Alex's hands tightened on the microphone. The static on the radio seemed to buzz louder, filling the sudden silence between the two towers. He had expected denial, a joke, a simple explanation. He had not expected confirmation.
"You've heard it too?" he finally managed to say, his voice low. "When? What did it sound like?
"On and off for the last week," Elara's voice came back, stripped of its usual cheerful energy. It was quiet, serious. "It's just like you said. A clicking. Like rocks tapping on glass, or maybe a weird kind of Morse code. The first time, I thought it was a problem with the radio equipment. But it was coming from outside. I... I tried to ignore it."
A strange mix of fear and relief washed over Alex. He wasn't going crazy. What he'd heard was real. But that meant something was out there in the woods, making those sounds. And it had been near Elara's tower, too. The thirty miles separating them suddenly felt like no distance at all.
"We should tell someone," Alex said, thinking of Gus the park ranger. "Report it."
"And say what?" Elara asked, a hint of frustration in her voice. "That we've been hearing weird clicks in the woods? They'll think we've spent too much time alone. They'll pull us out."
She was right. Complaining about strange noises would make them sound unstable, unfit for the job. And the thought of being pulled out, of leaving the tower and losing his connection with Elara, filled Alex with surprising amount of dread.
"Okay," Alex said, his mind racing. "Okay. So what do we do?"
"We watch," Elara said, her voice firm, regaining some of its strength "And we listen. And we tell each other everything. If anything happens, anything at all, we use the radio. No matter how small or crazy it seems. Deal?"
"Deal," Alex agreed immediately. The word felt like a vow, a pact made between two lonely soldiers in their watchtowers.
After that night, the world felt different. The days were still beautiful, filled with sunshine and the peaceful quiet of the wilderness. But now, an undercurrent of tension ran beneath it all. When Alex scanned the forest, he wasn't just looking for smoke anymore. He was looking for movement, for anything out of place. The deep shadows between the ancient pines seemed to hold secrets, and he often felt a prickling sensation on his skin, the feeling of being watched.
His evening calls with Elara became even more important. They were no longer just friendly chats; they were confirmation that they were both still okay. They would sign off each night with the same phrase: "Stay safe." It was a simple wish, but it held a world of meaning.
their bond deepened in the shared unease. Alex found himself mesmerized by her. He didn't know the color of her eyes or the sound of her laugh, but he knew her spirit. He knew her courage and her quick wit. He was falling for a person who was, to him, just a voice in the static.
About a week after they made their pact, the forest decided to show them something new.
Alex was on the radio with Elara, describing the terrible spaghetti he'd made for dinner, when a flicker of light in his peripheral vision caught his eye. He turned to the window that faced north, towards the highest mountain peaks.
"Hold on a second," he said, cutting himself off.
Above the dark, jagged silhouette of the tree line, a light was hovering. It wasn't a star, and it wasn't a plane. It was a soft, glowing orb of brilliant green light, and it was completely silent.
"Alex? what is it?" Elara's voice was sharp with concern.
"There's a light," he breathed, pressing his face closer to the cool glass of the window. "Outside. A green light, just hanging in the sky."
As he watched, a second orb appeared next to it, this one was pulsing, vibrant blue. They began to move, dancing with each other in the sky in a way that was both beautiful and deeply unnatural. They swirled and looped, leaving faint trails of light in their wake before vanishing as if they had never been there.
The entire event lasted maybe thirty seconds. Alex stared at the empty patch of sky, his heart hammering against his ribs.
"Alex, are you there? Talk to me," Elara's voice pleaded over the radio.
"I'm here," he said, his voice shaky. "The lights... they're gone now. They were just... dancing." He felt foolish saying it out loud. It sounded like a fantasy.
He expected her to be confused, "My window faces a different way, but I can see them too. Fainter, from my angle. Blue and green. Just above the ridge."
They were silent for a long time after that, two strangers in their separate towers, united by the impossible sight they had just witnessed. The clicking had been unsettling, a mystery hidden in the dark. But this was different. This was clear, undeniable spectacle. Something was in their forest. It was silent, it was powerful, and it was not of the normal world. And for the first time, Alex felt a real, sharp spike of fear. They were so far from help, so completely and utterly alone. All they had was each other, and a radio that crackled with the sound of empty space between them.