The Eerie Darkness of Stephanie's Cottage

It was a quiet evening in the small town of Dorking. I'd been sitting in the bar with my friends and my girlfriend Stephanie, having a few drinks and laughing about old times; it was nice to see everyone again. After a little while, we decided to call it a night and head home. As we were walking back to our cars, Stephanie's phone rang. She answered it and walked away from us so she could talk privately. We waited for her at her car while she finished her call, then she returned to us. She said goodbye to us, got in her car, and drove off without another word.

"Strange girl," I said as I unlocked my car door. "She hasn't been herself since that whole thing with Mark last month."

"Yeah, I know," Alan said. "I don't think we'll be seeing her out much after this, either."

"Why do you say that?" I asked.

"You didn't notice that she kept glancing at her watch during the phone call?" he replied.

"No..." I said. "I guess maybe she was just anxious about getting home?"

"Maybe," he said hesitantly, "but you've seen the way she's been acting lately, right? Not to mention how weird she's been acting around Mark..." He trailed off and shook his head before continuing: "I think they broke up."

As we both climbed in our cars and started them up, Alan left first and headed home to his wife and kids; then Mike left; finally it was just me alone on the street as I stared down at my phone, not knowing what to do next. My apartment was only a couple miles away if I went through the woods instead of taking the road around them; but being drunk made driving there dangerous, and I really didn't want to wreck my car when I did have an unexpected windfall lying around waiting for me at home. So instead I turned my car around and set off down the road when another idea hit me: there was another good parking spot about five miles down the road where Stephanie had parked earlier - maybe she'd already be there waiting for me? Even if she wasn't there yet, it would still be nice to get some fresh air and stretch my legs out a bit before heading home myself. I knew that spot well; Stephanie and I had parked there once or twice before when we wanted to make out in the woods...

They were talking quietly with their heads close together when they heard something behind them in the forest. It sounded like footsteps crunching on dry leaves.

The two people stopped talking as they looked around into the darkness but saw nothing except trees in every direction; then one of them said "Hello?" into the void surrounding them until finally their voice echoed back across the empty expanse of space between them and whatever lay beyond the trees ahead of them...

The voice echoed back across space between them again: "Hello?"

They both looked at each other puzzled until suddenly realization crept into both their minds simultaneously: someone else was standing behind them!

Both their heads snapped around quickly but neither of them saw anything except trees surrounding them on all sides as far as they could see into the distance.