Bending Light

3~Strange...

  (Y/N) shoved all of her things into her bag in just a few seconds. "Um.. hello. It's a nice night tonight..." she trailed off, trying to edge her way down the hill.

The man said nothing, but kept advancing on her. He was very strange, and wearing sunglasses at night wasn't helping his case.

"I have to be getting home now, and I'm sure my parents are looking for me," (Y/N) added shakily.

She quickly reached the bottom of the hill, and as she walked backward past the museum, the strange man whistled, but (Y/N) didn't see anything coming—just a strange shadow that seemed to move toward him.

  Strangely, the man changed course and walked into the museum, as a predator whose interest had been swung toward bigger prey would do. As soon as his back was turned, (Y/N) ran as quietly and quickly to the pub as she could. She was very disturbed by the man—he had never even said anything! But it was over, so the only thing (Y/N) could do was to promise herself that she wouldn't go out alone on the island.

  As she opened the door to the pub, she hoped her parents had gone to bed; she wasn't really in the best shape to talk. The first thing she saw was her mother's worried expression as she relayed a message to her father, which came from the only telephone on the island. Both of her parents looked very grim, and her mother said something quickly as she hung up the phone.

  "Oh, (Y/N)! You're back already?" Her mother said. "We just got a call, and there's an urgent matter that we must attend to back at home. We'll be leaving tomorrow morning."

"Well, who was it? What is it? Are we bringing everything? Why do you both look so miserable?" (Y/N) inquired, confused.

"Well, you see, your father and I are the only ones going. You and Elise can stay," she said, clearly choosing to skip (Y/N)'s first two questions. "We know how much this trip means to you both, and we're sure that Kev can watch you. Here's $500; we think that it will be enough. It will only be a few days, and then we'll be back, I promise."

"O-okay, but why are you going?" (Y/N) was very shocked; this was so unlike her parents.

"That doesn't matter right now; we need to pack, and you need to make sure that you and your sister get to bed on time. Oh, and you're in charge of your sister when Kev isn't around." (Y/N)'s parents rushed up to their room, leaving (Y/N) to stand staring at the wall where they just were.

  Seeing as the only thing to do was to go to bed, (Y/N) walked past her sister's room, and, after making sure that her sister was sleeping, changed into her pajamas and got into her bed. She decided to read Book 3 in A Series of Unfortunate Events for a bit, but she kept drifting off and wondering what her parents' departure was all about. Why wouldn't her mother tell her where she was going? What was this "urgent matter" that was pulling them back home? It was nearly 12:30 when her mother peeked in through the doorway.

  "Hi honey, I noticed your light was on, and I just wanted to say goodnight before you went to sleep. Your father and I will be leaving pretty early, so I wasn't sure if I would be able to say goodbye then." She came over to hug (Y/N). "I'm so sorry that this came up, but you and Elise can still explore the island together." (Y/N)'s father came in then and hugged her goodbye as well.

   "Yeah, we should be fine, but you'd better be back soon," (Y/N) laughed.

"Of course we will," her mom promised. "And we'll go out for a treat once we all get home from this trip."

With that, they left. (Y/N) soon fell asleep, peaceful for once in what would be a while, for her life was about to become a series of unfortunate events itself.

The strange, creepy dude is up on the top. It's not the best pic, but it's close enough.