Ezra heard his name and his first thought wasn't that someone had joined him in the woods but rather that the shadows had acquired voices, or he had started experiencing auditory hallucinations. That's never happened before, he thought without particular alarm, not because the sentiment created no cause for alarm but rather because he had no room for escalating emotion. His breath was already ragged, despite his efforts to make it deep and purposeful. His heart was racing. He suspected that when one of the shadows touched him it would send a chill through him, like touching a ghost, but he also wasn't sure he would notice with his eyes shut; he already felt frigid and stiff. It wasn't until the light shown on his face that he realized this couldn't be the shadows' doing. They didn't deal in light.

He opened his eyes and squinted. It was such a sudden contrast that it was impossible to see anything for a second except the light itself. He was grateful he'd pushed back against the tree, because the solid wood at his back was the only thing keeping him oriented. His head was swimming. Someone had found him in the woods. Someone was holding a light up near him. Someone was asking what had happened. Ezra couldn't answer, of course, even if he'd wanted to — he couldn't explain this to anyone, and without understanding the nature of the shadows it was impossible to convey the urgency of the situation. But he'd have to say something, because someone was asking — someone who sounded concerned.

The face on the other side of the light finally took shape as his eyes adjusted, and Ezra's brows lowered in confusion. "Rosalie?" he asked, mistrusting it — this was the sort of thing that the shadows would do, if they had moved on from menacing stalking and into the realm of hallucinations.

---