The brisk autumn breeze clears away the thick carpet of fallen leaves in my path as I make my way towards my favorite bench in the park, my designated reading spot. Another gust of wind sends a shiver down my spine which makes me pull the collar of my coat upwards, and as I draw nearer to my destination my steps falter a bit as I realize that someone had beaten me to my spot today, A woman, her bright red coat matching well with the pale-brownness of the environment. She was probably in her mid-30s, her coat complementing her fair skin, she was sitting on the bench deeply enraptured with the book she was reading while completely unaware of my hovering presence.

“Would you like to sit down?” She enquires without looking up.

Okay, so not unaware.

I mumble a ‘thank you’ as I quickly settle down and take in my colorful surroundings; in my opinion, autumn is the best time of the year, it is cold, but not too harsh, there is plenty of sunshine … but it lacks the searing intensity that overrides it’s presence during the summer months. The bright scattering of leaves over the grass that is still a bit green, the satisfactory crunch of dead leaves beneath one’s shoes and so on. I sneak a glance at my reading partner; and although, at a glance, she could be easily passed for a 30-ish individual, her face has a hint of ageless beauty that I can’t put a finger on. I inwardly chastise myself for being a creep and start reading from where I last left off, ‘The Bone Houses’ by Emily Lloyd-Jones: a book about dead not staying dead set in the dark British countryside, fitting for the spook-tober theme I suppose. Then for a while we both are lost in our own worlds, I dimly register the stranger occasionally taking notes in her small notebook but apart from that we both remain ensnared in our books with faint sounds of traffic and children playing in the background.

A *thump* sound shakes me out of a vision of zombies coming out of graves as I notice that the lady’s book had fallen on the ground while she stood up. I bend down and pick up the worn, leather-bound book which had fallen open on one of the pages depicting some Greek symbols. I slowly stand up while frowning over the letters, while she gathers her bearings.

“Thank you Madame” She says with an outstretched hand towards the book.

“Yes?” I suddenly look up to meet her dark gaze and hastily give her the book.

“Are you interested in old writings?” she curiously enquires.

I pick a hint of an accent. “Uh yeah, I mean I work part-time at the Museum so sometimes, occasionally I like to observe… They’re fascinating” I stutter.

She smiles kindly and leaves with a fading imprint of the writings in my mind. Then as she turns a corner, I start following her after a moment of hesitation. I scold myself for acting like a stalker but I don’t stop, and as I reach the corner, I look around myself because suddenly the woman is nowhere to be seen, it’s like she disappeared into thin air. I take a confused glance at my surroundings and then among the trees at my left-end I see a flash of red. The sun has set and it was slowly getting dark but I moved quietly towards the thick bushes to investigate, there! I see another flash of red. I slowly move forward so as to not make too much noise and after a while I spy a clearing.

Standing near the gardener’s old shed, I see the woman again. With the increasing darkness it’s hard to be sure, but it looked like she was having a heated argument with someone who was inside the shed as she was getting a little red in the face. I decide to turn back so that I could reach home before nightfall, and I accidentally step on a fallen branch which makes an audible crunch throughout the clearing. I quietly curse myself as I press close to a tree praying that she shouldn’t have seen me. Then I hear a quick open-and-shut noise of the shed’s door and I slowly look back and the woman has disappeared again.

I get alarmed as I think that whoever she was having an argument with must’ve pulled her in. I debate going out for help first or checking in myself, I dial 911 as I slowly make my way towards the shed and pull the door open. I quickly end the call as I come to face with nothing but dust and old-gardening equipment.