Composer... (Complete)

Chapter 2 (Part 1)

"Yeah well, I'm not quite awake yet."

"Here." Sasha handed me a steaming cup of coffee. "I thought you might want some coffee."

I took it gratefully. "Thanks."

The trip took us north of all directions. I watched as the trees thinned and I saw a large house on the hillside about three miles from the road.

"What's that?" I asked pointing.

Sasha looked tentatively at her parents backs and answered. "That's the house I was telling you about last year. Remember?"

It took a moment to recall the conversation about HIM. Her father must have been looking in the rear mirror because he spoke up sounding firm. "We don't talk about him or go there." His tone left no room for arguing and Sasha's face went red as she glanced at me.

"The lake is only a half mile around the slopes from there so we steer clear of that side of the mountain."

"Ok." I said lightly but even then I was curious. Why was everyone so scared of him? The lake was only ten miles total from my house but it seemed like another world. No people or technology. The only things that interrupted the landscape were two small cabins Sasha's parents built beside a lake that had a thin sheen of ice still on the water‘s surface.

"Ah lake Shikawacha." Sasha's dad said smiling. His deep wrinkles along his face looked deeper making him seem so wise and old as the sun came up over the trees. Katie and Sasha were already giggling and running to the smaller cabin. Her father looked at me narrowing his eyes. "Remember don't go too far. There are still bears around here and your mother would have a heart attack if another one tried to eat you."

I turned my head so I could roll my eyes. "Ok." I walked slowly to the cabin where Sasha got to have a weekend sleep over with her group of friends which I was now apart of. It was small with no beds and a small fireplace. "Cozy." I said sarcastically throwing my bag on the floor. Katie and Sasha were laughing about something already getting their stuff out. Then Sasha turned to me.

"So after lunch you want to go for a hike? I know a place where you can look out over his house." The mischievous smile on Sasha's chubby face made me think of a cat luring a mouse into her trap.

I shrugged not really caring. "Sure why not." Sasha gave a look to Katie that made me ask. "What is so funny?"

Katie answered looking smug. "We think you have a thing for Devon."

"What? I don't even know him and have seen him like...three times since I got here. How can I have a thing for him?" I rolled my eyes yet again. The only thing they ever thought about was love and sex and the drama connected to both. They didn't answer but something told me that wasn't the end of it.

After lunch we started off heading up a trail away from his house so Sasha's father didn't suspect where we were going. It took three hours of trudging up through slippery and wet slopes and going around small gullies before we reached a large rock that stuck out like a thorn in the mountainside. Below about fifty feet was a mansion sized house with almost nothing but windows for walls.

"It doesn't look like a vampire's house. Where's the stone castle and moats?" I said grinning at the absurdity of their claims of what he was. "Oh and the fact he goes out in the day. Well he must be a special breed of Vampire." I added sarcastically. Sasha made an exasperating sound and looked down at the house.

"I told you already. That's all superstition."

"And you know this how?"

She didn't answer me. (I have to warn you now I'm not usually too smart when faced with foolishness.) I crawled down off the rock and began half running down the steep slope hearing them following whispering like mad for me to stop. I was determined to prove them wrong.

"Casey! Stop." I heard as I reached the stone wall around the back of the house and decided to do this properly and went around the level ground to the front.

As I rounded the high scale mansion that didn't seem to fit in the wilderness surrounding it, I began to feel a pit in my chest. The beginning of fear. I shook it off as foolishness. It was just Sasha's and Katie's stories playing tricks with my mind. I would prove them wrong. That he was a normal person, just rude and with a thing for contact lenses. The house was trimmed in light wood, I could see inside almost every room in the house but didn't see anyone. I knew he was there because the motorcycle was parked out in front. As I passed it I noticed the chrome tank had a female angel with black wings decaled on it. Her wings spread wide around the curve of the tank. Not surprisingly she had no cloths on. It only proved that he was definitely a normal guy.

Go away!

Ok, I get that hearing voices would scare anyone. I was scared. I mean a voice in your head that's not yours... is disconcerting. I wanted to ask who it was but didn't want to look ridiculous. I walked up to the house and knocked on the front door. I waited for a while before I knocked again this time harder.

Go away!

I heard again. Who are you?

Go away! Now! The voice boomed in my head sending shards of pain through making me cringe. I ran away from the house not knowing why but fear had cracked through in a wave. I saw Sasha and Katie running towards me with panic in their eyes. By the time I got them I was calming down.

"Oh my god Casey are you alright?" They asked in unison. Distractedly I wondered if in fact they were the same person just cut in half.

"I'm fine just there's no one home." I lied trying to sound as convincing as possible. We didn't talk at all while we headed back. My mind kept going back to that voice in my head. It was cold and hard like steel. But it was also perfect with no roughness or grading to it. If it wasn't so emotionless I would have thought it was a beautiful voice. I loved voices. Unique ones. Sean Connery and Jack Nicholson, Christian Bayle. They all have wonderful unique voices. Watching any animation I can spot a character's voice and tell you who it is like Dave Wittenberg who did the voice for Kakashi from Naruto an anime that used to be on Toonami.

It was getting dark and we weren't even close to being back yet. There were multiple gullies like large cracks in the mountain face that were from six feet to fifteen feet deep. Some even had caves that went underground. Having the luck of an angel in hell I was walking along trying to see where I was going in front of Sasha and Katie because I didn't want to talk. As I put all my weight forward to what was suppose to be ground, I felt myself fall. My heart flew up into my throat cutting off my ability to scream. Then as soon as I did finally scream a sharp pain began in my head and I realized I'd landed on a rock. Then the pain was gone and I knew it was bad.

"Casey! Are you alright?" I heard Sasha call.

I coughed tasting my own blood. I thought I must have bitten my tongue. "Yeah. I hit my head pretty bad though!" Every syllable sent pounding pain in my head cutting through the shock.

"We're going to get help!" Sasha shouted down her voice echoed making my head hurt more.

"Alright! Hurry!" I answered hoping no one was going to shout again. My head felt as if it was going to explode from the pressure. I knew I was bleeding but my body was numb so I couldn't feel where. The only sensation was the aching and the cold that made my body shiver. It was going to get cold and in the dark no one would get to me for hours. I knew there was a possibility I would die. I wasn't sure how deep it was but I knew it was over six feet by the echo of Sasha's voice.

They had been gone for hours when my body stopped shivering and my fingers and toes were going numb. It must have been ten o'clock by then and the moon's light was showing faintly through the trees allowing me to see I was at least twelve feet down. And that it would take a rescue group to reach me. That meant more time till rescue. Great.

I heard a thump like the crunching of rocks under feet beside me but couldn't move. My body wasn't listening to my commands. Then a feral annoyed growl touched my ears as I felt myself lift up then a pressure on my body like I was being pulled up into the air fast. I knew I was loosing consciousness when I saw red eyes looking down at me. Then darkness.

Light hurt me eyes when I woke up and sat up with a start. I touched my head and winced there was dried blood on my face and hands.