The Sub-Zero Summer | CURRENTLY UPDATING

Chapter 5

Beep. Beep. Beep. The sound of an alarm clock caused Aubrey to bolt up in bed. Her heartbeat went from steady to racing in less than a moment. Exhaling as she rubbed her eyes, Aubrey shook her head and smiled a little. Even after all these years, the incessant noise still made her jump.

Throwing the bedsheets off her twin-sized mattress, she made her way across the room to silence the stressful beeping. Aubrey took a moment to stretch before flicking on the light switch and getting dressed.

The world outside was still black. Her open window carried in the sound of crickets and a far-off car horn. But other than that, the world was just as void of sound as it was light.

Slipping on her smooth-soled running shoes, Aubrey's eyes squinted as they adjusted to the light of her bedroom. Before the clock glowed 4:10 a.m., she was standing outside on the pavement. Stretching her calves on the curb, she put her toes on the sidewalk and allowed her heels to hang off to the road. After that, she took off in a run.

These runs didn't take long. If she wished, she could speed them by in no time at all. But this morning, as the chilly-spring air rushed past her ears and her smooth-soled sneakers slapped the pavement, she took her time.

The sky seemed a little darker than it should be and the summer air, a little colder, but she shrugged the thought off. It was a Saturday. Her mind was always a little groggy on Saturdays, she reminded herself.

As her legs moved, one in front of the other, again and again, her notebook pressed against her thigh in the skin-tight pocket. Aubrey smirked at the thought of it. Today was the day, she just knew it.

Her body flew. And as it did so, he mind flashed to the dream the evening before. It was so real, so vivid, so crisp. For a girl who rarely dreamed, it seemed so strange as well.

She rounded a familiar corner and her thoughts directed to what hung on the wall of the back of her closet. It was almost time to write about it. That's what both excited her and gave her fear. It was different from anything she had ever written about before. It seemed almost... fictional to her, but the data could not be argued with. She even had pictures this time.

For months now she had searched and searched and searched for something to prove her wrong. She had scoured every article on the web and found nothing. No one had written about what she saw. It scared her, but also gave her hope that she was the first.

Soon enough, Aubrey rounded the last corner and turned onto the street with the one remaining streetlamp. Pausing her timer, she didn't even glance at the time. Instead, Aubrey hurried over to the pine trees where she laid down in the circle with her notebook in hand.

But she only laid there for a second before sitting up. She heard something. Someone else was out there. Standing up, Aubrey walked away from the road and toward the sound. Through the dark. Toward the woods. Only a few paces out of the circle. There was a light.

Aubrey looked behind her at the circle and then back at the light and then the sky. She tucked her notebook in her pocket and began moving deeper into the private property of the woods.

Curiosity killed the cat, Aubrey reminded herself. Yet as she drew closer, she became more and more curious. About three-hundred paces in front of her, up in the trees, was a treehouse. It was illuminated from the inside by a flashlight. In the dim light, Aubrey could see the it was woven out of sticks and twine—something that looked handmade by children.

"Wake up, wake up it's dark!" The sound of that voice came again. Someone was in there. It was a girl, Aubrey guessed. "Mommy's gonna kill you!"

Aubrey could see the other figure now through a "window." It was a boy much older than the girl. He satt up and rubbed his eyes.

"Hannah, what time is it?" his familiar voice spoke.

"Almost five a.m."

"Shoot, c'mon!"

Aubrey smiled and then turned to leave. She shouldn't be here, anyway. She knew that. But just as she was about to take her third step away from the people, she froze dead in her tracks.

"Ladies first," the boy's voice joked.

"Oh hush, dummy," smiled the girl.

Aubrey spun around. Squinting in the dark, she tried to catch a glimpse of the kids climbing down a treehouse ladder. She strained her neck to catch a glimpse of one of their faces. But when she did, she knew she was right.

The boy was Carter. Rich, stuck-up, annoying Carter who skipped school in the seventh grade whenever his parents told him to ride the bus. Carter who refused to eat anything that wasn't organic. Carter whose vacations consisted of five-star hotels and Lamborghini rental cars. This boy had spent the night in a treehouse with... a 7-ish year old girl? It must be a sister, but... Aubrey had unluckily been in Carter's classes ever since elementary school and had never known he had a sister.

Deciding her foggy Saturday morning brain must be messing with her again, she returned back to her spot in the circle of pine trees. Aubrey looked up at the stars. Her gaze drifted over the lights. Yet as she did so, something stuck out to her. It took her a moment to recognize it, but when she did, she squinted her eyes to see it clearer. It was the constellation Gemini—her mother's favorite where she had gotten her middle name.

Aubrey sat up now and squinted at the sky above carefully. Her eyes did not lie. She was sure of it this time. There were three stars flat out missing. They were just... gone as if they had exploded. But Aubrey knew better than that. They were still there. If her hypothesis was correct, they were only covered not missing. Aubrey scribbled down the placement of the stars and then got up.

What she had been tracking, what she had followed with her silly theory was... moving. Turning the pages of her notebook so quickly that she nearly tore them, Aubrey looked back on her other notes about this "circle." She took out her phone. Her fingers shook a little with excitement as she took a picture and then added it to her album of others like it.

Tucking away her notebook and restarting the timer on her phone she raced home. She was bubbling with excitement now. In the past, one star gad been missing. If it were a lucky week, even two but this time she had three missing stars. That could not be a coincidence.

Aubrey threw open the door to her apartment. Aunt Vicky was still asleep on the coach and the studden movement stirred her a little but Aubrey paid no attension to it.

Throwing off her shoes at the door, she raced back to her room. She locked the door. She opened the closet. She powered on her laptop. Her fingers tapped excitedly on the keypad as the screen flickered to life.

In a matter of moments, her fingers were racing across the keys. Aubrey didn't bother to shower yet. She didn't bother to brush her teeth, or take her pills, or even get coffee. Instead, she spent every moment until eight a.m. in her bedroom, racing to write. By the time she was done, she had an unposted essay with pictures and lengthy explanations that looked like a conspiracy theory.

Aubrey read over it once and her heart sunt. It would need a boatload of editing not to look fake information, she thought to herself with a sigh. She closing her laptop, took her shower, and swallowed her morning Aspirin.

Walking out the door to get coffee just as her aunt woke, Aubrey decided she's woke on the article more at Lee's Café. Yes, she'd get a booth there. She'd make it pretty. She'd make it sound as true as she believed it to be herself. Then, she'd go to the library or something to study for her upcoming exams.

A bland, normal Saturday was what she expected. But little did she know at the time, that there was a letter on its way to her hands that would soon be "lost" only to be replaced by something she didn't know existed.