beta reader: shadowwing135

Alright, New York

"Commander Baker"
"Yes?"
"We just received a message from one of the police cars, stationed around the forest. Our team is out, all of them."
"And the target?"
"Alive and in safety. He´s undergoing medical treatment as we speak."
"Perfect. Absolutely perfect. That means our mission is successful. Send for our team, I want to speak to them as soon as possible."
"Yes, Sir."
"Sir?"
"Yes?
"The instruments are dead. I ... I´m not receiving anything anymore."
"What are you talking about?"
"Screens are black. There´s nothing out there anymore, almost as if the Entity had vanished all of a sudden."
"Are you sure?"
"Positive, the Entity´s gone."
"Well, then they made it out just in time. Otherwise they´d probably be dead now."

The black car turned into an unpaved side road and passed a place name reading "Weeks". The occupants of the vehicle had left the little town just five minutes ago, now they were driving out into the countryside. There were some lonely farmhouses on the horizon, but most of the rolling landscape was covered by small woods. Its speed throttled, the car disappeared into one of the groves and followed an inconspicuous path that seemed to lead nowhere.
"Are you sure we´re on the right road?"
"Of course, you heard the lady. Turn right after the first sign and then just ..."
"Yes, yes, I know. I just don´t trust these people."
"How come?"
"Let's just say I´ve seen too many crappy horror movies, in which the protagonist is sent into his doom by grumpy hillbillies just like them."
"You´re serious?"
"And besides, they didn´t seem to be all that fond of our destination. Did you see how that one guy spat out, when we asked him about the farm? I hope they´re not trying to fuck with us."
"We are in the landside. The only thing these people want from us, is that we leave as quickly as we came."
"Hm … guess you´re right," Dwight said, glancing sideways at Claudette, who was sitting next to him in the passenger seat, looking out of the window. Her gaze swept over the soft hills and small valleys, while she had raised a hand to protect her eyes from the sun. Then she looked forward again and muttered, "They really chose the last shithole they could find."
"But wasn´t that the point?" Dwight asked, slowing down when he spotted a branch on the road. Cautiously he rolled over the obstacle, before speeding up again. "I mean, there´s no way they could live in a big city, right?"
"I know. It just would have been nice to see Meg every now and then."
"Are you missing her that much?"
"You kidding? Of course I´m missing her," Claudette replied, turning to Dwight, her elbow resting on the open window. "She's my best friend and probably the second most important person in my life."
"And who´s the most important?"
"Hugh Jackman"
"I hate you."
Claudette bared her white teeth in a sharp smile, then she leaned over to give Dwight a quick kiss on the cheek. During the last month he had begun to grow his beard, and although Claudette had been against it at first, she could not deny anymore that she started to like it.
The car now rolled around a bend and the road grew narrower with each metre. It seemed as if bushes and shrubs were trying to recapture what man had stolen from mother nature and every now and then a branch brushed along the side of the vehicle. Dwight glanced over at Claudette and asked, "What do you think, how´s Meg going to…?"
"DWIGHT, WATCH OUT!"
Startled, he jerked his eyes forward again and slammed his foot on the brakes, just as he spotted the little boy in the middle of the road. Dwight and Claudette were pulled forward into their seat belts, but luckily, they had not been driving at a high speed and the car came to halt half a metre in front of the shocked child. Immediately they opened the doors and stepped out on the street.
"Sorry, sorry, I'm sorry, I didn´t want to ..."
"Are you alright?" Claudette called, kneeling before the boy, who could not be older than nine. "Are you hurt?"
"No, I'm okay. I´m sorry. I didn´t see the car and ... "
"It´s alright," the Canadian assured, glancing over his shivering body, looking for abrasions or the like. She could not discover anything. Meanwhile Dwight stood behind her with his arms crossed and considered scolding the young boy, but then he concluded that Claudette's reassuring approach was probably the better one. They were probably the first ones to come through here for a year. Therefore, it could only be expected that the local kids were carelessly prancing around the woods.
