Shadow Breeds

Chapter 2

Ashe

I woke up to the full moon shining through my bedroom window and I sighed. This was my favorite time of the night, the cool darkness calmed me and the moonlight almost hypnotized me. I also just really enjoyed the peace I got from my late-night alone time, especially on nights as clear as this one.

Glancing at my alarm clock I realized it was three in the morning. 'It's witching hour,' I smirked to myself as I opened my bedroom window to allow the breeze in. Grabbing a book and pulling my soft, black beanbag chair up to the open window, I relaxed into it. I knew I wouldn't be able to go back to sleep anytime soon and I'd gotten behind on my reading anyways, plus I felt like it would be a good distraction from the memories of what had happened the day before.

The sound of a soft, deep voice rode the next breeze into my room, startling me. I peaked outside, but of coarse I couldn't see anything through the trees that blocked the moon's light from illuminating the ground around the edge of what I consider to be my yard. I sat quietly for a moment, waiting to see if I would hear it again.

"Come home," the gentle whisper came through the window again, sounding as if someone were just below it. I was sure that I had heard it this time and jumped up, immediately reaching for my Taurus G2s semi-auto handgun.

I live in a cottage that sits in an open meadow on a mountain just on the outskirts of Wolf Creek, where Frank and my friends live, and for as long as I had stayed in the cottage nobody had ever come around my part of the woods unannounced, but I knew an isolated spot could attract dangerous people so I stayed prepared in whatever ways I could. As Frank has told me many times, 'it's better to have it and not need it, than to need it and not have it.'

With my back against the bedroom wall, I peaked below my window to see if I could spot anyone. Once I was satisfied with what was directly below me, I went through the other rooms in the cottage and checked out each window. There were no signs of anyone being around but, that whisper had sounded like someone was directly outside of my window and there was no way they could disappear that quickly or quietly with the dried up autumn leaves covering the ground.

'I must be going crazy,' I thought to myself as I dragged my feet back to my room. My phone rang, causing me to jump back again. I sighed at myself. 'You're just being ridiculous now.'

I pulled my phone out and noticed that it said 'Unknown Number,' out of curiosity I answered anyways knowing that it probably wasn't the smartest idea under the current circumstances. 'What else could possibly go wrong,' I asked myself internally.

"Hello?" No reply, I began to feel antsy and impatient. "This isn't funny, it's four in the morning please leave me alone," I stood still for a minute, waiting for a response or anything that might let me know who it could be. My mind went to some of my old childhood bullies that had continued to harass me even after our teenage years.

I had only experienced two years of public high school, although I was homeless until I was about sixteen I still kept myself learning by taking advantage of public libraries when I could. Frank was able to get me into Wolf Creek's closest high school for my last two years and I wished he'd just let me continue what I had been doing before. Although, I wouldn't have met my friends if I hadn't gone, so i suppose it wasn't completely bad.

"Sam if this is you I'm gonna kick your ass, I've had enough of your games. It's been three years dude!" Still silence on the other end. Just as I was about to hang up I thought I'd heard something, "you're going to have to speak up," I said in response, becoming more irritated than anxious. Eventually the phone crackled and a deep, melodic voice whispered just barely loud enough to understand.