Beware Of The Dark

Chapter Six

     Saturday morning, I woke up in a panic. For a moment, I thought that it was a school day and I had overslept. Grabbing my phone, I saw that it was Saturday and only four in the morning. "Damn," I whispered as I rolled onto my back.

     Something had woken me up other than the panic of oversleeping. The house was quiet, everyone was asleep except me. Corey's snores broke the silence. As I was laying there, I heard a pfft from his side. "Oh goodness gracious," I muttered as I tossed back the blanket.

     "Huh? What?" he sleepily asked as I stood there.

    "You let one rip," I said, laughing softly.

    "Oh, that's okay," he said and I shook my head.

    He was back to sleep instantly and I walked over to the double doors that led to a small porch. When I stepped outside, my whole body shivered. This was the kind of morning that I was used to back in Colorado. Even at four in the morning, it's usually sixty-something. It was like the weather swapped spots for a while.

    As I stood there, having a cigarette, I noticed how eerily quiet the woods were. "What am I doing home?" I asked myself as I took a look around the massive backyard.

    My dad knew of the type of relationship I had with my mother. When I was fourteen or so, she left us for some other man. She took Jonah with her instead of both of us. I'm not saying that life with my dad was terrible. He had to get my aunt to help me through that time of the month when it finally came for me. I felt like she had abandoned me. Once she left, she rarely called or came by to see me.

     Something rustling around the edge of the woods caught my attention and broke my thoughts. I turned on my flashlight but the light didn't reach far enough. Something white darted between the trees. I relaxed when I thought it was a deer. There are some albino deers around here and that's what I probably saw.

    "Welcome home Natara," a voice whispered from the woods. Now, I know deers don't talk. I didn't stick around to see what had spoken. Tossing my cigarette into the ashtray, I quickly went back inside.

     Making sure that the doors were locked, I went to turn to go back to bed. I ran into Corey as he stood there. "Tara, are you okay?" he asked me and I forced a smile.

    "I'm fine," I said as I looked up at him. "You might want to get your eyes checked."

    "Why?" he asked as he made his way back to bed.

     "They have a bluish tint to them," I climbed in beside him but he scooted away.

    "I can see just fine," he mumbled as he picked up his phone.

      I rolled over and pulled the blanket over my head. He's been more on his phone for the past few months. I want to believe him when he says it's the softball guys. Tap, tap, tap, I heard from his side of the bed. So, I rolled over and he didn't know that I had rolled over. I peeked over his broad shoulders to see who he was talking to. That was not one of the softball guys. It was a young, brunette wearing nothing. I decided to bide my time, so I rolled over again.

---

    My phone buzzing against the wooden nightstand woke me up. I sleepily rubbed my eyes and then reached for my phone. It was my dad calling me. "Hey dad," I sleepily answered my phone.

    "Morning sleepy head," he chuckled and I yawned. "When you wake up, come down to the bar. I need to talk some things over with you."

     "Give me an hour or so," I said as he laughed.

     "See you then," he laughed as he hung up.

     Before I put my phone on the nightstand, I saw that it was after eight. Corey was still asleep until Mystic let out a loud squawk from the living room. "I'm gonna roast that bird," Corey mumbled as he pulled some blankets.