He turned his head as two more boys and a girl came running out of the undergrowth and stopped at some distance from the car. With suspicious, but at the same time childishly curious glances they observed the couple, that seemed to question their comrade.
"Are they your friends?" Claudette asked the boy and he nodded, his head turned to the ground.
"Well, then I can say it to all of you," Dwight continued in a slightly raised voice. "Roads are dangerous. I know that there are hardly any cars coming through here, but please be careful if you´re crossing to the other side."
"Who are you?", The little girl wanted to know, completely ignoring Dwight´s warning. "I´ve never seen you around here."
Dwight raised his eyebrows and looked at Claudette, who was just grinning in amusement. Then he answered, "Well, that´s because we´re not from around here."
"Why are you here then?"
"We want to visit some friends of us."
"Then you're going the wrong way," the girl said and took a step forward: "There are no friends around here."
"Told you," Dwight mumbled and turned to Claudette. "They were fucking with us. We´re going the wrong way."
Claudette just nodded but did not answer. Instead she turned to the sassy girl, who seemed to be the daring leader of the group: "I admit, we´re a little lost. Couldn´t you please show us, how to get to the Coldwind farm?"
The children exchanged astonished looks and began whispering for a moment, before the girl took another step forward and asked provocatively, "What do you want on the Coldwind farm?"
"As I said, we just want to visit some friends."
"There are no friends living on the Coldwind farm," the girl replied, "just the outsider."
"The outsider?"
"She moved here a year ago," the girl said, "and bought the farm. Now she lives there and only comes into the town once a week to buy stuff, like bread or something. My dad says she's crazy."
"Crazy? Why is that?"
"Because the farm´s haunted," the girl explained. "Everyone knows it. Many years ago, someone murdered a whole family there and since then the house and the surrounding woods have been cursed. Nobody´s allowed to go near it, because it´s dangerous. Because you never know which creatures you might meet. But she bought the farm and now she´s living there, can you imagine that?"
Dwight briefly glanced at Claudette, who seemed just as surprised to hear, that the rural population knew Meg as a crazy outsider. In the town, the people had simply told them, that they knew nothing about the farm or its inhabitants. Apparently, they were a little more talkative in private.
"So, the Coldwind farm´s that way, right?" Dwight asked, pointing down the path. The girl nodded and replied, "Yes, but nobody can go there."
"And where were you going then?", Claudette wanted to know, visibly catching the children by surprise. Again, they kept whispering for a moment before one of the boys said, "We wanted to do a test of courage. But please don´t tell our parents, or they´ll ground us again."
"I promise," Claudette replied, "If you tell me what kind of test you´re trying to do."
"A dangerous one," the girl cried out and the others nodded in agreement. Dwight waited a moment, before he asked, "Is that all?"
"We wanna find a forest spirit," one of the boys shouted. "Yes," cried another, and a third said, "And then we wanna touch him."
"You want to touch a forest spirit?" Claudette laughed, looking back and forth between the children, but they seemed dead serious. "And why would you think, something like this exists?"
"We´ve seen them."
"In the forest"
"They´re big and ugly."
"Big and ugly?" Claudette asked in amazement: "And there are more than one?"
"Two," the girl cried, "The first one´s a boy. He looks like a piece of wood with legs and he´s always breathing so funny." She made a rattling sound. "The second one´s a girl, I think. So she´s way cooler than the first one. She´s got a big ass axe and a rabbit's head with long ears."
Dwight and Claudette exchanged a look, both having a hard time not to burst out in laughter.
"That's the truth," the girl called.
"Oh, I believe you," Claudette replied and bent down to her: "But please promise me to be careful. And I'll tell you a secret. The forest spirits are friendly but dangerous. You must not scare or attack them, because then they´re gonna get angry and if they´re angry they could hurt you."
The boys looked a little nervous, but the girl could not be deterred: "That's not true. Forest spirits are ghosts and ghosts are evil. Besides, they can´t hurt us."
"Why not?"
"Because ghosts are made of air," the girl replied, "and you can´t be injured by air."
"So how did you want to touch them then?"
The children remained silent, obviously not having thought about that part of the equation.
