Sunset

Pedro and Elise trekked through three inches of dirty and compact snow. Even though it was cold and had only snowed two days prior, the hiking trail hadn’t seen a decrease in traffic.

“Pedro, I don’t hate this, but I was surprised that you texted me this morning to come do this,” Elise said, the sound of snow crunching between them filling the air.

“Sorry about that. I’ve always wanted to see the sunset over the Western Monolith on the Winter Solstice, and today just felt like the right time…You did a report on America’s Stonehenge in Senior year, so I figured that you’d be interested. I was actually surprised when you said you’ve never done this before.”

Elise slowed her pace for a moment. She noticed that the frequency of “No Trespassing At Night” signs had increased significantly over the last ten minutes of their hike. She checked the time on her phone: 3:40pm.

“We should be close to the monolith by now,” she said.

Pedro stopped five paces ahead of her and looked toward the horizon before turning his gaze back down toward his feet. “Hey, Elise, I think we went a little bit off the trail just now. Is it me or is the snow deeper than it was a few minutes ago.”

Elise squatted down and placed her extended hand into the snow by her foot. Her fingers not meeting any resistance until her second knuckle submerged confirmed that they had left the well beaten trail. Confident in her memories of all 30-acres of the reserve when it didn’t have snow, she turned in a circle to assess their whereabouts.

Using the sun as her compass for due west, Elise faced east and fixed her eyes ahead. In her peripheral area, the large, pointed, stone known as the Western Monolith was in view.

“Pedro, we went past the monolith,” Elise said. “If we walk about fifty paces forward from where you’re standing, we’ll be aligned between the sunset and the stone…Sorry, I know this isn’t what you wanted to see.”

“It’s fine.”

The two of them silently jogged toward the stone, the sound of their boots crunching grew louder as they encountered virgin snow.

“Stop! That’s good,” Elise called out.

They stood thirty feet beyond the stone as the sun began to dip below the horizon, their shadows cast onto the snow in front of the monolith.

“Wow, Elise, this really is beautiful,” Pedro said, not taking his eyes off the sunset.

“This probably looks great on the other side of the stone, but honestly, there’s always next year.” Elise turned back toward the stone for a moment. “It’s pretty weird though, there were a lot of cars in the parking lot earlier, but no one seems to be watching this with us…at least, not that I can see.”

“That’s weird, maybe they all got cold and gave up. It is only about six degrees right now.” Pedro didn’t turn to face her as the sun was now halfway below the horizon.

An ominous sensation gnawed at Elise as she fixated on another “No Trespassing At Night” sign posted to a stone in front of them. “Hey, do you think the gate keeper is going to get mad at us for coming back after dark?”

“Probably not,” Pedro said. “I don’t really understand the point of those signs. People come here specifically to watch the sunset, it’s unrealistic to think that no one will be here at night.”

Something in Pedro’s attempt to comfort didn’t sit right with Elise. The harder she thought about the warning, the less sense it made. Before she could say anything else on the matter, the sun had completely dipped, letting the moon have its moment.

The two of them sat down in the snow for a minute to rest their legs before heading back.

“I thought you were afraid of the gatekeeper getting mad at us for being out too late, but now we have time to rest?” Pedro asked.

“Well, I just didn’t expect for the stars to look so beautiful tonight,” Elise said. “I’ve never seen Pegasus and Andromeda this clearly before.”

“Yeah, this is one of the only areas around here without any artificial light.”

They only intended to sit there for ten minutes, but when they stood up, it was already after four o’clock. As they approached the Western Monolith, the light from Pedro’s phone reflected off the stone.

“That’s a little weird,” Pedro said. “The stone itself shouldn’t be shimmering like that…it’s too early for a frost layer, and it shouldn’t be wet.”

Elise tilted her head. “Maybe the intensity of the sunlight melted some snow on top of it, and it only just froze?”

Pedro shrugged, and once they reached the stone, he placed his hand on the shinier surface. “That’s…odd.”

“What’s odd?” Elise asked, placing her hand on the stone as well.

Neither of them verbalized it. Elise shuddered. Why was that part of the stone wet and warm?

Pedro took his hand off the stone, working through possible explanations in his head, but couldn’t come up with anything. He slid his hand across the part of the stone that didn’t reflect any light. “Weird, the rest of the stone is dry and cold to the touch.”

The two of them stood there for longer than a minute as they tried, but failed, to come up with a logical explanation.

“You know, it’s suspiciously quiet right now,” Elise said. “I know it’s winter, but there’s usually something making noise around here.”

“I know…let’s just hurry back to the gate.” Pedro nervously grabbed Elise’s hand. They both blushed at the suddenness of it. “Sorry,” he mumbled.

“It’s fine, it’s dark, this way neither of us will get lost.”

The two of them took one step past the Monolith.

The heavy and uncomfortable silence was instantly shattered by howling wolves, an angry wind, and the screams of men.