Keeping Watch

  She was tired. She assumed he had to be tired, too - it had been too long already, walking mile after mile after mile, and she resisted the urge to drop the bag she had just to walk faster, and finally lose the noise.

 Oh, right. The noise. She had almost, for a brief, merciful moment, forgotten about it entirely. In trying to forget about their lives for a couple days, they had found the noise instead - a strange, one toned hum that had almost seemed pleasant at first.

 “What is that?” She had asked, blinking up at him from their small breakfast - he had gotten the idea to camp in a field in the first place, and set up a picnic blanket so technically, they’d have a picnic-only diet for the whole vacation. “And don’t pretend you can’t hear it too - you scared me enough last time.”

 She always enjoyed hearing his laugh, though, even though it was occasionally at her expense. “But it was only a cat last time. One of your cats.”

 “Aristotle knocked the chair over! A whole chair! Just - listen. Then you can tell me I’m crazy or something.”

 He laughed again, but did as she asked. After a moment or two, his smile faded, and a quizzical frown sprang up in its place. “Huh. That’s… weird. It almost sounds electric, doesn’t it?”

 “It does… maybe it’s a powerline somewhere? Those hum like that.”

 “I thought there weren’t any around here. There aren’t any houses around here, at least,” he mused, taking a small sip of his coffee. “Maybe we can ask the guide when he comes back.”

 “I don’t think I’ll remember to ask by then.” And with that, they had given it no further thought.

At least until the next morning, when it had gotten louder. This unnerved her, and she told him as much, but there wasn’t much either of them could do about it - unless they wanted to walk twenty miles back to where they had left their car, all over a noise.

 But now, it wasn’t just a noise, lingering in the back of her mind as they pushed on - it was a shaking, like a cricket rubbing its legs to make music. Everything shook - her thoughts, her hands as they adjusted the baseball cap he had bought for her, even his voice, quiet next to her, almost a humming in and of itself.

 “Halfway there,” he murmured, squeezing her hand. “Did we come from left or right?”

 She hesitated, almost too tired to even speak. “Left.”

 “Okay. Good. You have a great memory, you know that?’

 A quiet, hoarse laugh. “You can compliment me when we get out of here.”

 “Uh, no. When we get out of here, I’m going to sleep, then I’m calling the cops on the forest. Can you arrest an entire forest?”

 “Maybe. Put - put the trees in jail,” she added, laughing. “Guilty of, uh -”

 “Scaring us almost to death. That’s a crime. Probably.”

 They had realized it wasn’t just a noise when it had attacked their tent. He had woken her up, his flashlight nearly blinding her. It took her a moment to realize something was wrong - one of the tent’s roof support beams poking her in the back. She had opened her mouth to say something, but was silenced by him putting a finger to her lips. “It’s outside,” he hissed, and she froze immediately, eyes wide.

 The humming was everywhere now, and something about it sent a chill up her spine - whatever that thing was, it was big. Her voice was a faint whisper. “...where is it?” In response, he pointed the flashlight to the back wall of the tent.

 “Just outside. It’s slow. I think it took it the whole night to make it across the field to us. We’ll have to outrun it.”

 “But it’s twenty miles - “

 “We can walk. We just can’t stop, okay? With any luck, we’ll bump into the guide, and we’ll be home free.”

 She nodded blankly, grabbing their jackets and hiking bags. He quietly counted to three, before unzipping the tent door as fast as he could, and the two of them fled into the woods, the noise following behind them.

 And now they were halfway there. Over halfway there. He had taken a granola bar from this pack and handed it to her, neither of them wanting to break stride for a second - even though they didn’t see whatever it was, they could still hear the noise. It could be anywhere.

 She had been the first to see the parking lot - she had never expected the sight of concrete to fill her with so much joy. “We made it! We made it!”

 The look of blank fatigue on his face melted away a little, a hopeful smile in its place. Both of them sped up, making a beeline for the small red car that seemed almost comically clean compared to them.

 And as they pulled out of their spot, driving towards sweet safety, she glanced behind them, and saw it, standing at the edge of the treeline. It looked, for lack of a better description, like the shadow of someone under a blanket - a Halloween sheet ghost made void and filled with that static humming. It lingered amongst the trees, confined there, or maybe scared by the stronger sunlight, then turned, vanishing back into the woods.

 Only then did she let herself breathe a little easier. But there was a probing question at the back of her mind:

 Would it always stay there?