Nightshift

chapter 5

When I was about eight, Mom had told me something that she said could change everything, and not in a good way. It would rip apart my happiness. It would destroy my life, destroy me.
But I guess what scared me the most was that she had warned me it would endanger the people I loved most. That was, if her tale was real to begin with.

And my friends means the world to me. My boyfriend means the world to me.

Today's a Sunday; the weekend would be over by tomorrow and it would be time to switch back to senior year's stressful work mode. That means I can't afford to dwell any longer on yesterday's peculiarities, and even if I chose to make sense of what I had heard, I wouldn't have succeeded.

Mom had taught me the art of moving on, and I had just accepted it. Now that I've gotten older, I don't think she was right about that. I can't just brush off things that go bang in the night, or weird unexplainable occurrences that make me redoubt my whole belief system.

What I had witnessed on the field last night was beyond this world.

How did I know that ?

Because of what Mom had told me once upon a time. It was way longer than I can remember, but the weird thing was that it stuck.

She and I would always settle every night for a bedtime story. Mainly, she'd make up her own fictitious stories and legends that were unheard of. One night, I had made the mistake of asking her for a story of a different nature, a horror story. It had taken Mom a while to decide whether she would go about scaring me and if it was really worth depriving me of a whole night's sleep, but eventually she gave in.

"The shifters," She had said, "the Nightshifters are the most dangerous species in the whole universe. No one knows where they come from."

I was fascinated.

Mom took my silence as an indicator to go on. "They're strong. They hunt for souls because they don't have any of their own. It's selfish really. Legend says people call them Nightshifters because they only come out at night. They like to see people suffer, like killing for sport. Sometimes they pick on children and like to... annoy them you could say, and follow them around even as they grow old. They shapeshift, and can even look like humans if they wanted to. They not only endager their victims, but also tend to annoy the people around them. Of course, they only go after the bad kids. Do you misbehave Anabelle?"

I shake my head no, because of course, I was innocent and a straight A student. The shifters would have no reason to want me.

I ask her to give me an example of a rebellious child that had been taken.

"Once upon a time there was a young boy. He lived in a house by the ocean with his Mother and brother. One day, he was playing alone on the shore shortly after sunset. His mother was inside baking his favourite flavoured birthday cake, and when she went out to surpise him, he had disappeared."

"The Nightshifters took him?" I said lowly, goosebumps creeping up my arm.

She nodded.

"What was his name?" I squeaked.

Hayden, she had said.

I had pushed on for more, intrigued and both shaken by the idea. Strangely, Mom had dismissed the story saying that it was a bad idea and that no Mom would leave their child scared before bed. It had all seemed like a logical move, until I realised it was probably a story that scared her too. She seemed on edge with every sentence spoken out, almost like revealing a dark secret.

"Will they come for me?" I remember my voice resounding into a faint whisper.

"No Sweety of course not." She replied. And it may have just been my misguided perspective through paranoid eyes, but at that moment, Mom actually looked unsure, a look that haunted me for the remainder of my childhood, everytime I seeked her assurance as to whether I was safe or if the shifters would one day come for me.