Midnight Starlight

Chapter 1

  The ocean water went in and out on the sand in front of her. Kendall read her book silently on her small towel, her black hair in a ponytail with her loose bangs blowing in the wind. The sky was a greyish color from the clouds and the beach was deserted. She looked around and smiled. She had her own personal beach near a forest that only she knew about. In North Carolina, things were wild and mostly forest where she lived in this unknown place of a small town. Kendall closed her book, picked up the towel on the sand, and began walking along the path that led to the woods to go home.

     A bark followed behind her and Kendall turned to see her wolf and husky mix, Rex, bounding behind her, a bright smile on her face. She knelt down to scratch behind his ears, her and the dog's matching blue eyes locking together as Kendall was still smiling. She laughed and asked the mix breed

"How'd you get out this time you mastermind?"

The dog answered in a high pitch bark and a panting tongue. Kendall laughed, entering the forest with Rex as she clutched to the book and towel. The dim light from the cloud covered sun hardly got into the forest but Kendall knew her way. It was close to winter and the air was crisp and chilled. It would snow soon in the town so the beach would be her only escape from the cold ice.

     Kendall noticed Rex wasn't beside her as she walked so she turned to find the grey and brown dog in a prowling position towards the forest, hair on his back standing up and his teeth bared and a low growl escaping him. Kendall looked in the direction he was growling and saw nothing at all. She scoffed slightly and said,

"Its probably just a squirrel Rex. Come on, boy."

But that's when she was proven wrong. A black beast attacked Rex but Rex pinned it down by its throat. An ear piercing scream escaped Kendall as she saw the only thing she could make out of the creature was it was built like a overly sized wolf but it had a long snake like tail and a head like a bear. The creature thrashed around under Rex as he looked at Kendall, teeth bared with blood on them. Kendall was startled and caught by surprised as she heard the dog say in a rough, stern, and deep voice

"Run Kendall! NOW!!"

     Kendall was wide eyed, mouth gaped open, as she watched the canine who just spoke to her battle the unknown creature. She began backing away before turning and running away on the trail, dropping her stuff as she ran. Her heart raced as she ran as fast as her legs would take her, fear filling her as the image of her dog and the beast fighting ran through her head. What was that thing?

     Kendall fell to her knees as she tripped over her porch stairs, finally escaping the unknown of the forest, and breathed in and out heavily as she attempted to catch her breath. She stared at the wooden porch flooring as a million questions ran through her head. Kendall turned over to be sitting up and scanned across the front yard that led to the forest, her crystal blue eyes wide with fear. She was startled when the front door opened behind her and she turned to see it was her roommate and best friend, Cara, with a curious look on her expression. Cara walked through the door, brown and blond wavy hair laying over her shoulders, and saw the fear in Kendall's eyes. She knelt beside her and asked, a concerned tone in her voice,

"Oh my god, Kendall, are you okay!?"

Kendall was still breathing heavy and could hardly talk. She took in a deep breath and managed to say,

"R-Rex and.... some k-kind of a-a-animal....a-and Rex talked!"

Cara helped Kendall up and said

"Okay okay, let's get you inside and laying down."

Cara helped Kendall inside and began questioning her what happened. Kendall couldn't say anything. She would sound like a lunatic and Cara also probably wouldn't believe her. Cara frowned slightly and said, voice attempting to be calming,

"Okay you should try and sleep...maybe it was just the book you were reading."

Kendall laid back on her bed and Cara rubbed her back until she fell asleep. The last thing Kendall thought about was Rex bearing his teeth at her.

That's when Kendall woke up.

    Kendall sat up in bed immediately and looked around, making sure everything was the same. With a sigh of relief, she realized everything was normal and it was all a dream. She turned to sit on the edge of her bed as she slipped on her slippers and put her robe on. She walked down the hall to the kitchen and saw Cara reading a newspaper and drinking coffee. She set the paper and greeted, as Kendall poured herself a cup of coffee,

"Well good morning sleeping beauty. Your hair looks like a rat's nest."

Cara laughed slightly and Kendall said

"Oh shut up I know it does."

Kendall opened the fridge and Cara said

"Oh yeah, we're out of milk so you need to go get more."

Kendall shut the fridge, with a slight chuckle, and said

"You could of told me before I opened the fridge."

With that, she fixed her hair, got dressed and headed out the door to go to the store, Rex watching her from the window as she left.