The Beast Beneath The Bluff

Chapter One

The little girl rushed through the foliage, panting in exhaustion as the rushing green scenery passed her by. Behind her, she could hear her older brother and his friends jeering and laughing, taunting her name and chattering that they only want "fun." She knew what their "fun" entailed, and it usually meant the decapitation of one of her dolls or the burning of one of her books. She didn't like playing their "games" with them, but whenever she told her mom or tried hiding, the boys would always find a way to get to her.

And here she was now, running through the woods with her diary in hand, hoping to escape the vicious teens.

"Tabitha!" the unmistakable voice of her older brother, Callan, hollered behind her, and the closeness of his voice filled the marrow of her bones with ice. "Come on, now, don't be a pansy! Were just tryin' to have fun!"

"Go away!" Tabitha cried out over the wind.

"There she is!" one of his friends cried, sounding a lot closer than Tabitha would have liked. She ran harder than she ever had before and jumped over the rocks, roots, and bushes in her path. Her favorite white dress tore a bit every time a bush tried snagging onto her, and Tabithas favorite little black sandals with the cute flowery embroidery along the heels were probably getting worn out, too. She was trying to have a tea party with her stuffed animal friends, Mr. Snuffles the dog and Miss Periwinkle the cat, when these jerks popped in on her super-secret hiding spot and began tossing them around. Right before they could grab her diary, Tabitha ran.

Tabitha's eyes teared up slightly in frustration, but the pounding of their feet behind her, disturbing the serenity of the woods, only made her run faster. Her legs burned and her lungs churned, but she won't let Callan and his dumb friends destroy her diary. They can destroy anything else, but not her diary.

"Tabitha~!"

There's no way a little kid like her can outrun four thirteen-year-old boys like Callan and his friends. She had to hide. But where? She scanned her surroundings for a large rock to duck behind, a tree to climb, or some sorts of trench to throw herself into, but nothing she could see caught her eye. Hopeless constricted her throat and she clutched her plum colored diary closer to her chest.

Then she saw it.

In front of her was the bluff that her mom told her to stay away from. It was towering, covered side to side in sleek, grey rocks and boulders, dried and fresh grass alike, and trees with roots durable enough to cling into every nook, cranny, and crevice. Wales was full of these types of mountains, but what caught Tabithas eye in particular was the conveniently shaped gap in between rocks, large enough for her to slip through comfortably, and too small for her brother and his friends to worm through. Thanking her lucky stars, Tabitha tossed her diary into the gap and slid in after it.

And then she waited.

For a long moment, all Tabitha could hear was her laborious breathing and the pounding of her heart in her ears. Her tongue was parched and her legs groaned in agony from the run, but she ignored them, and continued watching outside. The bushes rustled, and then four larger figures stepped out into the open, each one smiling like a fox looking for mice in the bough.

Her brother's friends, Mike, Allan, and Coby, each looked starkly different from each other, though their differences in hair color and eye color helped her differentiate between them. Mike, the second oldest of the quartet, had brown hair and eyes and slightly tanned skin, likely an inheritance from his Spanish bloodline. He wore muddy brown suspenders, a striped grey, white and brown shirt, and a key necklace. Although Allan and Coby were twins, they hardly looked anything alike aside from their matching builds and facial shape; Allan had carrot orange hair, bluish green eyes, and crooked teeth, while Coby had almost flawless pale skin, blond hair, and sharp blue eyes. They both wore grey suspenders and white undershirts.