The Xoe Meyers Trilogy (Xoe Meyers Young Adult Fantasy/Horror Series) (3 page)

Brian came rushing in and took the seat on my other side, oblivious to my predicament. As class began, I noticed Dan sneaking more puzzled glances at me. Squinting his pale blue eyes, he would tilt his head slightly, almost like a dog. My wardrobe might have been a little out of style, but was it really that puzzling? Did I have something on my face? The weird looks were starting to get to me.

Brian passed me a note while the teacher’s back was turned. I opened it and read, “What’s with that guy?”

I gave Brian an exasperated look and shrugged, relieved that it wasn’t just in my head. I turned my eyes to the front of class and prepared to wait out the rest of the torturous hour.

When the bell finally rang, Dan reached out as if to grab my arm, with a calculating look in his eyes. I quickly turned away from him to Brian, and practically dragged Brian out of class. The look in Dan’s eyes as he'd reached for me had been completely alien, like he had dropped his already poor mask of normalcy. Whatever lurked behind those icy blue eyes wasn’t something I knew how to deal with.

Brian and I stopped in the hall, safely away from the classroom, to discuss the creepiness of Dan. With a nervous look over my shoulder, I dragged Brian a little farther away from the classroom, just as Dan exited and walked past us.   “Allison invited him to the movies with us this weekend,” I whispered, making it clear by my tone that the movie date was a bad thing.

Brian frowned. “That does
not
seem like a good idea. I’ve got a bad feeling about him.”

At least someone agreed with me. “You know how Allison is . . . ”

Brian smiled ruefully. “Yeah, I guess you didn’t have much choice. I could come with you, just in case.”

“Really?” Maybe things were looking up. “We’re going Saturday evening.”

He cringed. “Oh. Sorry Xoe . . . football practice.” He shrugged and bit his lip. “I could cancel . . . ”

“No, no it’s okay,” I assured. “I’m sure we’re just being paranoid.”

Brian nodded slowly, still hesitating. He nodded again and stood up a little straighter, as if making up his mind. “C’mon, I’ll walk you to class.”

Brian and I walked in silence the short distance to my geometry class. He stopped me before I walked into the classroom. “If you change your mind and want me to come, just call.”

I had begun to say thanks just as Allison whipped by us, grabbing my arm and dragging me into the classroom. I waved to Brian as he turned to go to his next class.

Allison and I snagged seats in the back just as the bell rang. She turned to me and opened her mouth as if to speak, but the teacher began her lecture, sealing any chance Allison had to talk. Assuming she was probably going to talk about Dan, I didn’t really mind. Allison crossed her arms and slouched down in her chair, seeming more than a little sullen. I looked out the window to our green surroundings and daydreamed for the rest of class, glad that I was no longer in the same room as Dan.

After geometry, Allison had to rush to her yearbook committee meeting and I went to find Lucy. Lucy was already waiting outside the school entrance when I arrived, just like she always was. We started the short walk to our houses in silence, passing through the parking lot in front of the school, then veering away from the road to cut through the woods. We could get home following the road, but taking the trail through the woods cut about ten minutes off our journey.

Before Allison got her car, she would insist on the longer route of paved road whenever she came home with us, as Allison isn’t big on the woods. They get her shoes dirty.

Lucy and I walked along companionably, shaded by the pine trees that bordered either side of the partially grown-over trail. A narrow strip of deep brown soil was all that was left to show us the way, though we'd walked it so many times we didn’t need the trail to lead us home. I looked up through the trees to find that the sky had actually cleared up some. The warm sunlight leaked down to hit my face as we walked. I smiled and took a deep breath of moist, mossy air, then looked back down at the ground just in time to notice and hop over a puddle of water on the trail.

I continued walking, paying more attention to where I was stepping, thinking that though it was pleasantly sunny, something felt slightly off. It then occurred to me that the woods were overly quiet. The usual ambiance of birdsong, and the scuffling of small creatures through the underbrush were completely absent. I stopped and scanned the area. Nothing moved. Lucy stopped a few feet ahead of me and looked back questioningly.

