Maurice hunched his shoulders so that his coat collar flipped up around his ears. He didn't have to listen to this! He stomped a little more loudly as if to drown out Heather's smug croak of a voice.

For a time nothing but trunks and bushes passed them by. The glow of the distant city became muddled with the glow of the moon--a lazy gibbous. Rabbits bounded ahead of them and birds startled overhead as the strange god picked her way through their woods.

The vampire's eyes were keen in the dark. He looked up and around and ahead. Then he stumbled and let out something akin to a yodel before digging his claws into a nearby tree trunk and clung to it. His boot had almost slipped off into a gully hidden by what used to be a blackberry bush.

"Holy shit!" He steadied himself and looked down into the depression. "I didn't think it rained enough for there to be gullies way out here..."

But there was! It was deep as an in-ground swimming pool and it tapered on either end but it was hard to tell how far it went. The edges weren't steep but they were covered in bramble and big white stones. Someone had tried to keep it from washing out long ago. Broken bottles and garbage rested in the very pit of it.