Gray Skies

Prologue: Saved By A Ghost

Prologue: Saved By A Ghost

                Eight year old Deniah did not want to admit fear. Her brother had dared her to go into the woods and touch The Witching Tree. To make the dare a bit more daunting he had insisted she slip out of the house while their parents slept and make her way to the dead, hollow tree in the dark.

                Rumor had it that The Witching Tree was where an evil witch had been hanged nearly two hundred years before and her ghost still haunted the massive oak.

                Deniah knew the tree was only a few hundred yards from her home and yet she had still not come across it and had been walking for what seemed like hours. It was time to admit the truth—she was lost.

                She was an eight year old, lost in the woods at night, all alone and without a light or anyway to protect herself. The hoot of an owl sent shivers down her spine and when the bushes rustled beside her she cried out with fear and tripped over a tree root.

                Falling face down in the leave and grass on the forest floor, Deniah was too frightened to stand back up. She curled up into a ball and sobbed in the darkness.

                Crickets chirped, the owl continued hooting and coyotes yipped in the distance. More movement rustled in the bushes and dry leaves all around her. She shivered, certain that at any moment a monster was going to leap from the darkness and fall upon her. She never should have listened to Matthew. She never should have allowed him to dare her into coming into the woods at night.

                After several long moments of tears, Deniah pushed herself back up to her feet and swiped at her wet cheeks. She was brave. She was going to figure out where she was and find her way back home. She heard the sound of running water and headed toward it, knowing that a river ran behind her family’s cabin.

                She stumbled through the darkness, jumping at every noise and running into bushes, trees and rocks as she went. Her night dress caught on brambles and she could hear the fabric tearing. Her mama would no doubt whoop her soundly for destroying her night clothes.

                There was a full moon but with the thick canopy of trees above her there was very little light making its way through to illuminate Deniah’s way.

                She nearly cried out with relief when she saw the moonlight glinting off the moving water of the river. She had made it to the water. Now she simply had to follow it downstream and it should bring her back to her house.

                Deniah walked along the edge of the bank. The raging water was roaring past her. The river was swollen and swift due to the torrents of rain that had fallen for the last two days.

                Feeling more confident now that she had an idea of where she was heading, Deniah hastened her pace. The darkness and the leaves, hid the tiny boulder from her view until her foot struck against it and she was sent tumbling over the edge of the bank and into the angry waves.