All of the tiny hairs on my body stood on end, as if my skin were charged with electricity. Lucy slowly turned to fully face me. She glanced around us, then noticing the eerie silence, her eyes widened. I nodded to the trail, signaling that we should continue walking. We started off again without a word, trying to step as lightly as possible. Instinct told me to stay as quiet as I could, like a rabbit trying to avoid a predator.

Suddenly a blue jay flew overhead, screeching out warning to all of the seemingly absent birds, then flew on away from us, leaving a weighted silence behind. My palms began to sweat. We walked for several minutes with only the sound of our footfalls and heavy breathing to let us know we hadn’t gone deaf.

Lucy began darting nervous glances at me. I stopped again and gave her my full attention. She mouthed, “Should we run?”

I began to shake my head in reply, when suddenly there was a loud crack to the left and behind us, as if someone had stepped on a branch. We both froze, neither of us so much as breathing. Lucy kept her eyes on me, at a loss on what to do.

I scanned the woods around us, trying to spot the origin of the cracking sound, but the pine trees and other vegetation were too dense for us to see very far. All was still and silent again, but my instincts were screaming in my head for me to flee. I looked back to Lucy, nodded, and we broke into a full-blown run.

W
e ran through the woods, the trees a blur in my peripheral vision. After a short time I had to slow my pace for Lucy’s shorter legs to catch up. Adrenaline pounded in my head like a second heartbeat. Lucy pushed harder and began to pick up speed, but then tripped and went flying to land in a heap on the moist soil. I skidded to a halt and crouched to grip her upper arms, dragging her to her feet. She brushed herself off and we continued running down the trail until the vegetation became less dense. We were almost safe. We slowed to a trot as we reached our street, then stopped in front of Lucy's house, both of us panting from the effort.

Lucy took a moment to catch her breath, then said, “Okay, that was weird, you felt it too right? Like someone watching us the whole way . . . the same someone who stepped on that branch.”

I nodded my head and looked behind us, searching for a sign of our anonymous stalker. “What do you think it was?”

A shaky laugh erupted from Lucy.

I whipped my head back around to regard her. “What could you possibly be laughing about?” I asked, exasperated.

“Never mind, we’re being ridiculous, it was probably just a deer or something.” Despite her laughter, she didn’t sound very sure. She looked away from my skeptical glare and began examining her palm, which had been scraped when she fell.

I continued to stare at Lucy until she finally raised her eyes back up to meet mine. She flinched slightly at my stubborn look. “C’mon Xoe, do you really think that we were being followed?”

I crossed my arms. “Yes, yes I do.”

Lucy sighed. “By what? No one’s seen any bears or mountain lions this close to town in years.”

It was my turn to look down. “Maybe it wasn’t a bear.”

Lucy laughed again. “Who would want to follow us, and for what reason?”

I shrugged and met Lucy’s eyes again, not able to brush the situation off as easily as she was. “I don’t know, but we
were
followed.”

Lucy put her hands on her hips. “Okay, say we were, what do we do about it now?”

I sighed. She had a point. “Nothing I guess.” I managed a weak smile. “I’ll see you tomorrow okay?”

With an uneasy nod and a wave goodbye, Lucy veered toward her house. I watched her go inside, then continued down the street.

My house wasn't far, and soon came into view. As I reached my door, I sensed movement in the woods to my right, but my eyes couldn’t pick up anything out of the ordinary. That cracking sound we'd heard had
not
been a deer. A deer wasn't heavy enough to break a branch that large. I waited, pretending to examine the purple flowers that cascaded over the edges of the planter that rested to the side of my front door. Everything was still.

With a sigh, I unlocked my front door and entered my house, still feeling a little shaky. As soon as the door was shut, the tension in the middle of my back eased. I walked through the kitchen to the large dining room window and looked outside for . . . what? Feeling silly, I shook my head and went upstairs to my room.

Shutting the door behind me, I moved to the back left corner of my room that my queen size bed dominates. I sat on my forest green comforter and leaned against my mismatched yellow and blue pillows, feeling exhausted. I looked around my messy room, feeling numb, but also embarrassed for being so paranoid.

