Story Sampler

Why us? - Completed

A/N: I know I haven't posted much recently but my creativity has been sucking and I decided to knock this out just to hopefully get the juices flowing again.

Zane sat on the edge of his bed as he tied his shoe strings.  He had finished his homework and felt like going for a run.  He was in track and field and they had trained earlier but he just felt like getting out of the house for a while.  There wasn't any particular reason other than he simply loved running and some days it felt like he could run forever.  He wasn't sure where he came by this since his father had never played sports and at most his mother was a former cheerleader.

Once he was done getting ready he grabbed his phone from the charger and plugged his earbuds in.  As he headed towards the front of the old house his family lived in he made sure he had everything he needed.  He poked his head into the living room and smiled.  His little sister was sitting behind their father doing something with his hair.  His father had a very patient look on his face as she did whatever she was doing.  "Hey I am going to go for a run.  Back by nine or so.  Would you like me to deal with the stinker for you?"

His sister stuck her tongue at him.  "Go run what little brains you have left out.  This is important for your information.  I promised Ava that I would do her hair for the dance and she is going to do mine."  She had her phone sitting next to her and would periodically check it as she was working.

His mother was grinning at her husband and youngest.  "Okay Zane and have a good run.  Try not to forget the time again.  This time I might just call the police and report you as missing."  She had to tease him since he tended to forget the time when running.  Last week he had gone out for a short run and came back two hours later.

Zane had to exaggerate the eyeroll and mock whined for good measure.  "Mom!!!  It was a Friday night for heaven sake.  Besides I told you I was trying to get away from all my admirers."  Considering he didn't date and was just average looking his family knew he was joking.  He flashed a grin at her and headed out.  One thing he liked about where they lived was how quiet it was.  They might not be very well off but his parents had managed to find a decent place to live.  It was old and showed its age but was in good shape.

They were in an old subdivision which was one reason it was so quiet and the tree's were old and massive which he loved as well.  With the area they lived in as well there was what was loosely termed a forest which he used to train for cross country.  Tonight he wasn't in the mood for running through the forest so he was going to run the edge of the forest which normally took him about an hour.  After a slow jog to start warming up he started stretching. 

Once he was nicely warmed up he started running.  As he was running the light cloud cover moved and the moon shone down.  The moonlight was bright enough to read by, or so it seemed.  The air was cool and crisp which made it even nicer to run in.  It didn't take him all that long to settle down into the pace he was going to use.  As he was listening to his music he had to roll his eyes since his mother had apparently added a few songs to his list.  Right now Turn Me Loose by Loverboy was playing and it messed with his pace.

Zane was going to have to mutter at his mother again about doing that.  It was a good beat to run to but it just wasn't what he needed at the moment.  "Mothers are such a pain in the ass sometimes.  She won't admit it but I know she thinks she is funny when she does this."  Just to be a pest he was going to run a bit longer and then tell her it was her fault. 

He dipped into the forest on a small path he liked and for some reason even though he had run this path for ages it felt creepy.  The sudden darkness of moving into the thick foliage which blocked the moon light was probably the cause.  Zane still started moving faster than normal since he just wasn't comfortable.  On top of that it felt like there was something watching him which made the hairs on his neck stand up.  "Brr, what the heck?  Time to hurry up and get back on the trail."