Anna noticed the blonde's attention, and gave a crooked smirk. With a flourish, she turned her hand over and showed Shanna an unblemished palm with a giggle.
Shanna turned toward the group and let out an exclimated whisper, "Jack!" Jack's halt of movement led the entire group to turn around and face where Anna had emerged from the treeline.
Katie incredulously pipped out, "Where the hell did you come from?" Her reaction summed up the looks on the rest of the groups' faces, as they reacted to one of the first real surprises on the trail.
Anna rubbed her hands together as she shrugged her shoulders, "I got my own little trail show. That's all." Anna moved closer to Shanna and the others, "We should keep moving so we don't clog up the path."
Paul shook his head in agreement, "Yeah, let's keep going, and watch your step. It looks like we're getting to a darker part of the path."
Katie and Emily located themselves closer to Paul and Jack as the bunch began to walk again. Shanna and Anna followed close behind. Shanna addressed Anna quietly, "So, what happened?"
Anna smiled, showing white, sharp teeth. She litely caressed the sleve of Shanna's upper arm with elongated nails, "It was weird, but pretty authentic. I'll tell you about it later."
As the group ventured foward on the trail, Paul's observation played out. The path began to receive little lighting from thinly disperssed lanterns. Nervous laughter began to play through the group after Emily shrieked in reaction to Jack tripping on a tree root. The shadows of the forest under the moonlight and through the torch illumination danced around the group as they moved. Jack and Paul were semi-jokingly trying to point out places where scares could come from the woods, but the four women all began to feel genuinely uneasy.
"Wait a second," Katie's voice halted the group again in the darkness.
Paul turned to her, "What, do you see something?"
"Um, I don't know. I could swear someone is watching us from the forest, but I think I'm just freakin' out," she giggled. "I mean, is anybody else seeing golden eyes staring through the trees?"
Jack laughed, "Yeah, girl. They're all around us, and they're coming to eat yoouuuu." He finished the sentence while flapping his arms and clumsly jogging around Katie and Paul.
Paul pushed him away playfully, "Cut it out, dumbass." Jack kept laughing and pulled Emily to him as he returned to her side.
Emily looked up at him with bright blue eyes, "You know, it does feel like we're being watched, a little." She casually scratched the back of her head, running her nails through what felt like extra hair down the back of her neck.
Jack began to walk again, "That's how these jokers want it to feel, with the lanterns and everything. It's nothing."
The trail grew darker quickly, and Paul made a crack about bringing a flashlight. A glimmer of light came from a lower area on the path, where the trail bent and descended downhill. The group approached the bend slowly.
Shanna's head snapped around as she suddenly smelled the intruders at the moment they struck. Jack actually let out a yelp as a charcoal clothed body emerged screaming, almost materializing from the path in front of the group. Six flowing black robes quickly and simultaneously criss-crossed through the group with loud ghoulish sounds, disorienting them all. Even Shanna found herself confused by the overwhelming rush of sensory information she picked up from the players. Paul recovered enough to reach out to hold Katie, only to find an empty space where she had been before.
The intruders vanished as soon as they came, and the actor on the path melted back into his hiding space. The nervous laughter returned, and Shanna was about to give Jack plenty of grief about his less than courageous reaction until Paul spoke, "Hey, they took Katie."