"What's your names, anyway?" Dwight asked after a moment.
"Karl"
"Johnny"
"Alex"
"Jimmy"
"Anna"
"Anna?" Claudette asked, raising her eyebrows: "A beautiful name"
"The most beautiful in the world," the girl called.
Dwight shook his head and said, "So, the farm´s certainly in that direction?"
Two of the boys nodded shyly.
"Good, then we´ll be on our way."
Claudette nodded and went back to the car. As she got in, she called to the children again, "Please be careful. And remember, do not hurt them. Good luck!"
Then the doors closed with a thump and Dwight muttered, "My God, the was one arrogant brat."
"A little bit," Claudette agreed with a smile, "but we´re going the right way."
Dwight mumbled something and turned the key. Humming, the car came to life and slowly rolled forward as Dwight pushed down the gas pedal.
"So you think that was smart?", he asked: "encouraging them on their ghost hunt?"
"Oh, please," Claudette waved off: "As soon as they just catch a glimpse of Max or Anna, they´re gonna shit their pants and leg it."
"You think so?"
"Of course. They haven´t even discovered yet that Anna´s only wearing a mask. I bet the only time they´ve seen her was over the shoulder while taking off."
"I hope there won´t be any incidents" Dwight muttered, and Claudette gave him a worried look: "Come on, they´re two of the most peaceful creatures I know. Since they´re out of the fog, they never even killed a fly."
"You´re talking about the Hillbilly and the Huntress."
"That was a long time ago, Dwight."
"One and a half years"
"They changed."
"I know, but she´s still carrying her axe around, isn´t she."
"I´m sure Sally and Meg are keeping a close eye ... look."
Just as the car had turned a corner, the forest had suddenly cleared. Claudette could now look down the entire road, which led between two soft hills and through a cornfield toward a large farmhouse.
"That's it."
"Looks nice," Dwight murmured, skilfully steering the car down the narrow road: "Quite different from what I remember."
"You have never been here," Claudette remarked, looking out of the right window. Dwight glanced over at her and answered, "I mean in the fog. The Entity recreated it in one of his arenas, remember?"
"How could I forget?" Claudette muttered, looking back at the farm, "But that was something different."
"You´re right."
The car whirled up a cloud of dust as it stopped right in front of the house and Claudette immediately jumped out, while Dwight was still pulling the hand brake and reaching for the key. She laid her head back and looked up toward the roof. It did not have all the holes and the damage she remembered from the fog, and the front, too, seemed to have been painted recently. On the right side there was also a wooden, elongated building that had not existed in the realm of the Entity. Just as Dwight closed the door at his side of the car, a read haired girl in sportswear stepped out onto the terrace, greeting them with a bright smile.
"Meg," Claudette shouted and ran up to her friend. Laughing, the two fell into each other's arms, while Dwight followed her much more calmly. Behind the two girls, he saw another person come out of the house, patiently waiting in the background. She was wearing a beautiful, white dress, had her brown hair tied back to a knot, and was looking at the visitors with a friendly, orange eye.
"Sally," Dwight greeted and shook her hand, "I´m happy to see you well."
"You won´t get rid of me that easily," the former Nurse replied with a smile, before turning to Claudette: "Please, come in. It´s much cooler inside. The heat out here´s barely bearable."
It was a request that Claudette and Dwight only loved to follow and a little while later they were already sitting at a round table in the middle of a cosy room. The walls were freshly painted, the windows clean and the entire living room made an astonishingly inviting impression. Some of the furniture seemed to have been set up recently, while some of the cupboards looked like they had been standing there for years.
"You´ve build yourself quite the home," Dwight marvelled, looking around. Meanwhile, Claudette had her eyes fixed directly on Meg, "It's so nice to see you again. I'm sure you´ve got a lot to tell us. How are you? And how are Anna and Max? Where are those two anyway?"
"You know, she might actually be able to answer if you´d let her speak for a moment," Dwight intervened amused.
"We´re doing pretty good, I´d say," Meg replied, glancing at Sally, who added, "I'm still a bit weak, but recovering rapidly."
