Overgrown trees shadowed their faces. Gravel and earth crunched underneath their feet. It was almost night-time, the summer sky gradually darkening. The salty smell of the sea drifted up their noses from where it lay, hundreds of feet below.
It was enough to give anybody vertigo. The forest was situated on a steep cliff high above sea level. Standing on it, they became suddenly light-headed and cold to the point of shivering.
“Just follow me, will you?” Her eyes were sparkling with rebellion. The boy behind her stood several feet away from her, his doe brown eyes wide and uncertain.
“Ivo? Are you coming or not?”
An expression approaching petrified was spreading across Ivo’s face. “It’s late,” he said. “And Mum told me not to go near the forest. And you don’t know where you’re going, do you?”
The flicker of uncertainty on the girl’s face lasted only a second before she turned to him, her hands folded and eyes angry. “I know exactly where I’m going. It’s up to you if you want to come.”
She headed away from the sea, and after a moment’s hesitation, Ivo followed. They ventured further and further into the forest, where tree branches jutted out alarmingly and the canopies of the trees towered high above them.
Casting a silvery light over the restless sea, the full moon had risen into the sky.
The girl’s name was Jenny, and the truth was that she had never been so far before.
“Can’t we go back now?” Ivo said.
“Just a few more turns,” said Jenny. She was possessed by an immense urge to draw them further into the forest. She didn’t understand it herself; after all, it was far too early in her life to be teenage rebellion.
Her voice was so reassuring that Ivo momentarily began to believe her. Maybe she does know where we’re going, he thought.
Perhaps there’d been a time lapse in the next few minutes they’d spent walking, because the next thing they knew was that the sky was a dark navy and they could barely see their feet in front of them. Still Jenny carried on, unperturbed.
Obscured by the trees to their far left, a fiery yellow eye was watching them.
***
They leaned against the tree trunks, barely able to see each other’s faces in the darkness. Jenny stood resolutely, with her arms folded and looking away from Ivo. Ivo stood opposite her, looking straight at her; glaring.
“What now?” he hissed at her. “What are we going to do? Sleep here?”
For a moment her eyes became wide and excited. “I heard there were bears in the forest,” she whispered.
“What?”
“I’m sorry,” she sighed.
Shaking his head, Ivo sank down onto the ground, his back to the tree trunk. Jenny did the same.
“I’m scared,” he whispered, after a few moments. Somewhere in the distance, an owl hooted in the night. Jenny shivered.
“Me too,” she admitted. “I’m sorry. I took us too far…”
“I should have listened to Mum.”
“Why? What did she say?”
He sighed. “She didn’t actually say it. I imagined her say it, when we started walking into the forest. She said not to follow you.” He looked down at the ground. “But I couldn’t leave you alone.”
She didn’t reply and so they sat in silence. But after a few more moments, she took a deep, shuddering breath and said “I’m so sorry, Ivo.”
He looked up at her. There was something not quite right about her voice. Her eyes were wide and petrified. For a moment, he thought that they were staring straight at him, but then, his eyes focusing in the dark, he realised where she was really looking…behind him.
He turned.
***
Amidst the yellow eyes were dark slits; like a cat’s, narrow and unforgiving. Its fur was a magnificent amber, glowing in the night. Its black wings were folded against its back, but they were slowly unfolding, beating in the night sky.
Now it was content, its cat-like lips smeared with warm blood.
I would like more of the situation. I would like to feel as if I am watching them on a movie screen. 
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