Adrian never picked up the phone, even when I rang just before the workday should have begun in an attempt to catch him on his commute.

I sipped from my third coffee of the morning and ran my fingers through my hair. After not being able to make any sense of the whole thing and not getting any answer to my calls or texts from Adrian, I’d settled in for an early night and woken up even earlier today, drinking coffee while waiting for a suitable time to start calling again. I was probably making a mountain out of a molehill, but I couldn’t get rid of the feeling that something was wrong.

And the glimpses of a figure watching me from the treeline was not helping. I gasped, sharply looking out the glass of the sliding window at the edge of the clearing as once again I saw something move in the exact same spot as the other countless times. There was still nothing there.

“I’m really losing it,” I mumbled, already hitting the kettle to start boiling again. Maybe the caffeine was jumbling my nerves and this time I should make myself a hot chocolate.

Then, finally, the ringtone clicked and Adrian breathed in my ear. “Charlie? I’ve got like a hundred missed calls and a thousand texts from you. Did something happen? Are you alright?”

“NO!” I shouted, the relief of finally getting through making me shake. I stopped myself. “Sorry, but no. I’m not alright.”

I heard the sound of Adrian closing a door and the murmur of the office in the background went quiet. “What’s wrong?”

“This lodge, you booked it for me, right?”

“Yeah, I made the reservation online. Why?”

“Are you sure? It’s not secretly your place in the woods?”

He laughed as if I was making a funny joke, but my odd silence cut him off. “No, I can barely afford the rent on my shared apartment, nevermind a lodge in a forest.”

“So how did you afford my week away?” My questions were sharpening with accusation but I didn’t temper my tone.

“The office pooled money together to pay for it. We’ve all seen how hard you work, it was just my name on the booking and me passing you the envelope.”

I squeezed the bridge of my nose between trembling fingers. “Okay, sorry. It’s just...I have a few issues and I tried to call the company last night, but this place doesn’t exist. There isn’t even a holiday company based out here.”

“Are...are you sure?” There was a touch of skepticism to his voice, probably thinking the exhaustion had well and truly caught up with me.

“Yes, I am sure,” I snapped, my eyes seeing something move at the edge of the clearing again. “Are you sure you were even on the website when you booked this place? It wasn’t through a third party offer site, right?”

“Those are scams, Charlie, so yes, I’m sure.”

“Then something is majorly wrong,” I declared, my skin crawling. “I’m going home.”

“Wait, wait!” Adrian seemed panicked. “This is your week off. Does it really matter if the lodge isn’t officially owned by a rental company? Just relax!”

Before I could argue the point that was definitely asking for trouble, a terrifyingly loud noise cracked outside the lodge. A violent screech and crunch of metal disturbed the birds of the forest, animals bursting fearful from the trees and shouting out their own warnings.

“Charlie? What was that noise?”

I strode quickly down the hallway, yanking the front door open to find my car waiting patiently for me, perfectly unharmed, and with no sign anything had happened. I cautiously approached the vehicle, one hand still pressing my phone to my ear while the other clung onto my car keys like a lifeline, jabbing the button to unlock it. I could smell petrol and oil, and couldn’t see anything out of place but - wait, was that smoke? I opened the driver door and reached in, pulling the lever to pop open the hood and more dark grey smoke gushed out.

I rounded the front of the car and froze. Where the engine had once been, now sat a wrecked carnage of snarled metal and torn wires, the smoke dissipating to reveal just how twisted the machinery within was, all gnarled edges and frayed electrics.

“Well, I won’t be driving out of here,” I told Adrian.