Fallon

Chapter 3

I awoke again in the same place. It was still night time; either that or I had slept right through to the next night. The clearing was empty yet again but I stayed cautious as I got up. My head still ached, but it was like background noise.

On a tree branch a few feet away a small piece of paper was blowing in a near non-existent wind. I took a cautious step forward and prodded it tentatively. It spun on the twig that held it and I saw that it was a note. It wasn't addressed to anyone so I guessed it was for me as I was the only one around. There was only one word on the damp little shred of paper.

Stay

Not likely. If they wanted me here then that was the last thing I wanted. I knew where the bar was now, all I had to do was get to it.

My parents would be looking for me by now for sure. The thought was somewhat comforting. I looked down at my watch having forgotten I was wearing it. My heart stuttered at what I saw.

The hands just kept spinning round, a constant whirring. What startled me most was that it was turning anticlockwise. I tapped its crystal face a few times but to no avail they just kept spinning around.

I let out a deep breathe of air I didn’t know I was holding. I needed to get home.

I broke into a frantic run pushing my way through the same path as the time before. The thorns dragged across my forearms again and I looked down to see that I was getting a pretty serious collection of superficial scratches. Nothing to worry about, I told myself.

There was nothing to fear, I would get home. I hoped. It took longer it seemed this time around, I reached the fields which still swayed with tall grasses. They gleamed sliver under the moons milky glow.

Behind me something howled, not canine at all but human and hollow. It was a deeply aching plaintive sound. A moan that could only come from deep within the chest of a beast that I didn't even want to contemplate.

The first noise was followed by a second, a deep ethereal call that reminded me of the horns used in fox hunts back home. The more I thought of this the more I realised that the animal that had cried out was most likely the bounty that the hunters were after. I shuddered and ran on.

Who hunted in the dead of night anyway? What kind of prey could make that kind of noise? And what kind of person would cause an animal to make that noise for the sake of sport? Questions kept popping into my mind as I ran, they tided me over until I reached the town.

I slunk into the shadows just to be sure that what had happened the time before was not repeated tonight.

With every footfall I pushed myself harder and faster, I took the same turns, ducked down the same alleys and finally found the same bar. It was barely 20 feet away, and 50 feet away was the pack of boys.

Not again.

I dashed across the street and didn’t draw breath again until I felt the cool glass of the bars front door under my palm.

Inside it was hot and stuffy, the room was filled with low lighting and the occasional guffaw or snort from its few patrons.

I paid little attention my surrounding and headed straight for the bar.

“Aren't you a little young to be in here alone?” The bar tender glanced over at me, but he didn't a pear to be and older then I was. He wore eye-liner, a smirk and a plaid shirt, the rest of my view was cut off by the bar.

“I'm looking for a guy named Barlow?” I asked my voice tight as I held back a quick retort for his bad service.

He sighed and picked up a glass to shine with a tea towel. “Would you be the little lost girl that everyone’s talking about?”