Like my mismatched bedding, there is no rhyme or reason to the decoration of my room. Besides my bed, the rest of the space is taken up by my desk, my clothes dresser, and my bookshelf. The empty wall space above my desk and dresser is consumed by posters from old horror movies. I’m a bit of a horror movie aficionado. I don’t discriminate between old, new, hit movies, B movies, or anything in between.

My ancient, at least it seemed ancient to me, stereo system rested on the floor beside my desk. At any given time, my room is strewn with the cases of whatever CDs I’m obsessed with at the moment, plus a few books. On the other side of my desk is the door to my bathroom. That is one of the few positives about my room, my own private bathroom. The large picture window in the adjacent wall isn't bad either.

I reached down to where I had dropped my stuff and pulled my English book out of my backpack, then stood to set it on my desk. First day and we already had an assignment. It was just plain cruel. If I didn’t do the homework now, I would procrastinate until the day it was due. My goal was to do a little better in school this year. The classes weren’t exactly hard for me. It was more a lack of motivation that kept my grades down. There were just so many books that I wanted to read, and none of my school material made the cut.

I sat down at my desk, my mind still preoccupied, trying to come up with an explanation for the eerie experience in the woods. No matter how I tried to justify what had happened, I kept coming back to the same conclusion: someone or something had followed us, and he/she/it chased us when we ran. The thought briefly crossed my mind that predators will chase you if you run. It’s instinct. They simply can’t help themselves. I suppressed a shiver and stared at my English book for several minutes, then got up and went downstairs. Tomorrow, I’d do it tomorrow. Ri-ight.

My mom was getting home from work just as I reached the living room. She's a field biologist. I’m not sure exactly what she does, something to do with birds. I tried having her explain it to me once, but when she got to the part about collecting dead bird bodies to study, I decided I was okay with not really knowing what my mom does. Her job takes her out of town a lot, which can be good and bad. I miss her, but having free range of the house does
not
suck.

My mom noticed me and gave me a warm smile that reached her chocolate brown eyes. I get none of my looks from my mom. Her dark, wavy hair and tan skin are in sharp contrast to my blonde paleness. I probably look more like my dad, but I never knew him, so I have no proof.

My mom’s hands were full with what looked like plastic bags of Chinese take-out. My stomach growled as the smell of greasy food hit me. We don’t have the healthiest eating habits, not that I’m complaining. Our main dinners of choice are pizza and Chinese food. If we get bored we occasionally throw in some Indian or, gasp, have a home-cooked meal. On the rare occasion that we decided on home cooking, the task always fell to me. My mom and cooking apparatus of any kind just do not mix.

My mom took the bags to the rectangular, pale wood dining table, while I grabbed us each a glass of water. See, we’re not
that
unhealthy, water is good for you. Plus there are usually vegetables in Chinese food. Don’t judge us.

My mom pulled out a matching pale wood chair, smoothing the skirt of her burgundy cotton dress as she sat. I followed suit, then dug in the bags for the included wooden chopsticks, handing a set to my mom. We took the little cartons of food out of the bags and placed them between us on two woven yellow placemats. My mom watched me with curiosity in her dark eyes.

“How was your first day?” she asked casually.

“Eh,” I replied, “same old, same old. I’ve got three classes with Allison, two with Lucy, and one with Brian, so that’s good.”

My mom smiled. “Any cute boys?”

Ugh. I sighed, “Must you always ask that question?”

My mom nodded enthusiastically. “Of course. It’s a mom’s duty.”

I ignored her question and focused on my food.

“Any interesting classes this year?” she asked, taking my silence for the dismissal that it was.

“C’mon mom, are there ever any interesting classes in high school?”

She laughed her usual, full-throated laugh. “It could happen.”

“When hell freezes over,” I replied with a smile. “How was your day?”

“Same old, same old,” she mimicked. “I may have to stay a few days in Washington next week.”

I nodded and turned my attention back to my food. My mom prodded me a few more times about boys as we ate, but I unfortunately had to leave her disappointed. Once we finished eating, I headed back upstairs to my room.

As I walked in, I glanced at my English book sitting forlornly on my desk. I thought about trying to do my homework again for roughly two seconds, then grabbed the worn novel off the top of my dresser. I spent the rest of the evening re-reading
Galapagos,
by Kurt Vonnegut, until I was tired enough to go to sleep.