Delphic Song

Chapter Two

I sighed, taking another bite of toast. Somehow, around my birthday, my thoughts always circle back around to her. You'd think it would be easy to forget, seeing as I've never met her or have no memories of her. When I was six years old, I’d gone looking for photos, letters, anything to show that she had been real – and found nothing. I’d thought I was Nancy Drew back then.

Okay, Gwen, enough depressing memories.

I finished the last bite of my toast and leaned back against the lounge chair. I had just opened my book when I froze. A flash of movement caught my attention. A dark shape disappearing into the woods, blending into the blackness. I turned, my senses immediately alert and my body tense.

"Hello?" I called, my eyes scanning the woods. Everything was quiet, unmoving. I was about to relax when I heard a stuck crack underfoot, sharp and resounding.

"Is anybody there?" I asked again. My voice seemed to hang suspended in the darkness in front of me. "Hello?" My toast turned tasteless in my mouth.

A loud mrowww carried from the edge of the woods. My shoulders visibly relaxed as I recognized Cocoa's harried meow. Cocoa was our family's cat, a beautiful Himalayan tabby. She had been in our family for only a couple of months, and already I couldn't stand her. I don't think any of us, excluding Liz, felt anything but irritation for her. But we put up with her anyway. When Liz's mother had passed away only a few months ago, Liz had been given Jiffy, her cat, to care for, but Jiffy had died a few weeks later. Cocoa was Jiffy's single kitten. Liz treasured Cocoa as the last piece of her mother, so

we let Liz spoil her. It was hard not to mention it if she paid more attention to the cat than us. Cocoa was kept specially an indoor cat who sat and purred in the sun all day, eating soft food and sleeping.

Wait… indoor cats weren’t supposed to be outside.

I glanced over to the sliding doors. I’d left them open.

Shit.

"Hey!" I was shouting now, stuffing the last of my toast in my mouth as I took off running. "Cocoa!" My bare feet slapped down hard on the wooden porch steps, making the soles of my feet sting. I jumped off the bottom step and ran around the side of our house towards the woods, my breath hitching.

My mind was turning over as fast as my legs, images racing across my imagination, flashes of possible scenarios of what could happen to me while I ran through the dark woods in the middle of the night. A thought struck me suddenly, like lightening. What if a crazy psychopath was out there, hiding in wait with plans to hurt me or even murder me?

I shivered as my imagination took me places I didn't want to go, showing me images I didn't want to see. I slowed my pace coming to a stop. I pushed the hair back from forehead, panting, scanning the woods around me. There was no noise, no sound. Only a cool breeze ruffling the trees above me, ominously rustling the leaves.

"Cocoa?" I whispered, afraid to make my voice any louder. My palms were sweaty as I clenched and unclenched my hands nervously at my sides. I could feel adrenaline rushing through my veins, twining with my blood, awakening my senses and awareness. The air seemed to be humming and thrumming with energy.

"Here, kitty, kitty, kitty." I swallowed, forcing my voice to go louder, trying to convince myself that there was nothing to worry about.

No one’s going to come after you, I told myself firmly. No one has it out for you, no one wants to murder you. Stop acting so childish; you got over the monsters in the closet a long time ago.

"Cocoa!" I called, stifling my unease. "Come out, silly cat!" I quieted as I listened for any sounds of her, but nothing moved. I sighed heavily, frustration coursing through me in hot waves.