The City of Gold (Part 1)

Chapter 4

<<<<<Chapter 4>>>>>

       Dale fell through the misty air with ease. He tried to scream but nothing would come from his horrified trembling body. Direction lost its meaning as he spiraled downward. It had happened again. He was so close. If only he could have flown farther. The ground hit his head with a thud and he was brought back to the real world. 

     Dale felt his chest. His heart was beating with a fury. Slowly he regained his grip on reality. Rising to the window, he placed his clammy hands on the glass. It was only a dream. The moon illuminated the sweat on his brow. Around him the other boys slept with melodic breathing, sometimes breathing in unison. 

     Dreams meant nothing. It was only an emotion. His melancholy was only from the falling leaves and colder weather. There was surely something that would brighten his spirit. 

     He tried to remember a happy memory that would reassure him. Diving deep into his memories he tried to think of a time when things were different. He could think of nothing, only useless memories of books and chalkboards. Rewinding back the days of the orphanage he began to think of half forgotten adventures. He remembered riding horseback with two adults, a man and woman. They were married. He hung tightly to the woman’s back, cradling her with his weak grip. The horse began to whinny. There was something in the way of the road. Was it a cat or a skunk? Either way, the man and wife found it entertaining. Dale remembered watching the creature with a passionless curiosity. The two adults were eager to arrive somewhere. It seemed frivolous to Dale at the time. He tried to recall who the two strangers were. Maybe they were his parents, it didn’t matter much now, but the very fact that Dale remembered it made it dear to him. The type of memory that you never want to lose.  

     Dale was too restless to go back to bed. Instead he watched herds of deer chew at the withering leaves of low branches through his window. A buck looked nervously around as he attentively watched over the females. A low fog was creeping around their feet. The night sky looked strangely unwelcoming. On any ordinary night he would alert Landon and they would have a lovely venison feast, but Dale felt a unique fascination with these creatures. Suddenly the buck froze, the females soon followed. Dale pulled up a wooden chair and watched. The buck cautiously inspected the surrounding bushes. He froze again, this time running at full speed in the opposite direction. There was an agonizing silence. Then, Dale saw something move in the bush. At first he casually thought it might be an opossum or weasel. As he inspected the twisted bush from his window his blood turned ice cold. There was something there. Something that on any ordinary night he would think nothing of. 

     No, it couldn’t be. He was only imagining it. Maybe it was the shadows playing tricks on him, anything but that. He looked again, he still saw it. A single reflective spike coming from the bush. The kind of spike that the Bledsworthians who showed up on his porch were wearing. 

     He felt his fingers. They were cold and trembling. He had to tell someone. Running over to Landon he shook him awake. Landon jumped from his bed almost militarily. Landon stared at Dale as if he himself were the enemy.

     “There’s something in the window.” Dale was barely able to say.

     Landon walked over to the window making sure each step was as quiet as the tabby cat sleeping next to him. Dale watched as he gazed out of the window emotionlessly. 

     “I don’t see anything, I’m sure whatever it was-

     Landon expression changed. He saw something, and it terrified him. There were four-seconds of almost unbearable silence. Landon, all of a sudden, jumped into action.