Alex woke abruptly gasping desperately for air that refused to come. Confused and suffocating, he clawed at the vice-like grip around his throat. The grasp was firm, but he eventually managed to slide his own fingers underneath his attacker’s and pry them free. Now able to capture precious breaths, and gulping lungfuls of sweet, sweet air Alex braced himself against further assault.

The small silhouette of a person darted out through the tent flap in front of Alex, who hastily scrambled in pursuit of his attacker. The gloom cast by the overcast night made it difficult for Alex to see where his attacker had gone. As he frantically scanned his surroundings, he heard the faint click of a lock-blade.

The blade came in quickly, swishing as Alex narrowly dodged it. Reeling back, to avoid the silhouette swinging viciously at him in the darkness. He was forced back again, and again as he dodged slash after slash of the gleaming blade. Stumbling as he tried to regain his footing and retaliate, Alex finally managed to plant his foot firmly against a large rock.

As his attacker stepped in for another strike, Alex stood his ground. He pushed so as to give himself room to swing, but felt no contact with his assailant. Instead a bright xanthous wall of light erupted from his outstretched palms. The attacker was sent sprawling as they were hit by the wall, simultaneously illuminated by its gleaming rays.

Alex was surprised to see that his assailant was none other than a woman. She was petite and athletic looking with long, dark hair and correspondingly dark eyes. Those eyes were wide with wonder at the glowing wall that separated her from her would-be victim, and she reached out as if to touch it. Her revelry was interrupted by movement from the nearby tents. It seemed the rest of the camp had been awoken by the commotion. Moving quickly, she fled into the darkness. The wall of light, as though seeing that the danger had now passed, vanished as suddenly as it had appeared.

The renewed darkness of the night was quickly pierced by the focused beams of flashlights.

“What’s going on out here?” Came the gruff, disgruntled voice of Mark. He was joined by several concurring voices.

Alex decided to adopt a reassuring tone. “Everything’s alright now. I was attacked in the middle of the night by someone with a knife, but they ran away.”

Mark snorted in disbelief. “Yeah right. How do we know that you weren’t trying to attack us in… wait, what happened to your shirt?”

Alex looked down. He may have dodged the knife blade in the dark, but his shirt wasn’t so fortunate. He held out his hands reassuringly and reiterated, “I was attacked in the middle of the night by someone with a knife.”

“Did you manage to see who it was? They could be the person responsible for Kathy’s disappearance.” Susan pitched in somewhat hopefully.

“Maybe.” Alex said. “Whoever they are, I doubt they’ll be back tonight. I think we should all go back to bed. We should keep our guard up, though. Someone clearly has a grudge against us, and I don’t know why.” There was much nodding in concurrence to this and everyone returned to their tents. No one went back to sleep that night.