Thomas was laying on his back, buried beneath the stars and a thick layer of down. He folded his arms behind his head and craned his neck so that he could see the stars. The air was already thick, the ground wet with dew, and each little perspiring blade of grass was reaching out toward his sleeping bag, making the bundle feel chilled in a way he had not expected. The forest was far different from the city in which he belonged, but in many ways, he felt calmed by the sense of foreignness. 

A sudden breeze blew through the trees and he watched as a few leaves picked up and followed the trail, leaving their fate to chance. He smiled to himself, remembering what that had felt like only a few days ago... leaving the one place you'd ever known for the sake of fate. 

The silence around him grew steady once more as the breeze died down. The crickets had long since stopped their chirping, and the rush of the stream down the way had blended into the back of his mind the moment he set foot on his journey through the mountain. Tomorrow would be the last day of the long night and he needed to find shelter before the sun shone its rays over the ground and its creatures. It had been five years since Thomas had seen the sun. 

And as much as it pained him to admit it, even to himself, Thomas' mind was racing with fears and uncertainties. 

He pulled one hand out from behind his head and reached it down into the sleeping bag, pulling out his small transistor radio. He looked at it for a long time before finally flicking the switch. The static filled the space around him, clouding his mind and clearing his subconscious of all the worries he would still be faced with in the morning. 

Without thinking, Thomas reached out his other hand and turned the knob a few centimeters to the left until the static grew in volume. All around him, into the wooded forest, over the stream, and into the burrows of badgers, Thomas could feel the white noise taking over... and as he drifted off to sleep, he thought of one thing and one thing alone: the name that was being called steadily alongside the hiss of the radio. 

Thomas Blight

Thomas Blight

Thomas Blight