Lunar Distortions

Chapter 1

"You're new to the area. Huh?" 

I tried not to meet the gruffly spoken cab driver eyes dead on. My dad always said it unnerved people, but I could feel his beady eyes peering at me through his mirror. His all-knowing tone irked me, and I had to wonder what gave me away.

Was it the fact that I was wearing vintage boots? Or the bomber jacket?

Huh, I guess that did make me stand out. My eyes fell to the snowfall outside, everything was white. Snow dropped like fully formed miniature clouds. 

Maybe if someone told me about the place that was meant to be my new home, I would have known what to pack!

"Uh-huh," I grumbled hugging myself. Valuing the woollen scarf around my neck as a necessity, rather than an accessory. I couldn't remember the last time I had seen real snow, or snow this thick, "At any point, will we enter civilisation?"

I never meant for my tone to be so snappy. So, I was grateful when the cabby laughed until I realized that he was laughing at me.

My mood darkened even more, and I glowered hard outside of the window. With renewed bitterness, resisting the urge to bark out a snide comment.

"City girls." I'm sure I heard the man mutter beneath his breath. He suddenly cleared his breath with a chirpier tone, "I have to say, it's rare that anyone calls for a cab to Sterling Cove. You gotta be, what, the newest arrival in a dozen years?"

Ah, yes. Sterling Cove. A quick Google search told me two things about the town; it was almost non- existent, and basically in the middle of nowhere. 

South of Alaska with not one appealing thing about it. Other than the pictures on the website; which hadn't been updated in the past five years.

Unfortunately, it was where my biological uncle Roan Hale lived. The man, the myth, the legend. My dad spoke of the stranger so little that I started doubting he was actually real decades ago, I knew next to nothing about him.

My dad wasn't a dweller of the past...neither of us are or used to be.

"Wouldn't know." I muttered jamming my frozen hands into my pockets with a glower, "Never been. I won't be there for long."

Not long at all. As soon as I was through with my senior year, I will kick this place goodbye and be gone.

I'm sure that was something my uncle wanted as much as I did. I only spoke to him once on the phone, and that was when I needed to tell him that I had landed.

His voice was so deep I didn't even realize he was speaking. Until it dawned on me that the low rumbling noise was, in fact, not the sound of a car engine.

I mean, who even speaks in such a monotone voice? I wouldn't be surprised if a speaking grizzly bear would show up at our meet place.

"They all say that you know." The cabby grinned toothily as we passed what suspiciously looked like a sign. I couldn't tell, it was hidden beneath a mountain of snow that was gathering on the top of it, "I ain't never seen no one leave that town; lore is that your feet get stuck in the snow, forever."

Well, isn't it handy that I have strong legs? I could only smile tightly as the cabby began cackling away to himself.

My attention had been grabbed by the sight of buildings. Only shadowy shapes lingering in the distance at first, that were now solidifying, and turning into something real.

My heart tripped over itself in my chest as my nerves buzzed to life; this was the town my father had grown up in. A place he barely ever spoke about, he always said that Sterling Cove was one of those places you had to leave before you got swallowed.