The sound of my brown boots scuffed against the asphalt beneath my feet. My dark skinny jeans were tucked into the boots, I had on a black pea coat buttoned up over my cream colored long sleeve shirt, a peace sign pendant was hanging from a gold chain around my neck, and my chestnut hair was blowing in the cool breeze whirling around me.
I listened intently to the dried leaves scraping the concrete, and maintained a smile as I continued to walk forward. Perhaps tonight would be last time I ever walked down this lonely drive surrounded by dead, leave-shedding trees. Then again, perhaps this would be the first of many walks to come in the future. Who knew?
As I walked down the secluded drive, I felt at peace. My tiny hands were stuffed into my jacket pockets, and I walked with my head high, closer and closer to the black iron gate.
It was getting dark, and as I turned my eyes up towards the sky I found myself staring at a big full moon, glowing blue in the sky. It looked so vivid, so close that I actually stopped in my steps and admired it for a second. I wondered how long it would take to get from exactly where I stood to the moon. I wondered how long it would take to get to Mars, to Pluto, to other unknown distant galaxies, and if somewhere, elsewhere in this huge universe, someone or some kind of being was looking up at a moon too.
I shuddered and zoned in on the mansion before me, stopping short in front of the iron bars. I tilted my head and lifted a hand to touch the gate and feel its cold steel against my frozen fingertips.
I took in the yellowed grass, the over grown bushes sprouting up from against the house, the out of control ivy that weaved its way up the stone fortress, and reached just passed the second floor windows of the three story house. I gazed at the windows which had been drawn closed with red velvet hangings and felt muddled with emotions bubbling inside me.
It truly was a gorgeous house. It was hard to imagine how other people saw it; foreboding, a menace, haunted. There was nothing sinister about it, just that aged beauty that had some real history behind it.
I sighed out loud and leaned my hip against the gate, closing my eyes and reining in my thoughts. I though about Liam and what he could possible be doing tonight that would keep him from school tomorrow. Perhaps he and his family were camping, maybe they had decided to take a night off in a hotel, or could they still be inside the mansion, having a late night around a fireplace, playing a family board game.
And then my smile began to melt into a frown. Jake McCubbin's words had hurt more than I'd like to admit. Although anything he said I was usually able to just ignore, this time I knew there was some truth to what he had said to me earlier in the parking lot.
What was Liam doing hanging out with a freak with no friends, like myself?
Liam may have a different style than the boys and girls at Peterborough, but there was no denying his good looks and dark and mysterious attitude. He could fit in with anyone if he really wanted to, and yet he seemed completely bored and uninterested with the king and queen bees of Peterborough High.
Instead he chose to sit down at my lunch table that fateful day, and had never expressed a genuine regret for that.
Causing me to about jump out of my skin I saw my shadow stretch in front of me, suddenly aware of headlights pouring from behind me. Quickly I scrambled behind the shelter of the thick trees on either side of the drive as a sleek black car pulled up to the gate. I felt my purse slip from my shoulder and I let it fall to the ground, while an arm reached out from the black car and pressed a button on the stone gate post. A buzz ripped through the air and the iron gates opened, letting the car inside.
As it passed through and the gates began to shut behind the car, I lurked out from behind the trees and flattened myself against the stone post, my heart racing. I took a peek from around the post and saw that the car was parked in front of the deep threshold. I saw an old man clad in black step out, I assumed it was cliff, and watched him open up the backseat door of the car.
Then making a smile crack across my lips I saw yellow light stream from the threshold. I realized the front door had been opened, and a tall and thin blond haired boy jogged down the threshold steps. However as I observed the boy, Liam, I noticed there was something different about him.
Squinting I could just barley make out a slightly haggard expression. His movements were jaunty and his body looks tense, as opposed to the nonchalant attitude I had always seen him portray. I thought about even going so far as to think he looked a little in pain every time he took a step.
There was another struggle between the two as Liam tried to help Cliff bring groceries into the house. But with an exasperated slouch, Cliff waved his hand and allowed Liam to pick up a brown paper bag from the car and carry it back inside. They continued to bring in groceries until Cliff came back out while Liam went inside with a brown paper bag. As they passed, they exchanged a few words and Cliff shut the car door without another look into the backseat.
