Shadows

Chapter one

  I step out of our shack and glance around, making sure there is no one nearby. Once I'm sure there isn't, I call to my cousin, Lauren,  who's still inside, making dinner.  We live in Centreville, Illinois. Both of our parents died when we were seven years old, we were at the market, I don't remember why, when the building that my parents were in exploded. Her parents went in to help (they were doctors) and were shot. We lived with my older brother and sister, but they died about a month after my parents. After that, we stayed here, in our broken down shack, hiding from the people that, for some reason, want us to come with them. Most likely to an orphanage. My mother wouldn't like that. Neither would my father. Or my sister or my brother. They told me. They told me in a dream. 

      You probably think I'm crazy, to believe in my dreams, but, trust me, they mean something, like it's actually my family talking to me. I have that feeling often, even though it's been eight years since they died, I still remember them perfectly, and I feel them around me. Well, not necessarily them, more like shadows of them. Like they are there,  just not tangible. Not quite.   

      I hear my cousin push open the door, and I turn around. There's a grim expression on her face. I sigh  and ask, "What happened now?" 

           "I smell rain." She says. I close my eyes and try to calm down,  trying to think of a way we could get everything we need to done before the rain, which, like always, will bring the cold weather with it.

        "How long do you think it'll last?" I ask.

        "Long."  She answers. "And then winter. Winter is coming." She goes back inside. I follow her, and immediately begin to get our shack ready for the winter. I locate any extra blankets we may have, which, in all, is three, and throw them onto our small mattress. Then I begin repairing the roof, with some rusty nails and an old hammer, which used to be my fathers, from when he was a carpenter.

     Once we've finished readying our house, we sit on two blankets and begin to eat our food (rabbit stew with mushrooms and basil).

     By the time we're done, it's nine o clock, and it's dark outside. 

     Lauren offers to take first watch, and, exhausted, I let her.