I went for a walk alone yesterday afternoon, in the nearby pine woods, just as it was getting dark. I don’t get spooked by being alone in the deep forest. But yesterday, on the shortest day of the year, something changed. I was standing looking at my phone to get my location when a crazy, raucous laugh started up – a crow, of course. Then it sounded like I was near the road, with the sound of wet tyres swishing past, somehow comforting. But it was only the wind, soughing through the trees, there was no road at all nearby. Something moved up ahead, and I wondered how I’d feel if someone was there, coming towards me. It was a muntjac deer, bouncing away down one of the many gloomy paths leading off between thick fir trees.

The mist came in, I had to walk into it. It was getting darker. Trees were creaking all around me in the wind. I came across a white van, parked in the middle of nowhere, with tinted windows. Who would park out here, walkers and cyclists, of course, but not someone leaving a white van, surely? I walked past it, trying to see if anyone was inside, but also not really wanting to, in case someone was, someone watching me. I kept glancing over my shoulder as I walked away from it, wondering how I would feel if I saw a figure get out and start to follow me.

Maybe after watching countless horror movies, and writing ghost stories for years, I’ve finally settled some deeper fears in my mind. I once learned most people don’t like walking in the countryside, and panic if they move beyond a certain distance from their car. How do you feel about it?