He retreated into the house, and I waited a minute before I let out a long breath. I stepped back from the stone post and scooted out against the iron gate, gazing up at the mansion one more time before I took my leave. I sighed and took a mental picture of it's grandness before I turned away and walked back over to the trees where I had set my purse down.
I ducked low under a tree branch and picked up my purse, sanding back up but forgetting to dodge the branch above my head. At the last minute I jerked my head to the side to avoid collision, but as I did so, the branch got caught on my necklace, and the chain split in half, causing the peace pendant to go flying.
It bounced out onto the concrete drive, spun in a wiry circle until it fell still in front of the iron gate. My ears were still ringing from the dings the pendant had made each time it bounced against the concrete, and my heart was thumping heavily in my chest. Thank god Liam and Cliff had already gone inside.
With my hand to my heart I shouldered my purse and stepped out from behind the trees, walking towards my necklace pendant and picking it up with a sigh of irritation. I had the broken chain hanging from my hand and for a second I just stood there, trying to put the thing back together until I heard something.
My head snapped up and looked passed the gate of the mansion and towards the black car which was no longer sitting alone in the driveway. Liam was standing frozen in front of the backseat door, still ajar, with one last grocery bag in his arms. His face was turned to me, and our eyes locked just as I looked his way, my heart sinking.
And then something in him snapped.
Liam let go of the grocery bag like it was on fire, and was suddenly clutching his head. He was yelping in pain and buckled to his knees, his head still in his hands. I panicked and ran towards the gate, pressing myself against the bars with worry. Liam was writhing on the black concrete, his whole body shaking and revolting.
However, I soon realized that in addition to his shaking, he was changing. Right in front of my eyes. Soon he was ripping off his clothes, his back beginning to stretch and arch, his skin turning... white?
He was still screaming at the top of his lungs when a man in black ran out from the door, stopping dead in his tracks when he saw the being that was Liam, still morphing into something awful. I realized that his skin hadn't turned white, but had been replaced by fur that was so light it looked silver. As Liam's limbs curved against his body, turning into paws and hind legs, and his yelps turned into howls, the man in black's face shot to mine.
I couldn't make out his face but before I could even think he was shouting something at me. It sounded like he was telling me to run, but I was too paralyzed with fear to even move. A heap of something was lying just where Liam had been, no longer writhing around in agony. I had just seen a perfectly human Liam morph into something.
I was crazy, this couldn't be happening, where was Liam, what had that beast done with him? Suddenly the animal brought itself to its feet, and though it had looked lanky in its transformation, its thick silver fur made it look thick and giant, easily as big as Cliff, the man in black.
It swayed as it got up, and I could hear it whimpering. I was still crushed against the gate, so horrified that my eyes were actually stinging with tears, and every inch of me was shivering in the air that had suddenly turned chilly.
A moment of silence followed, both Cliff and I frozen at the spot. Cliff had his arms outstretched cautiously, though he staid frozen in his tracks. Still the animal was stumbling around incoherently until it slumped against the car. And then before I knew it, its head whipped around and glared in my direction.
I heard Cliff scream 'NO!' as the beast suddenly shot towards me, grunting and snarling as it ran at me. Some how I was able to peel myself from the iron gate and stumbled backwards over my trembling feet, just in time to watch the animal slam against the gate on the opposite side I had been pressed against, it's large jowls snapping its sharp teeth at me. Up close it looked like an overgrown wolf.
I scrambled to my feet and was just about to turn and run when I saw Cliff in the distance toss something at the wolf with all his might, the object hitting its head with a thunk. I realized that it was a shoe, and watched with horror as it rounded away from the gate and towards cliff.
"RUN!" Cliff yelled towards me, scrambling towards the entrance of the mansion.
I didn't know what else to do except take his advice. Too frightened to even scream I ran with all my might, harder and harder down the black concrete drive, not daring to look back.
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COMMENT? VOTE?
please tell me if I should continue :) xo.