Mountain Air

Prologue

Up.

Upward.

It was rising.

So gracefully.

It was beautiful.

Golden.

No. It wasn't time. Not now.

Soon.

So soon.

Too soon.

Now?

Now.

The moon was full.

The constant silence of night was shattered.

It was time,

and so the tears fell.

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"We're still going camping this weekend, right?" Amanda sat across from me, her mouth full of homemade lasagna. Typical.

"Yeah, of course!" I smiled as I forked more noodles onto my plate. I loved my mother's cooking.

The coming weekend marked our annual camping trip to Sheephorn State Park. For four years now Amanda, Sophia, Linley, and I took a weekend out to the forest. We'd set up camp, go swimming, fishing, and roast marshmallows over the fire. It was our way of celebrating the end of the school year and the beginning of summer.

"Are you all packed?" Amanda asked. "I feel like I'm taking too much stuff, so I want to know what you're bringing."

Leave it to Amanda to be ready two days early. But of course, I was a procrastinator, so that meant I still had piles of dirty clothes all over my bedroom floor waiting until the night before to be washed and packed. "No, I'm not ready. Do you want to help me?"

I threw Amanda the puppy dog eyes. None of my friends can say no when I throw them the eyes.

My mother walked into the kitchen and went to the sink to rinse off her dirty plate just as Mandy opened her mouth full of food to reply. "What are you girls talking about?"

Amanda chewed, swallowed, and answered, "well, first of all, thank you for supper. It was amazing. We were just talking about the camping trip."

"Oh, yes," my mother frowned. That wasn't good. "I've been hearing bad things about the forest lately. Unusual sightings of wolves, and not the normal sized ones. The sheriff said he saw three of them together last night alone and another person spotted two more around the same time. I'm not sure if the parents want you girls to go out. It could be dangerous."

"Mom!" I said at the same time that Amanda said it. Basically she was my mother's second daughter.

Amanda and I looked at each other. I nodded.

"Mrs. Von Neume," Amanda started. "You can trust us." She even threw in the puppy dog eyes. I wonder where she learned that from. "This is the fourth time we're taking this trip. It's not new, we know where to go and where to stay away from, and we're always in a group. Plus we'll take the hardside if you'd like us to."

There were two good things about being best friends with Amanda, the second of which didn't really matter. It was just a bonus. First, she was a professional at getting her way. If we were in a sticky situation at school, she somehow got the teacher to let us go. My mother too, fell flat on her face for Amanda's charms. Second, Mandy's father owned a camping department store. Our camping trips were always paid for, we had state-of-the-art equipment, and we didn't have to sleep in tents if we didn't want to. It was camping heaven, I guess.

My mother looked torn after Amanda's speech. Instead of answering us she started to clean up the kitchen. After living with her for, well, my whole life, I understood when she wanted to think she had to clean or do something with her hands.

Amanda and I looked at each other again and smiled. We also knew she'd give in to our request.

We were both done with our dinner so we grabbed our plates and took them to the sink. I kissed my mom on the cheek on our way out. "Thank you for saying yes to the trip."

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Somewhere in the forest, someone else's point of view

------

Breathe.

In, out, in, out.

Running was peaceful. It gave me a place to escape my thoughts. I could just keep going. There was no need to think about the past, or the present, or the future. I could just keep going.

Breathe.

In, out, in, out.

The forest flashed by, lit up by the nearly full moon. The night animals were out and about. Owls hooting high up in the trees. Bats flapping their wings. Crickets chirping.

The dirt was soft beneath me. A log came into view up ahead. I leapt over it and hit the ground still running.

Breathe.

In, out, in, out.

I smelled and heard him before I saw him.

What do you want? I didn't want to talk.

To talk.

Figures. Not now. I'm running.

We need to talk.

No.

You have to get out of here. Today. Tomorrow.

I'll go when I want.

NO. You'll go before she gets here. You can't take the risk of seeing her.

What could possibly happen? I was furious. I did not want to talk, to think, and especially talk and think about her. All I wanted to do was run.

But of course that didn't happen.

We slowed to a walk and he looked at me. Let's talk in person.

Instead of answering I shifted.

"Hurry up and talk. I'd like to get back to my run."

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Hi everyone!

If you're reading this, thanks!

Leave a comment if you like it, hate it, want me to change it, have an opinion on it, or anything!

I hope this turns out well.

This chapter is dedicated to penMagic_76 because she came up with an amazing cover. Thanks!

Phoebe :)