After Baker had lost all signals of the Entity, Sally had collapsed and been lying in a coma for several weeks. They had already feared to have lost her for good, but in the end, she had opened her eyes again. Whatever Lisa had done sacrificing herself in the fog had deprived Sally´s spectral body of much of her energy, while Anna, Max and Philip had felt little to no change.
"Still no idea why you got hit that hard?" Claudette asked, and Sally shook her head. "I don´t think I'll ever find out. Probably something about how the Entity changed me, spectral body and such. But let's not talk about these things, I'd rather like to talk about you two. You look so happy together."
"True," Meg agreed, "How´re your studies going?"
"Excellent, really," Claudette replied. "One of the professors even wrote a letter to my parents, praising one of the best students of his career. They´re so proud of me."
"Impressive"
"And next semester, I´m going to start my master's program with a specialization in biotic interaction, physiology and cell biology."
"Something about plants," Dwight explained, receiving a nasty yet amused look from his girlfriend.
"That sounds amazingly interesting," Meg said, "And terribly complicated. I remember, I´ve always been a complete failure in biology."
"And I in sports," Claudette replied with a smile: "Everyone´s got their field of proficiency."
"I was bad everywhere," Dwight put in, "Sports, biology, but most of all math. Ms. Richard´s numbers and variables haunt me to this day."
"Come on, you've always been good in history, haven´t you?" Claudette said comfortingly, "And besides, that doesn´t matter anymore anyway." She turned back to Sally and Meg. "He´s been promoted recently. He´s been assigned a small section of management, which means James´s no longer in charge of him. They´re more like co-workers now."
"You like the work?" Meg wanted to know.
"Now that I'm a little higher up, yes. It's interesting." Dwight replied," My boss´s still an asshole, but now I can rant about him with my dad."
"And how are the others?", Meg asked: "I haven´t heard from Nea for an eternity."
"She's pretty busy," Claudette answered. "Has she already told you that she´s got the place at the art school?"
"No," Meg shook her head. "That's great news."
"I´m so glad she´s finally doing something with her talent," Claudette said. " The school´s just around the corner at my university. I stopped by a few times and one of her teachers told me she´s a really good stage designer. However, she seems to struggle a littler with the theory part."
"I can imagine that," Meg laughed, "And David?"
"Got a position as coach in a primary school," Dwight replied, "It's not a fix job, but the kids love him. At least as soon as they´re not afraid of him anymore, because of his scar."
"David as a teacher," Meg marvelled. "I never imagined ... but life´s life, right? You never know."
"He and Nea are such a sweet couple," Claudette said, "They fit so perfectly together."
"I´m not sure if sweet´s the right word to use here," Dwight interjected with a grin, "After all, they drank your entire graduation party under the table. And we're talking about students here ... "
"You'll see them tomorrow night, anyway," Claudette added, and Sally asked, "Any news about Philip? I hope he hasn´t been discovered."
"Don´t worry," Dwight replied, "I don´t think anyone but us and his family have the faintest idea that Waltonfield´s outskirts are being haunted by a Wraith. I just think he's a bit bored."
"How could he not be?" Meg asked: "I mean, he doesn´t really do anything but hide, right?"
"He started reading," Claudette said, "I've rarely seen such stacks of books next to a bed. And he´s happy with his family. As far as I know, his sister is glad to have a free babysitter available all around the clock. He´s also keeping an eye on Jade when´s partying somewhere shady again. She is a bit naive, you know."
"Man, now that I think of it, I never had such a cool babysitter," Dwight mumbled, before Meg asked, "By the way, do you know anything about Jake and Ace?"
"Except that they´re still wandering around South America, not much," Claudette replied, "Jake tried to reconnect with his family, but he just couldn´t stand them."
"They must be some unpleasant folks," Sally commented.
"Anyway, he's gone to Argentina with Ace, and as far as I know, he's part of a large team that´s shooting documentary films about South American nature."
"Sounds interesting," said Meg and the Canadian confirmed: "Insanely interesting. I´d love to visit him, but I got studies and exams and stuff."
