Fly ∆way Girl

|9|

|WOLVES ∆ND THE W∆TER|

His sparkling eyes stared at me, wide with fright for at least a minute before he spoke again.

"You saw it too?" He asked me anxiously, but hopeful too. Perhaps me seeing it too confirms that he isn't crazy.

"Yes.. Not the woods, but the lake with fog like you described. I saw the creature in town..."

"What else did you see? Tell me everything Harley.."

"I was in the street and I thought I heard something behind me, but I didn't see anything...then I heard it again on the other side of the street. The noise seemed to be coming from all around me...then I saw it in a dark alley.." My heart pounded as I realized how closely our nightmares matched up.

"That's exactly how it felt. The sounds were all around me, yet no where at all.." He seemed to be talking mostly to himself now, trying to wrap his head around the strange things he saw.

A new thought entered my mind now. I assumed I couldn't feel temperature changes, but the chills hit me all at once starting at my backbone, and ending at my fingertips. "Larson...what we saw couldn't have been nightmares.."

He looked up at me, paler than usual. "What do you mean, I don't remember it as a memory..."

"That's because it hasn't happened yet." I said quietly. "Think about it, you said the trees didn't have leaves.." I pointed up to the canopy above us, "well they do now, so unless it happened last winter..."

I could see his mind put two and two together. "You're right.." He said. "What did you do after you saw the creature?"

I thought for a moment. "I laid in the street watching the traffic light and talking to...Josiah.." I suddenly realized that I missed something big. "Josiah, he appeared out of no where..right after...after I saw it..." My mind was jumbled, unable to distinguish one crazy thought from another.

Larson didn't seem to have any trouble with his next words. "Josiah. He's got something to do with all this, I know it."

I stood quietly while he continued. I had never shared what little information I have on Josiah with Larson. I still don't know how.

"When did you meet him?" He asked, acquiring the role of interrogator.

"Right before I met you, at the school."

"So you just happened to walk up on him, like you did me?"

I thought back to mine and Josiah's first encounter. "No. It wasn't by chance. He...he knew me, he called me by name. He said he had been searching for me..." I was starting to get nervous as my words poured out.

Larson seemed as horrified as I was. "And he isn't dead, you said that right?"

"Yes."

"Then what is he? This place is for the dead I thought? So what is he Harley?" Larson's voice was louder, angrier even.

"I don't know Larson..." I whispered.

Suddenly, his eyes held guilt. "Harley..I'm sorry, I'm just freaked out..."

"Me too." I said.

"If he's not dead, then that means he's alive, obviously, but what can enter this place without being dead? Humans can't."

I stared at Larson in horror as he tried to piece this story together. His eyes were glued to the dirt below us.

"Wonder if he has something to do with the creature?" Suddenly, his navy eyes were locked on mine. "No, wonder if he is the creature?"