Firefly Glen but when i go to sleep at night, don't you call my name

Esme's tone was sharp, cutting harder than before. Riley's insectile gaze jerked up, his mouth formed in a silent o of surprise as he registered both her frigid timbre and the meaning behind her words.

Sure, he could up and leave -- but did she not know he was a vagrant? The glade was unoccupied, and mostly shaded - the perfect haunting ground for a hungry spectre to stake his claim. And if he went with her, where would they go? For why?

His jaws closed with a strange popping sound as he digested the vagueness of her words. He was not offended by the suggestion his brain was corroded, but he wondered -- how had this place changed it? It was just a glade, full of fireflies.

She was already moving away. Riley did not immediately rise; his lantern gaze watched as fireflies glimpsed in and out of visibility, wondering if those short flashes were not unlike the spark and death of life, or the winds of change -- there one moment, gone the next..

Just like Esme.

Eventually Riley rose and picked after her trail, his pace sluggish but determined.