"And what's Ace doing?", Sally wanted to know, but Dwight just shook his head, "Dunno. I guess he´s getting by somehow and as I know him, he´s probably doing it more with luck than with reason."
"Then tell us about Feng," Meg said: "Did she have better luck with her family?"
"No chance," Claudette answered "It's a shame, but I don´t think they´ll ever grow together again. She works in Dwight's company now, her department ´s right next door."
"She's our new system administrator," Dwight continued, "Don´t ask me what exactly she's doing, it´s a mystery to the entire office. The only thing we know is that our computers and programs are running twice as fast since she´s on board."
"Didn´t you say she has an admirer?" Meg asked, and Claudette laughed: "One? I think there are two at the moment. But they´re coming and going and as far as I know she´s never doing more than teasing them a little. Since she´s renting that apartment and is standing on her own feet, she´s become really cheerful and self-confident. I guess that´s somehow attracting a lot of men."
"And she´s quite pretty, on top of that," Sally remarked. Claudette nodded and said, "But enough about us. Tell us something about you. How are Anna and Max? I hope the townspeople aren´t suspicious."
"Not at all," Meg waved off. "They think I´m living here alone with my mother or something."
"That would be me then," Sally muttered.
"But Anna and Max are fine," Meg continued. "Max does a great job maintaining the house and tending to the fields. He also takes care of the animals. He´s so diligent."
"And Anna´s helping him as best as she can," Sally added, "They´re inseparable. Just the other evening I saw them sitting outside on the porch. They were looking up to the stars and reading in the book you sent them."
"The one about the universe?" Claudette asked: "I´m glad they like it."
"It´s an understatement to say that they like it," Sally replied: "They´re amazed with it, even if they´re more looking at the pictures instead of actually reading. But they recognize the constellations and they´re making good progress with their exercises."
Meg got up and went to a nearby shelf where she pulled out a book, which she then placed back on the table It was a textbook intended for young children, containing exercises in the English language.
"Anna´s already talking pretty well," Meg said, opening the cover: "Max still struggles a bit, but he's doing his best."
Claudette's eyes fell on a capitalized text in which individual words had been replaced with pictures. On the next page, the pictures were next to blank lines on which someone had scribbled the matching words with a pencil.
"I can´t tell you how happy I am to finally be able to talk with Anna," Sally said, "and how happy she is to finally understand what people around her are saying."
"Has she shown you her face yet?" Claudette asked, and Meg exchanged a look with Sally before she answered, "Yes, she did, but it was a lengthy process. Of course, she had already shown her face to Sally and it didn´t take all that long until she trusted Max enough. I on the other hand had to wait almost a year. Since then she´s always sitting at dinner without her mask, but other than that she´s completely the same."
"Such habits are hard to get rid of," Sally remarked, and Dwight replied, "But what does it matter? If she likes her mask, she should wear it. It´s fine, right?"
"Right," the Nurse nodded, "She´s finally happy and that´s all that matters."
"So how does she look?" Claudette asked curiously, and Meg answered: "Not bad. After we washed and combed her hair, she was looking quite good actually. She´s a pretty, young woman."
Sally nodded and at the same moment the front door opened.
"Speaking of the devil," Meg mumbled as the Huntress came marching into the house and shouted, "Sally, there black car is outside."
"It´s alright, Anna," Sally replied, "We have guests."
The Huntress curiously walked over into the living room and when she spotted Dwight and Claudette, a happy smile flashed over her lips.
"Hi Anna," Claudette greeted and looked up at her: "I completely forgot how tall you are."
"You doing fine?", Dwight asked and Anna answered with a big grin: "I fine. I caught rabbit."
She raised her left hand, where she was holding the revenue of her obviously successful hunt. Proudly she presented two dead rabbits with slashing wounds, that looked a lot like the ones Claudette knew from the trials in the fog. Hastily she banished the thought from her mind.
"Well done", Meg praised her: "You can put them in the kitchen, I'll take care of the preparation later."
Anna nodded and brought the slain animals to another room, before she returned and sat down at the table.
