Lost In The Night -

He lay back. The clouds began to break. One star appeared, then two, then a scatter of ancient light. They had been there the whole time, burning behind the veil.

Good , he thought.

He got out. The air smelled of pine and cold earth. Above him, clouds had smothered the moon. For the first time in years, he couldn’t see his own hand in front of his face. Lost in the Night

The headlights cut two pale tunnels through the dark, but they only reached a few feet before the blackness ate them. Elias pulled the car to the shoulder of the empty road and killed the engine. The silence that rushed in was absolute—no crickets, no wind, just the soft tick of cooling metal. He lay back

He walked until the road was a guess behind him. The darkness pressed against his eyes like a blindfold. He stumbled over a root, caught himself on a trunk, and kept going. No destination. No map. Every step felt like falling upward into something vast and indifferent. They had been there the whole time, burning behind the veil

He didn’t find his way back that night. He didn’t find answers. But when the first gray edge of dawn touched the horizon, he was still there—still breathing, still watching—lost, but no longer alone with it.