"Does it matter if I've met you?" they responded, the woods swallowing them up, though the darkness, that inky black that felt so threatening, continued in pursuit. They knew they couldn't run forever, that eventually it would catch up, and oh, they were familiar with that pain when it finally did. But that didn't mean they couldn't try, that they couldn't at least attempt to outrun in.
"No," they answered honestly, but there was no amusement in the words. "It only holds it off. You can't hide from it. You can't... ever hide from it." There was a glance back over their shoulder, and then to Carol, and in the space of a breath, a decision was made. She was pushed forward, further into the woods, and they stayed back. "Run!" they commanded her, and that's when the blackness hit.
Where the air was thick and humid, the darkness was anything but. Cold, it zapped energy, the will to live, it sucked the joy out of the universe around it, and it hit them hard as they crumpled to their needs. Breath was stolen and it seemed that the very color of life was leeched out of them. Shades of grey and black, they looked up towards her as it devoured them. There was pain in eyes that were startling blue, the only spot of color against that greyscale madness. One hand reached out as though to ask for help, lips parting to say something, but there was another surge of darkness and the person disappeared, dissolving into ash that coated the ground.