Moon Cry Ch. 1

She stepped silently into the dark forest, barely aware of the fading sunlight. She was listening. Listening to the soft, wispy voices all around her. They surrounded her from every angle. In front of her. Behind her. In her ear. They were everywhere.
They all seemed to blend into one another. Their voices sounding as one. Their words were impossible to decipher. Their low chanting began to grow louder. Their pace quickened.
Animal cries filled the dusk air. Birds called franticly. Varying cries echoed throughout the dense forest. After a few horrifying moments all the noise abruptly ceased, and the forest was cast into silence. From the deepest, darkest depths, came the howl of a wolf.
* * * *
The alarm clock beeped loudly in her ear. She swatted at it lazily, her hand thumping the nightstand, but missing the clock. Finally she struck home and the stupid thing shut up. She sighed and rolled over. Within seconds a soft snore rose from her sleeping body.
She was completely unaware of the shadowy figure by the window. With one glance, it was gone.
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Wolves hadn’t left Sylfi’s mind since she had had that strange dream. Why had she been at the edge of those woods? Why had the wolf in her dream howled? Was it possible that it hadn’t been a dream?
These questions buzzed in her head as she got dressed for school that morning. Somehow she had slept in, which was totally unlike her. The bus was due to arrive within ten minutes, and she hadn’t even brushed her hair yet. Or her teeth for that matter.
She sighed as she pulled on her black v-neck sweater. It was too early to be thinking about all these questions. She pulled a pair of blue skinny-jeans from her drawer and quickly pulled them on. She fished in the top drawer for a pair of socks.
After she was completely dressed she left her room and headed downstairs to the bathroom. She lived in the attic of her parents’ house. But she very rarely saw them. They were always off on business trips to places like Tokyo, Japan.
She hurriedly went through her Monday morning routine. Soon she was headed out the door, book-bag, binder, and cream cheese bagel in hand.
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She blew a stray strand of midnight black hair out of her face as she sat down on the rusty little bench she had put there years ago. No other kids lived on her street so she had always had the bus-stop to herself. And she had been fine with this. After all, she really wasn’t one for socializing.
She just didn’t seem to fit in with other people. Now, if you put her with a dog, she’d be perfectly happy. Animals weren’t a problem. She could understand them easily. But humans? She had no luck. She just didn’t understand them sometimes. And that’s why people think she’s odd; she doesn’t understand her own species.
Sylfi didn’t care. She never had. All she thought of was the mysterious forests covering the nearby mountains. They held so many secrets that she was just craving to discover.
She bit into the warm bagel, her teeth slicing through the soft bread. In a few minutes the bagel was reduced to nothingness.
She heard the bus pull onto her road. Its tires pounding against the hilly dirt road. As she stood up she glanced across the road, and into the woods. A shadowy figure flicked across her vision.
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She blinked and squinted her eyes to try and catch
another glimpse at whatever it was that she had seen, but at that moment the bus pulled to a screeching halt in front of her. She boarded the bus with a heavy sigh.
* * * *
School was, and had always been, easy. The work was simple and the people easily categorized. There were the popular kids, the jocks, the class clowns, the goths, and the unpopular kids. Sylfi herself didn’t fall into any of these categories, and was therefore criticized by all of them.
She went about her day as she always did, avoiding other kids, acing tests, and daydreaming during much of her class periods. Today her daydreams consisted of the mysterious forest and the wolf that had howled that night.
She still wasn’t sure whether or not it had just been a dream, or if she had actually gone outside. There was no way of telling either. Unless, someone had seen her. But that was ridiculous. Who knows what time she might have gone out there?
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“Sylfi? What’s the answer to number two?” Her teacher’s voice jarred her from her thoughts.
* * * *
She hopped off the bus and watched as it zoomed away. She remembered what she had seen that morning. Knowing her parents wouldn’t be home for at least a couple more weeks, she had no fear of being scolded for staying out late.
So, maybe she could venture a little, just a little, ways into the forest? After all, what harm could it do?