My Best Friend's Werewolf

2 Phones Are Replaceable

Did I mention it's the middle of summer and trains go really slow?

Well when a machine that has the ability to kill you is moving toward you, it never seems like it's going slow.

So I run anyway.

The train's whistle bellows as I try to keep my eyes on the tracks, but without my glasses, the train tracks are blur. My foot lodges in a beam, and it points as I fall forward. I grasp whatever my hands can find in order to lesson the impact. One hand slides against the splintering wood, and the other grasps onto the searing metal. I yelp and pull myself to my feet, glancing behind me at the train still approaching—blaring it's horn at me.

I look at the forest in front of me. So close.

One hand burns. One hand stings. Both of my knees bleed.

Only a few more feet.

My feet step onto solid ground—onto grass and dirt— and I collapse into it on the side of the tracks.

I'm alive... and she's gone. My best friend's gone. Kidnapped. And it wouldn't have happened if I hadn't brought her out here.

I squeeze my eyes shut and reach my hand into my pocket, feeling nothing. My phone probably fell out when I was thrown over that psycho's shoulder.

I force myself to get up and walk along the hiking path that I dragged Eliza with me on. Again, if I had never forced her to come hiking she would still be free.

I swallow back a sob. A small blue blur stands out against the brown dirt path.

I send a silent prayer of thanks up to Heaven and bend down and retrieve it. The screen's cracked, but I don't care. Phones can be replaced, not friends. I dial for help.

"Nine-one-one. What is your emergency?"

"Please, you have to do something. My best friend—she was kidnapped."

"Where are you? Do you need medical assistance?"

"I'm on the Red Dirt Trail by the railroad bridge. Please hurry."

"The police have been dispatched. Can you tell me what happened?"

"We were hiking, and these men came from off the path and took her. Please, you have—"

"Miss, please calm down. The police will be there soon."

The train whistles in the distance.

"Are you safe?"

The trees tighten around me. "I—I don't know."

*******

I'm finishing up a police report when my parents arrive at the parking lot for the trail. They engulf me in a hug, and I allow myself to think I'm six years old again, and nothing's wrong. That nothing will ever go wrong.

"Addison, are you all right?" Mom runs her hands over my face.

I shake my head, clutching onto her. "They took her."

She runs her hand over my hair, while Dad rests a hand on my back.

I bury my head in her shoulder and squeeze my eyes shut. A pair of brown eyes appear in the darkness of my head.

And they turn black.

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