"So you´re a self-sustaining household?", Dwight wanted to know and Meg answered: "A little. With the money we got from Baker we bought the farm and we´re selling some stuff like milk and eggs from the animals to buy groceries or whatever we need. But of course, Anna catching something every now and then is really useful and the rabbits taste quite good."
"I don´t want to discourage you, but do you know if that´s legal?" Dwight asked, but Meg waved off, "We're as good as alone in these woods. Nobody´s gonna notice."
"Are you sure about that?" Claudette threw in her concerns: "We met a few children just outside the fields, who were supposedly on the hunt for some forest spirits. Including a female with an axe and a rabbit´s head."
Meg and Sally exchanged a look before the Nurse asked, "But they weren´t talking about Anna, were they?"
"Who else?", Meg replied: "Have they seen Max too?"
"I think so," Dwight said, "but I wouldn´t worry too much. Apparently, their parents forbade them to come into this area of the woods, which means they´re not gonna tell them anything. And even if they do, it´ll probably be dismissed as childish chatter."
"I hope so," Meg murmured: "Anna, didn´t you notice these children?"
"Of course I notice," the Huntress answered, "They think I not notice, but I notice every time."
"I hope you didn´t hurt them," Sally dug deeper, but Anna shook her head and explained, "I think they scared of me. Always run away every time."
"That´s probably for the best," Meg concluded, but Claudette remarked: "Wouldn´t it be nice if she made some acquaintances under the local youth. Someday you might not have to hide anymore, if people got to know you."
"Are you sure?" Meg asked: "I don´t think the townspeople would take it very well."
"They'll meet sooner or later, anyway," Sally said, "if the kids and Anna continue roaming the woods. Just please be careful with them, Anna. Otherwise we could get in trouble."
"Why didn´t you tell us anything?" Meg wanted to know, but the Huntress shrugged her shoulders, "I Max told. Did I do wrong? "
"No, no, you didn´t," Sally reassured her and Claudette asked, "Where´s Max anyway? I haven´t seen him yet."
"Out with animals," Anna said, "Give them food."
"Like I said, Max tends to the whole farm single-handed," Meg explained "But he needs to watch where he´s going with that chainsaw, Sally, now that kids are running around in the forest."
The Nurse nodded. In the meantime, Claudette started another topic and turned toward Anna: "I heard you liked the book about the stars."
The Huntress nodded smiling and answered: "Letters are difficult to read, but pictures are beautiful and new things interesting. I never knew Earth is round."
"Does your book also tell you how old the Earth is?"
"Earth very old, came from Big Bang."
"That's right," Claudette confirmed. "And do you also know that humans haven´t always been on earth?"
"They come from other planet?" Anna asked surprised.
"No, they evolved over a long period of time," the Canadian explained amused: "Many years ago, there were no humans on Earth and back then it looked quite different than today. But…"
She reached down into her bag and pulled out another book.
"But that´s all in there."
Meg took a quick glance at the cover when Claudette handed Anna the book. "Dinosaurs" was written in bright, red letters right above the image of a roaring Tyrannosaurus Rex. It was clearly meant for children, but Anna took it with an excited smile across her face. Curiously she opened the cover and began to decipher the short texts, that were standing right beside the pictures of various dinosaurs.
"Do you like it?"
Anna nodded: "Many thanks"
"You're welcome," Claudette laughed, "But that's also for Max, not just for you."
"These animals really live were?" the Huntress wanted to know and Dwight answered, "Yes, but that was quite some time ago. Do you know how much a million is?"
Anna shook her head.
"That's a thousand times a thousand," Dwight said, "and now take sixty-five times a million, that´s how long ago these animals lived."
Anna seemed to barely be able to imagine that number, but she understood that it was a damn long time ago. In astonishment she looked at the cover.
"That's a really nice gift," Sally said. "I have to admit, I know little about both dinosaurs or space myself. It wasn´t really on the timetable back when I was being educated."
"It's never too late to learn," Claudette replied, "Maybe the library in Weeks has some interesting books to offer."
"There´s no library in Weeks," Meg replied, and the Canadian gave her an almost indignant look: "A city without a library? You´re really living under medieval conditions here."
