The Night Hike

This is based on a true story.

The sky was clear that night, and the moon was bright. It made no difference what the weather was, rain or shine, they were going on their night hike and no one could tell them not to go. They were teenagers in a small town in the country, and trouble was under every rock and behind every branch.

The deal with the Night Hike, was no flashlights or lights of any kind. No lighters, nothing, not until they reached the beach. Once through the woods and over the hill, they would be back in the moonlight. The trail through the trees was narrow and winding, and it was hard to stay on track. If they wandered off the path too far there was a good chance they would be lost for the night. The backwoods of Vancouver Island are vast and deep, not a place a sixteen year old kid should be lost.

Puttering into the parking lot in a bright yellow volkswagon van, they piled out of it like clowns at the circus. Teen after teen popped out, in clouds and puffs of smoke. Laughing as they tripped over each other, they looked around.

“They’re coming, right? We can’t do this walk without her, she knows the path and we don’t”. As she finished her sentence they heard the bass of an excessively loud stereo system, coming around the corner in an especially rusted ford pickup. Smiling, she clapped her hands. “That’s them!” Grabbing their cooler, chairs, blankets, and bags they walked over to the trail head. The last of the group came bounding over, in that way that only young deer and teenage people seem to do. The crew was ready.

Jennifer walked through the group, and stopped at the edge of the forest. Her friends gathered behind her. Bumping into each other like balloons, they bounced around and laughed. “Jenn what’s the holdup letz GO”

It was the deep darkness ahead of her that held her back. The moon shone brightly but not bright enough to penetrate the forest canopy. Below the tops of those trees, the darkness was blacker than black, and deeper than deep. It was like an abyss.

Turning around she said “You know I’ve never actually been here before, right” and stepped forwards into the inky dark. It was like she disappeared before their very eyes. The shadows engulfed her like smokey water, and shrieking a bit with surprise, her friends followed. “How will you keep us on trail? This forest is haunted, my Aunt told me we can absolutely not get lost out there, if you’ve never been here what the fuck are we doing?” asked the tallest girl in the group, as she was absorbed by the night.

Jennifer had stopped a few feet in, and the gleaming reflection of her glasses was the only thing they could see of her. “You’ll just have to trust me, everyone take hold of the person in front of you, and whatever you do, DON’T LET GO” Spinning around on her heel, she started walking. The group spread out behind her, single file. Their hands gripping the friend in front of them in a tight white knuckled vice grip. Blinking her eyes and holding them wide as she could, the darkness held.

She walked slowly and steadily, hands outstretched in front of her like walking with a blind fold. In essence, she was doing almost that, as the darkness made her feel as though she had lost her sight completely. With every step she laid her foot carefully down, rolling the sole of her foot from heel to toe, and pressing firmly into the ground. She heard the flick of a lighter behind her, and one of her friends snap “put that shit out dude don’t fuck up my night vision” and it was true, the further in they got the more they could see the friend in front of them. Looking around at the deep woods swallowing them whole, they were blind to the energies that flowed in those branches.

A twig splintered under her right foot, a crunch of more small branches, the scent of crushed fresh cedar. Her next step took her over to the left, and the softness of the loamy soil confirmed she was back in the center of the path. This, she smiled to herself, was how she found her way through the woods at night. She felt her way. This was how she lived her whole life though, she realised. She felt her way along, and that was a good way to live.

Arms lowered now, she was confident, no longer blind, as she could ‘see’ the trail with her feet. The little sandals she had found in the city had hardly any sole, and she felt every little pebble and leaf. Calling out to her friends, she turned around to look if she could see them trailing along behind her, and their outlines were faint but there. “Keep up dudes!” These walks were the only times she felt cool enough to hang with these kids. She was important to them at this moment, and she felt like a damn badass.

Spinning quickly back around, she stopped as if she had run into a wall. Her friends piled up and tripped over each other behind her, exclamations and cussing bubbling out of them until they looked at what they had just run into.

In the middle of the trail, a soft green light seemed to hover in front of them. Waist high, and about a meter in diameter, it was the strangest thing she had ever seen. A perfect sphere, it was transparent but bright, vibrating and moving and turning in place. The ball of light seemed to emanate from its center. The illumination was a bright white green, it could have been hot or cold, she couldn’t tell. Jennifer started to raise her hands back up to touch it, and her friend grabbed her arms back, “No! What IS that!” As she spoke those words, the light went out, leaving them in complete darkness, their night vision gone.