Distance. It wasn’t only mandatory but preferred. Putting as many miles away from civilization was more so a preference than a law. When the noise of cars and voices (both internal and external) were replaced by the symphonies of cricket-frogs and cicadas, that’s when it’s confirmed, there was enough-- Distance.
She both loves and loathes this next part. Feeding into her animalistic nature was a thrill with an aftermath of destitution that lingered much too long. But she’s quick, blink and you’d miss it. She’d sympathized with that blameless doe caught between her jaws.
However, instead of retreating back to the new world, her eye catches something, a flicker of a light in the vast darkness and thick moss. She takes her time approaching the anomaly, ears perked and focused. There’s a shuffle, an unmistakable sound from a rustle. Footsteps? One set. But no voice to accompany it? No shrill shriek of anxiety or malarky ranting. Another immortal? No, the scent doesn’t match. Her curiosity is peaked, it’s been a handful of years since it last was. A cabin comes into view, there was the source. And the closer she gets, the stronger that smell gets. It’s too familiar. It’s a feeling more than it’s an actual scent. Guilt. An overwhelming waft of remorse laced with denial. Death.
She’s quiet, unheard and undetected by blind (human) ears. The shadows were her cloak, she’ll remain unnoticed until she wants you to notice her. It was hardly an effort to peer in through one of the cracks that split rotted wood from-- more rotted wood. But it wasn’t enough, seeing was only partial to believing. Perhaps a more direct approach. A fraction of a second is all it takes to put her in front of the one and only door. Then there’s a reach out, then there’s pale knuckles wrapping splinters with a soft but audible knock.
“You don’t have to be frightened.” Voice is softer than the knock, that faint english accent punctuating vowels. “You and I share... a common denominator of sorts.”