Pam was sure, with all the walking and running that they did around here, that she had to be in the best shape of her life. That's what she told herself, anyway, as she jogged towards the house, trying her best to go quick but also stay low in case something was coming her way. She'd seen the things the night before from the upstairs window, though she'd been so stunned that she'd forgotten that she had a crossbow that would have been perfect for that occasion. Now she didn't have the crossbow, so she had to get back to safety before she needed it, she knew that. And that took a little more focus on the exercise, and remembering to breathe as she jogged and not scream the way that she really wanted to. This would all have been just a little easier if she'd been on the right side of the river and wasn't running around damp too, of course, but she'd change once she got back to the lodge.
Hopefully no one was rushing out in her direction to find her, she thought. Assuming that everyone wasn't already out here on their own, racing to get back to the house before darkness let those things out again. Hopefully everyone made it out of this safe again, like the night before. But wait, no, she was thinking about running and breathing, not about people being dragged away screaming. She hadn't heard any screaming, at least. That was something, right?
God, running was taking a long time. Shouldn't she be seeing some light from the house already or something?
She was already too close to the house when she realized that the lights weren't just off because no one had been home to turn them on. Maybe people had been, but closer now, she could see that the darkness didn't reflect off the windows because there were none, and the dark spots where the doors should be were just her view into the lodge, where moonlight hadn't crept in. This place was eerie in the dark, and she wondered again if maybe she was the first one here, and someone needed to turn on the power. She glanced towards the direction of the mill, wondering if she could fix it on her own. Maybe.
But she was caught off guard by the shape in the shadows, running towards her from the mill, and she couldn't help the small yelp that escaped her, not quite a scream because it occurred to her that it was human, just not fast enough that she'd been completely able to stifle her reaction. She squinted over at the shape, then quietly raised a hand into the air, waving it to hopefully catch the attention of the other person.