The forest floor crunches under your boots, the only sound besides your ragged breaths escaping into the frigid night air. Each exhale hangs heavy, a ghostly apparition in the beam of your headlamp that cuts through the suffocating darkness. An unnatural stillness hangs heavy, broken only by the occasional groan of a straining branch under its burden or the haunting hoot of an owl in the distance. Yet, despite the quiet, a prickling unease crawls up your spine. A fresh gust of wind rips through the trees, sending a shower of icy needles stinging your exposed cheeks. Then, a flicker. Just at the periphery of your light, a fleeting glimpse of movement – a dark shape that seems to dissolve back into the shadows as quickly as it appeared.