The forest continued seemingly endlessly. Fortunately for them, the vegetation was a bit sparse the whole way, so they hadn’t really found themselves blocked by anything yet (aside from the bushes near the stream) and an uncanny silence followed them around.

For obvious reasons, Clara had never been in a forest at night, so while she was not 100% sure, being able to hear anything other than the sound of Thomas moving around the vegetation didn’t seem normal. There were no signs of insects around them, no animals, only silence.

But regardless of how she felt, there was not much they could do aside from continuing to move towards the lights they’d seen, the only thing that could seem like some kind of… Human establishment or something. And if it wasn’t… Well, that’s for future Clara to think about, she mused.

Almost an hour after they’d left the plain where they’d started, a noise so far that it was near impossible to hear reached their ears.

“Can you hear it?” Asked Clara.

Thomas nodded in response. It was hard to discern, but it sounded like voices. And the more they approached it, the more it became clear that the voices were filled with joy, laughs, and a little bit of music.

As the realisation sank, Clara rested her head on Thomas’ shoulder with a soft smile of hope.

They’d truly left their time loop. Her dream of one day returning home and going back to living their lives normally was seeming more and more realistic the more they approached.

Soon, they could clearly hear that they were nearing a party of sorts. Although there was still too much vegetation blocking their view for them to see anything farther than a few metres away, the erstwhile dark forest started getting brighter and brighter, and it was probably because of the lights they had seen.

They were now close enough to discern what was being said, so long as it was screamed. It was english, but now that they were this close, they could see that the party was very country-like, however you’d call it. The voices of the participants were mostly those of adults, the folk music was being played by some of them. They could also hear a few children playing around, screaming as they got caught in whatever game they were playing.

At that point, it felt more like a normal gathering than a party.

Even though they were pretty close to the source of the noise, the vegetation was still too dense for them to be able to actually see it, so they kept moving forwards. Then, as they passed through the last tree impeding their view-

If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

-Hundreds of ghosts were scattered about a clearing in the forest. Some flying high, others on the ground. Were one to look at the upper part of their body, they looked just like a transparent human, but the torso and below was a bit like a mist, the outlines of their legs foggy and blurry or not appearing at all.

For the most part, these ghosts had no colour, aside from a faint navy blue glow around them, and looked like all kinds of people; Some dressed in blazers, others in rags, some carrying instruments, others even baby ghosts in their arms. A few circles of ghosts were doing folk dances in the night sky, forming mesmerising patterns around a circumference, joyfully laughing with each other with their chests raised high.

Around the clearing, there were a few campfires scattered here and there, but the biggest source of light was by and large the ghosts themselves. Despite being semi-transparent, they shone like dim stars in the night, not so brightly as to make it uncomfortable to look at, but brightly enough to light their surroundings.

Surroundings which, though a little hard to see, felt desolate. Further ahead of them was what used to be a road, unmaintained and with so much weed growing between its roman-style stones that it was surprising that they were able to distinguish it from the rest of the clearing’s grass.

Said road led to what seemed like a village, or at least the remnants of it. Most of the houses had broken walls, allowing Thomas and Clara to peer into their insides where oftentimes a few ghosts could also be found.

After taking in the view from within the forest, Thomas whispered to Clara.

“Should we approach them?”

He looked at her with genuine worry, at a loss on what to do. The sight of the ghosts having so much fun like that was not so scary per se, but the thought of approaching and being noticed was. What if they were aggressive? Taking into account that they could fly, running away wasn’t even something the two of them could consider.

Clara didn’t answer right away. Instead, she looked at the party in front of them with a conflicted face. A few minutes of silence afterwards, she breathed deeply and steeled her resolve.

“Let’s do it”

Ghosts were ghosts, but they didn’t have any other clues to follow. If they decided to run, what then? They had no roof, no food, and were stranded in the middle of a forest. Furthermore, these ghosts didn’t seem scary at all. Rather, they felt human. Thus her decision.

“Aye aye”

The moment he said this, Thomas felt like Clara’s gaze was piercing him - it seemed like she really didn’t like him saying “aye aye” for some reason.

“Why not?” Thomas mused to himself as he trodded dejectedly towards the ghosts “It’s much more colourful than simply saying ok or something…”

Thus, with their hearts nearly beating off of their chests in the face of this unknown phenomena, they slowly left the safety of their forest and walked towards the party of ghosts.

What kind of reception would they get? Hopefully, nothing bad.