Chapter 40: The Hunt and the Horror-5

I could have sworn it was around here that I had lost it. But then again, everything looked the same. When Mr. Talon didn't answer I turned around to see him staring intently at the grass, as though his eyes were tracing some sort of line in the undergrowth. "Mr. Talon?" He looked up at me with confused eyes, then back at the ground, then at me again. What was he doing? He scratched his head before coming over to me. "I think this is the place where I lost it", I said biting my lip worriedly. He hummed in response and looked around. The soil was still wet as it had rained earlier this morning. Now it was just really cloudy and foggy in some places. "Do you see it anywhere?" I asked looking around to which he just stuck his nose in the air and sniffed and I stared blankly at him. Oh yes, that's definitely going to work, I thought, shaking my head with a sigh. "As much as I appreciate your very unique effort of trying to find the jacket by sniffing out the CEO's scent, I doubt that'll be easy, especially since right now, the entire forest smells like him", I said as I inhaled the lovely scent of wet soil. Mr. Talon looked at me with bewildered wide eyes and I immediately blushed realizing what I had just said. I quickly cleared my throat and turned away from him only to have my eyes land on a thick tree trunk some distance away. All of a sudden my dream from the other day flashed in my mind and I could almost picture the woman in white disappearing behind that particular tree. I gasped happily. "I found the tree!" I cried out and started jogging towards the tree. Mr. Talon shrieked behind me asking me to wait up but I just told him to follow me as I evaded the other trees in my way. As I ran the fog got thicker and thicker till suddenly, I couldn't see anything that was more than two feet away from me. I slowed down and strained my eyes to not lose sight of the tree and that's when I heard Mr. Talon's voice calling out my name, sounding very, very distant. I immediately turned around but I couldn't see him at all. "Mr. Talon?" "Su...nah..." "Mr. Talon!" I cried out when his voice sounded so far away that he seemed like he was at the other side of the forest. He must be going the wrong way! "Mr. Talon! This way! Follow my voice, can you hear me?" I got no reply and a thin stream of fear started flowing down my spine. "Mr. Talon?" Still no reply. I looked around frantically; trying to catch even just a glimpse of him but the fog was too thick to see anything. I turned in some bizarre direction and my eyes zeroed in on the one place that the fog had not enveloped. The tree! I quickly hurried toward the tree, jumping over broken branches and protruding roots till I was right under its vast canopy. I looked up at the tree till where the branches disappeared into the leaves. For some bizarre reason, the air around this tree was very clean and not breached by the fog at all. I quickly went around the tree, but to my extreme disappointment, the Jacket was no longer there. I whined dejectedly and slumped against the trunk in defeat. The air seemed to shift around me, enveloping me, and the soft sound of the breeze filled my ears. Something inside of me seemed to shift making my body tingle as I breathed deeper. Shaking off the strange feeling I called out to Mr. Talon. "Mr. Talon! The jacket isn't here!" I called out as loud as I could but still got no reply, "Mr. TALON! CAN YOU HEAR ME? WHERE ARE YOU??" still no response. "Mr. TALO-" "Lunaaa..." My body went deathly stiff as the same eerie whisper from before drifted vividly to my ears. No! It's just my imagination! It isn't real! My heart immediately sped up and my eyes went wide as I pressed my back harder into the trunk. "Lunaaa..." I gasped and looked around frantically but I couldn't see a thing. My hands trembled and breath came out labored and ragged. "Wh-wh-who's there?" I cried out, clutching my chest with one hand, "WHO's THERE?" "Lunaaa..." A piercing scream escaped my lips as the whisper seemed to come from much closer, but I couldn't see anyone through the thick fog. But that was until my eyes found one dark solitary figure some distance away. It looked like a black shadow cutting through the thick white mist, slowly but steadily, getting closer with each step. My heart hammered against my chest. My body trembled in unconcealed fear. My throat felt completely dry as I called out, "Mr. Talon?" I got no reply, but the figure continued to move forward, and my heart sank as I realized two bone chilling facts at the very same time. That dark, frightening shadow, was not Mr. Talon, and with each unrelenting step, it was coming right at me... ***