Tonight

They walked from the lights into the shadows cast upon shadows of the forest until the lights went out like tiny floating candles and then there was just one shadow. They couldn’t know where they were in this kind of night. If not for the sounds of the snapping branches, the wind under their loose nightgowns, they could have been anywhere, they could’ve been in their beds with their eyes shut. Sarah was the first to stop walking, though Danielle couldn’t have been able to tell who the stopping steps belonged to. All she could notice was that the collective rustle of their feet and their nightgowns clicked into a lower gear at some point. Three sets of noise became a pair. Danielle thought of the girl, whoever she was, staying behind and listening to the sounds of the other two as they walked on and listened for her. In the dark it could have been either of the girls to stop, thought Sarah. It could have just as well been her stopping back there, and stopping later. In this kind of night how could she know a difference?