The Stray

Chapter 1

Hey! This is my very first story, so please work with me so that I can improve. Only positive critisism. Please don't advertise your stories, it's unthoughtful and rude. Please enjoy, leave feeback, and vote!! Pic of Lacey to the side!! ------->

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Chapter 1-

I gazed silently at my fog covered window as the landscape flashed by in a blur. The bus wasn't my favorite mode of transportation, but seeing as how my car was broken, I had no choice. The other teenagers's annoying screams were nothing but background noise. I was lost in one of my famous reveries in which I lived in another world: the world that made sense. Only one thing could break me out of it, and he wasn't there at the moment. He would never be there again. Maybe I should begin when the world that made sense was the actual world outside my daydreams.

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"Dad!", I screamed as my lungs threatened to burst from laughter. Tickling was one of my father's favorite pastimes. Nothing could cheer him up if tickling couldn't. Overall, my dad was a pretty cool guy. He worked in a zoo like most wildlife experts do. He was the one to call when you find a stranded creature that isn't good as a pet and needs help. Jack, my pet wolf that my father had rescued, came to my rescue and tackled my father with a gentle shove. Jack had been an orphan when we found him, and was like no other wolf. I swear he could understand me. James Danes smiled as he sat up and pet Jack playfully.

"Lacey! Time for dinner!", my mother called. She was a stay-at-home wife. That's what people would do if they had eight kids, right?

"Coming, Mom!", I answered. I raced upstairs with Jack at my heels. I checked every room to make sure that all of my large family was downstairs or on their way there. "Come on, Trish.", I called to my only older sister. **I'm only going to list it once, so learn it well. The order of my family (age-wise): Dad-42, Mom-39, Trish-18, Me (Lacey)-17, Payton-12, Shawn-10, Kris-10, Joni-8, Rebecca-5, Aaron-3. Got it? Good!**

"Si, un momento." Trish was in college and was currently taking Spanish. It really annoys me when she shows it off. I heard Payton whisper something that sounded strangely like "Culo" as he waltzed by. A football player that had serious brain-skills. The world has gone crazy. I smiled at my little mental joke and walked to my room, where I put away my journal.

By the time I got downstairs, all of my family was gathered around two large dining tables that were put together to help fit us all. The scent of roasted beef drifted to my nose and I scrunched up my nose in attempt to repel it. Maybe it was because I grew up around animals thanks to my father- or maybe it was because I was just weird like that-, but I didn't like meat. The thought of eating something that once mooed or oinked or clucked or whatever it did seriously creeped me out.

"Lacey,", my mom sighed drastically, "just try a bite? Come on, you need protein." I shook my head and my brown ponytail slapped my cheeks.

"Sorry, Mom, but I'm fine. What's there besides murdered animals?"

"A dead cow that will haunt your dreams as soon as you take a bite. Oooohooooo... Or should I say mooooooo", Payton teased me. He stopped mimicking a ghost when I mouthed 'F'. Mom and Dad still didn't know about his report card, which conveniently slipped out of his pillow case and into my hands when I was doing laundry.

"Alright guys, lay off.", my Dad chuckled. "Nora, you did a great job on the 'murdered animal', but Lacey has a right to choose what she wants to eat." Did I mention how much I love my dad?

Dinner passed in a flash and I was just getting ready to take Jack for a walk when my father joined me with a jacket in his hand. "Come on, Lace. Let's get this over with."

A smile lit up my face. Dad rarely walked with me when I took Jack for our daily walks. I decided to go down a trail that I had only gone on once before for five minutes before I chickened out.

I led him into the forest that was our backyard and greeted the birds with my loud footsteps. My father sighed and followed as I ventured into the forest, and Jack darted along to investigate anything unfamiliar. We followed a bubbling creek for a while until it veered east.

A gigantic tree stood in front of me and its branches raked the sky. I ran forward against my father's protests and Jack's persistent growls. In no time, I was high up in the tree and smiling down at my ant-sized father. He looked up at me once, turned around frantically, and looked back while screaming something.

Thinking he was just worrying about me, I screamed some reassurance back to him. Jack began to climb the tree (don't ask me how well a wolf does that. He must've picked it up from me) and I laughed. I looked back to my father, and to my dismay, I saw that something else was watching him too. I screamed at him to run, to hide, to do anything, but he stood staring at the stranger. 'Yuck!', I thought with a shudder. 'He's naked!' I turned my head away (as if that made any difference to his privacy) and gulped. I peeked over the branch and looked down at my father. I nearly jumped out of my skin when I realized that the boy was gone, and my father was lying face down on the ground.

I clambered out of the tree as fast as I could, earning some scratches and cuts. My wild hair was a mess with leaves and twigs sticking out in all directions. Jack, who had jumped out moments before me, was whining and whimpering next to my father.

"Dad! Dad, are you okay? Dad?", I wailed frantically. I ran to his side and collapsed in a heap.

I flipped him over and gasped. He had claw marks all down his chest, and one fatal one to his throat. My face was smeared with my father's blood when I left because I had buried it in his lifeless and still-warm body. The ambulance took over an hour to find us after I had called.

I had searched him over and over again, looking for evidence, but only a small, black hair remained and I was too ashamed to tell the police because... I... Well, I kind of inhaled it while sobbing onto my father.

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Sorry, it's kinda short, but it's a start. I've already started writing the next chappy, so it shouldn't be too long before I post again. I didn't get much of a chance to proofread either, so oops! :) Thanks for reading!!!