"There´s internet," Meg replied. "I´m sure there are lots and lots of interesting online courses or magazines I can download for you."
"That would be very nice," Sally said and Dwight added, "Besides, for the next three days, you'll have ample opportunity to get all the material you want."
"Can I ask," Anna interjected, "Why did Nea not come?"
Dwight and Claudette looked at each other for a moment before the Canadian replied, "Nea is very busy. But we´re meeting her tomorrow. Shall we tell her something?"
"You tell," Anna mumbled and thought for a moment, "You tell I miss her."
"Of course," Claudette answered, smiling.
"I'm so excited," Sally muttered, "I hope my cover won´t blow."
Dwight waved reassuringly, "As long as you keep the sunglasses on, nobody will notice."
"I hope you´re right."
"Hundred percent," Meg said: "Besides, it's too late now to back out. Everything is planned. You still remember how we talked about it the first time?"
"You mean over a year ago on the terrace?" Sally asked.
"Yeah," the athlete replied, "At that time we both didn´t think it would ever happen, right? But tomorrow´s the day. Nervous?"
"Yes," the Nurse nodded. "But in a good way."

Sally was surrounded by darkness. Just a few seconds ago, there had been light everywhere, but now she had been devoured by black shadows. All around she heard screams, cries, and somewhere someone yelled a name she did not know.
Sally looked over her shoulder, but she could not see anything. Then there was a flash and suddenly pale light lit up her surroundings. Hastily she turned her head forward again and saw a wall of smoke roll right toward her. A hand fell on her shoulder and as Sally looked to the side, she discovered Nea with an excited smile on her face.
"They´re beginning!"
It was getting louder, the lights were getting brighter and all around them hell broke loose. A muffled, regular hammering took up and Nea turned forward, while Sally and Meg, who was standing right beside her, exchanged a look. The athlete was smiling as well.
"Hey," Nea called after Dwight and Claudette, "You'll have time for that later. Come on, let's go to the front."
The two addressees broke away from each other, but did not let go of each other's hand as David moved past them and cleared a way through the crowd. With his elbow stretched out he pushed through between all the people and Feng was right at his heels. Meg also started to move and pulled Sally with her, who was still looking around nervously, while Nea reappeared by her side.
"Now you´ll finally hear some good, Swedish music."
The crowd burst into unrestrained applause as the drummer erupted into a wild solo, seemingly hitting all the drums and cymbals at the same time. Sally flinched for a moment as the other band members stormed at the stage and a deep voice sounded from the speakers: "ALRIGHT, NEW YORK. WE ARE SABATON. WE PLAY HEAVY METAL. AND THIS IS GHOST DIVISION."

This concludes Aurora and I hope everyone enjoyed reading the story. Before I let you go, however, I´d like to say some things. First I want to thank all the beta readers who helped me with the translation. Second I´d like you to write me a quick review, if you have a minute. For example, but not necessarily, by answering the questions below.

1. A general impression. What did you like, what did you not like?

2. Nearly all of the protagonists in this story are female. This happened by chance over the development of the storyline and I didn´t really work towards or against it. In your opinion was this good/bad/irrelevant?

3. In the beginning I tried to include every character equally, but I quickly discovered that this would blow up the whole story to an unnecessary length. Are there any characters you missed/were fed up with? If so, who would you have liked to see more/less?

4. I tried to give Philip a more human side, by letting him reunite with his family. I was unsure about his inclusion for a long time, so I´d like to know, how did you like his backstory and the new characters, that came with it?

5. Another thing I was unsure about for quite some time was the Hag. In the end she turned out to be a crazy, but amiable old lady. Was this a little too silly or was it entertaining? How would you have liked it, if she had turned out to be a traitor and on Evans side all along, leading the survivors into his trap?

6. In the end of the story, there were longer passages telling a romance between Dwight and Claudette. This wasn´t really planned and happened more as a spontaneous idea. How did you like the pairing? Did it distract from the main plot too much or was it a nice diversion from time to time?

See you in the fog ;)