It Lives In The Woods

Chapter One

Chapter One

Twelve years later

Heels clicked obniouxly down the marble halls of New York's finest, biggest concert hall. Patrons peeked their heads out to see where the click clicks were coming from, only to find the star of the show pacing across the tan marble floors anxiously, her white silk dress swishing across the reflection of the warm lights. "Ms Pierce please calm down, you're disrupting the guests!" The producer of the concert begged, looking on in embarrassment at the people watching, twisting in their seats. The woman shot him a sharp, unpleasant glare, "And you're disrupting my pre show ritual sir, so I suggest you go back to wherever they're hiding you backstage, and stay there. Perfection takes practice." The man threw his hands up in exasperation and stormed, red faced, back to his seat backstage which was crowded by cooing assistants. The woman pulled out her iphone, biting her pale pink lips nervously, her favorite team, the Orlando bulldogs were down by two points in the basketball game her heart was racing for. "Come on, you can do this." She whispered, pausing in her pacing to watch a young asian man, with one real, muscular leg, and one metal, mechanical leg walk up to the free throw line. It seemed, to her in that moment, that the whole world held its breath, and right as he prepared to shoot his shot, a call came through, disrupting the quiet concert hall with her chippery ringtone. "Shit, shit, shit!" She swore, picking up the phone without looking at the caller id. "Hello?" She whispered into the speaker. "Bee ? Bee Pierce?" She felt her throat close at the sound of the man's throat, her breath grew shallow, "Noah? Is that really you ? How long has it been ?" Bee felt a thin line of sweat form at the base of her brown curls, like a foreshadowing to what was to come next. "Twelve years Bee, it's been twelve years. Twelve years exactly tomorrow." Bee Pierce's face went ghostly pale, as she looked back at the concert hall, where they were expecting to hear her sing in only a matter of minutes. "Yeah okay, I'll book a flight now, I'll be at my parents' house by the afternoon." no one was watching now as she clicked away in her heels, right out into the chilly New York night, her white dress trailing behind her in the dark like a ghost. As the night progressed six other adults, living their own individual lives, got calls from Noah Preece, pulling them back into the past.

-2008-

Two teenage girls walked through the gloomy forest surrounding the small town of Crescent Point, humming as they went. "Bee, do you believe in ghosts ?" A young Bee Pierce turned to look at her best friend with a perplexed facial expression, her tan freckles scrunching up with her face. "No, I think we're too old to believe in ghost stories Norah. We're sixteen now, it's time we act like it." Norah snorted in retaliation, tossing her two ginger braids behind her shoulders like a queen, "I believe in ghosts, and I'm just as mature as the rest of you. You know Sav's older brother says there's ghosts in these woods." Bee rolled her eyes as Norah took the lead, heading them down a path overgrown with weeds. "Why don't you stop worrying about the dead and focus on the living, Like did you see Jamie and Sav making out behind the bleachers after the game? If they're not careful we'll have mini Young babies slobbing around." They both laughed, in that cruel, yet unknowingly so way teenage girls so often do. A few moments of comfortable silence passed between them, the silence of years of friendship had built. "Norah do you even know where we're going ? You're going to get us lost." Norah laughed, a wicked yet enchanting laugh, "Isn't that the fun in it Bee ? You yourself just said we're sixteen, it's time for us to act like it. Which means we should live a little!" Bee sighed, not finding any real reason to disagree with her friend. The two walked for a little bit longer, until their trial found its end. "What the hell, has this always been here?" Bee asked in shock. Before them loomed a giant house, dated back from the plantation era, its blue shutters peeling in the afternoon sun like melting ice. Though most of its dust ridden windows were just shattered fragments in the grass, and it's stairs were rotting, Norah and Bee both found a sort of serene beauty in it. "This place is wicked Bee! We could fix this place up, turn it into a hangout for the gang! Oo and we can call it The Ice Palace!" Norah rambled on, her brown eyes praising the sight like a holy grail. Bee looked around hesitantly, "I don't know Nor, what if there's homeless people or something living inside ? Wouldn't that be rude to just barge in ?" Norah looked back at Bee in annoyance, "Bee sometimes your stupidity still shocks me, there's no one here." Bee's throat burned in anger and embarrassment at her friends' mean words, she wasn't usually like this. "But how do we know? It could be dangerous, you know Noah would never forgive me if-"