Friends

Chapter 1

  The wind was blowing wildly as James was on his way to his barn. On his way to his barn he heard his daughter yell from inside, "Dad, shouldn't mom be home from her trip by now. It ain't like her to stay another day or two without telling us".

"She'll be back soon!" I shouted back at her. She could hear me slightly, but the wind was roaring now. "She'll be back soon," I whispered to myself. I knew she should be back, I knew she would be back, it's just I have this sinking feeling that she won't.

I walk to my barn which is just about an eighth of a mile from our house. I haven't been visiting it lately since there has been many storms happening recently. As I was about to enter, I spotted something moving out of the corner of my eye. I turned to see a silhouette taller than me. I went over to go and investigate when I hear what sounded like a cry from behind me.

I turned slowly around to see a small female behind me. The way she was just staring at me gave me the creeps.

"Do you need help?" I questioned moving closer to her, completely forgetting about the bigger silhouette. As I got closer she let out a high pitched scream. I heard a rumbling from behind me and then silence. I didn't dare turn around, not for a second. I felt breathing along my neck which made all my hairs stand up on end.

"Your lucky that you have a family,"a female voice said. "You should hold onto them while they last". I dropped my flashlight and heard a snicker from the girl in the front of him then the sound of pounding from behind. The one in front took off at a lightning fast pace. I spun around to see that the pounding noise was the girl from behind taking off. When I realized that I was alone I made a beeline towards the barn. I really wish I hadn't. There hanging by a rope with a pitchfork through her heart is Sophia, my wife. Her blood is dripping on the dead cows and pigs underneath her and her eyes looked frozen in fear. I was speechless. She looked as if she were staring at me with uncolored eyes, just staring as if she were alive and she blamed it all on me.

I walked back to my house shocked and jumping at every sound or noise. The wind had died down and now it was just dead silent. The moon was not shining and I was not going back for the flashlight. I was absolutely terrified and it didn't help that my dog, Uno, came out through the corn and made a ton of noise in the process. I glared at him intently, how did he get out here anyway? Alley, my daughter always keeps the door locked and she never lets him out alone. Where was she? We had made an agreement not to let him out of our sights while he was outside since he had a habit of scaring our chickens.

When I got back to the house I saw that the door was creaking, while swinging gently. But, there was no wind now, and wind of a tornado couldn't open the lock of our door. I had gotten a heavy duty lock since pesky teens try to hit on my daughter, so as a safety precaution, I got the lock. But getting closer to investigate I found that the lock was hacked at with an axe, I could tell because it was stuck through the wall, with the initials J.N in small print carved into the wood of the handle.

I scurried inside and found that the axe went through the wallpaper and the tip was coming out of it. I went back outside and tried to pull it out. The person who did this must have either pushed it in enough to come out the other end, or the person had strength greater than mine, but many people are stronger than me since I am on the smaller side. I pulled with all of my strength until it slid out. I fell to the floor and the axe landed on me. I was breathing heavily from using all of my energy and almost losing my life, I was lucky that it landed sideways. I got up after what seemed like ages but it probably was just a minute since I needed to catch my breath. I ran through the doorway once again and screamed for Alley, big mistake. I heard the pounding again, but this time going down the stairs. I braced myself as she rounded the corner and I nearly dropped the axe.