Initiation

Chapter 5

Cooper had just knocked me down by jumping on my chest. For a puppy, he was heavy.
"Oh my god Coop...." I started, but then I noticed he was whining and struggling to be free of my grasp. "Calm down, why are you so hyper?" I demanded. But then I realized, he wasn't hyper, he was scared, no, terrified of something. I looked over my shoulder, but there was nothing there. The moon cast creepy shadows through the trees, like long fingers trying to reach out and grab me. "You're being silly," I scolded the puppy, but I couldn't keep the waver out of my voice. Coop was scaring me, because he was freaking out, and his instincts weren't often wrong. I looked over my shoulder again, and was suddenly overcome with a paralyzing fear that something was watching me. I scooped up my dog, scurried inside, and clicked the padlock shut. I also slid the chain-lock into place, just to be safe. I scampered over to the window above the sink in the dining room/kitchen area, and slid the drapes shut.
"Jas?" Inquired a voice coming from the living room. It was Jessica. I'd forgotten I had company. "Jas what's wrong?"
"Nothing," I said, walking through the doorway connecting the kitchen and the living room, "I'm just being paranoid. Cooper here gave me quite a scare, the little rascal."
"Would we know it was Cooper if he wasn't being a rascal?" Joked Allison.
     We talked about girly things, like Natalie getting asked out. Allison told us about all the cute things Isaac did for her. Isaac was Allison's long term boyfriend, they had been together since grade 8. They were everyone's favourite couple and peoples' goals. I mean, Allison had been my best friend since 2nd grade. The only difference between us was that she made it into the popular crowd, I didn't. I don't hold grudges though, it was Allison, you can't help but love her. Anyway, Isaac had told her that he was gonna save up to get them tickets to Disney, a place Allison had wanted to go for ages. I was really excited for her, and I wasn't jealous. Okay, only a little jealous.
     We chatted a bit about Courtney's party coming up this Saturday, and I mentioned how much I hated her, it must have just slipped out.
"You know, Courtney isn't all that bad," Allison began, "you just have to get past her projection she has of herself. She's actually really smart."
Yeah right. Courtney was most likely failing all her classes. Leave it to Allison to stick up for someone like Courtney. The conversation slowly turned to darker subjects, like theories on what we thought the animal attacks were.
"I heard it was a cougar," said Jessica.
"I heard mountain lion," Allison started
"A cougar is a mountain lion." Jessica replied coolly, a haughty look on her face. Allison pretended to be offended, and I "ooooh burned" and made other noises along those lines. We all looked at each other for a tense second. Then, as if someone had just flipped a switch, we all burst out laughing. Cooper heard us, and jumped up from his dog bed, and ran over to join in the fun. Jess chucked a pillow at my head, and I tossed it back. Allison tossed one at Jess too, and an all-out pillow war begin. Pillows flying, girls jumping, and Cooper running into our knees, chasing the pillow. He started yipping, joining the fray. With all the jumping and bouncing around, the top two buttons of Allison's shirt came undone, revealing a nasty bruise along her collarbone. It was yellow and mottled purple, spreading from her shoulder to under her shirt where I couldn't see its end.
"Oh my god Allison, what happened to you?" I exclaimed, frozen in place.
"Oh, it's nothing," Allison said hurriedly, "really." 
I wasn't so sure, and she must have seen it on my face, because she continued "I was playing baseball with Isaac and his friends. Josh has a pretty hard swing, and the ball clipped my shoulder." She tried to laugh nonchalantly, but there was something he wasn't telling us. Josh has quite a reputation with the girls at our school, and not an entirely good one. Something about Allison's story wasn't adding up, but I decided not to press the matter. I glanced at our silver and white faced clock. It was almost 11:00, time for Jess and Allison to leave.
"Well, we should get going Ali," said Jess, read in my mind.
"Oh, ok. See you later Jas. Isaac is picking us up, so you don't need to drive us home." Answered Allison.
"Yeah." I responded dismissively. My mind was once again, for whatever reason, again caught in the terror of before. I suddenly wanted to be upstairs, curled safely under my fluffy down-filled comforter. I said my goodbyes, and hugged my friends in farewell.
Jessica and Allison left. I felt very small and alone; vulnerable even. I started to wonder, where was this feeling coming from? I waked into the kitchen, pulled the drapes back a bit, and peeked outside. A shiver went down my spine. But there was nothing there. "I'm just being paranoid." I assured myself. But then, as I was turning away, out of the corner of my eye I spotted 2 glowing golden-yellow lights, floating right beside each other. They almost looked like... Eyes. I stared, and a cold feeling settled in my gut. Cooper let out a whine.
"Shhh, Coop." I whispered. But I listened closer, and it wasn't coop whining, it was coming from outside. It was very faint, but it sounded like a wolf's howl. The 2 lights winked off and on at the same time, almost like-
-blinking.
I watched as they turned, and flew away into the night. Then, they separated, one flying one direction, the other vice-versa. I heaved a sigh of relief. They were just fireflies.
I glanced at the clock, it was past 11:30. I still had some English to work through, so I decided to turn in. "Cooper!" I called, "come on! You can help me with Macbeth!" Cooper, obviously excited by the notion, raced up the stairs in front of me. I sighed, and trudged up. Entering my room, I sat down on my bed and opened my notebook.
     It was only after I was almost asleep that I remembered what Allison had said before I went outside, "and that big grey thing that knocked over your trashcans...". It troubled me, because I don't remember ever telling anyone about it...