The Girl Who Cried Wolf [Eng.]

4. Friend or foe, all the same

Friend or foe, all the same.

Christmases aren't big on my family. Well... my family isn't big to begin with. When the winter holidays ended, with Grandma's reluctance to celebrate at Amelia and Julian's house, it was time to return to normalcy: school. I've never been too fond of it. I  much prefer to be couped up in my room all by myself but, you know, we are social beings. Also, I'm trying to stop the self-deprecating behavior, which has done more evil than good.

That cold morning of January, new year new life at stake, I woke up decided. I've made up my mind that I'm going to remain positive as long the town cooperates with the vibes; if not, then hell, I won't bother anymore.

When I leave the house, my phone starts buzzing. A message pops up:

ALERT: LOOSE ANIMALS ON ROADS. AVOID DRIVING AT NIGHT. KEEP HIGH BEAMS ON.

How weird, I think to myself. A honking noise makes me look up. Waiting inside an old Dodge Ram there's Tom and, snorting in the back seat is Elijah, his little brother.

"Mom just put clothes on him and left him there" is the first thing Tom says, laughing, when I enter the car. The small boy is in a deep sleep, drooling on the worn-out leather. I met Elijah during one of my visits to Amelia's dinner. Now, the otherwise overly excited and very talkative 7-year-old looks almost well-behaved.

I buckle up and stretch my hands towards the car heating. The cold from the outside has managed to fog the front glass, making it a little harder to see.

"I've just received an alert on my phone, what's that about?"

Tom starts driving the path to Daireaux Elementary to drop his brother off. "Oh yeah, they probably got your number from the school application," he says. Since Amelia took care of all that, surely she's the one responsible. And taking into account that Grandma Clementine doesn't even own a landline, it makes sense she wrote mine.

"They mostly do flood warnings. With the new constructions near the river, they've been happenin' more often" he continues with his eyes glued to the road, his hands clenching the steering wheel.

"So now there's horrible beasts and whatever? Very biblical" I try to make light of the matter when in fact I'm a little worried; the memory of the creature that attacked me on my first night back in town still haunts me. I try to pretend it's all in my imagination, but the scar on my shoulder says otherwise.

"Yeah, and ghosts!" Tom piles on top with a loud chuckle. "You wouldn't believe the stories the truckers come up with. They be sayin' the weirdest stuff, it's been like that for a couple of weeks now."

I shift in my seat.

"And you believe them?"

"Nah, the rumors started coming from Monroe a while back" he takes a sharp turn on the town square, driving south. "But it seems that whatever it is, stayed here. So... you know, avoid any weeping woman you see on the road".

He laughs. I stay silent.

I'm not superstitious, at least I think I'm not. I don't believe in neither God or ghosts, which is a bad combination when there's a 50/50 chance I might be wrong on one of them. That being said, I can't help but feel, deep inside, beyond reason or belief, that whatever is going on in Daireaux is in some way real. And my fault.

Tom manages to pull Elijah over his shoulder, with the same expertise I believe his mother has and drops him all drowsy at school to begin his day. Daireaux's Elementary isn't far from our school campus; we take a side road connecting all three major buildings and stop at the biggest one.