A Secret on Raven Block - Raven City Part Two

7

Kendall was still feeling terrified about moving to the same street as Sterling Manor, but the excitement was bubbling inside of her about being able to go back to her high school and the city she grew up in, and the prospect of seeing Hannah and Stephanie again.

That night, she went ahead and called them to let them know and FaceTimed Hannah first.

"Guess what?" she said the second Hannah picked up.

"Sorry, Ken, this isn't a good time," Hannah said and sniffed. Kendall frowned when she saw tear streaks on her friend's face.

"What's wrong?" she demanded, worried.

"I can't talk right now but I'll call you later, okay? I have to go." Hannah hung up before Kendall could reply.

Concerned, Kendall immediately FaceTimed Stephanie and muttered, "Come on, come on," as she waited for her friend to answer.

Fortunately, Stephanie answered after the fourth ring. "Hey, Ken, what's up?"

"Hey, I just talked to Hannah and she was crying and couldn't talk. Do you know what's going on?"

Stephanie frowned and shook her head. "No, I haven't talked to her all week."

Kendall's eyebrows nearly shot up to her hairline. "All week?"

An uncomfortable expression passed over Stephanie's face. "Yeah, we've just been busy."

"That's never stopped you two from talking to each other. Why haven't you two been talking to each other?"

"We. . .it's complicated. After what happened between us, we just haven't been talking as much. She's been hanging out with Jade and I've been hanging out with Haley, Shelby, Caitlyn, and Sarah. Do you remember them?"

"Yeah, I do, but do you even hang out with Hannah at all?"

"Sometimes. . ."

Kendall's stomach dropped at this. She imagined coming back and the trio would be together again. Hannah had mentioned they were spending time with other people, she didn't know they went a whole week without talking to each other. They couldn't go through a whole day without at least texting each other before the whole incident at Sterling Manor and it was weird to have them go so long without even speaking to each other.

She wondered if things would be too different when she got back.

"I'll try to call her tomorrow," Stephanie continued. "If she doesn't want to talk right now, then it's better if we give her some space."

"Yeah," Kendall said distractedly. "Maybe."

"I gotta go, but I'll talk to you again later."

"Okay, see you," Kendall said and hung up. She had never had such a weird feeling after talking to either Hannah or Stephanie before and wondered how much things had changed.

She thought about both interactions as she got ready for bed that night. She didn't know what to think about how both conversations went. She also realized as she dressed in her pajamas that she didn't have a chance to tell them she was moving back to Raven City. She wondered how they were going to react. Before she talked to them, she thought they would be so excited for her to be coming back but now she wasn't so sure.

She laid there for a long time, her mind spinning from all the information she'd received today. She learned she was moving back to Raven City, and not only that, she was moving into a house that was on Raven Block, and she found out Hannah and Stephanie weren't talking to each other.

She hoped that she could get the trio back together when she moved back but it seemed like so much had changed. It took her a long time to fall asleep with all the thoughts swirling in her head.

***

She walked through the woods, the moon shining down at her, lighting her way as she maneuvered around the trees. She felt strangely content as she walked through the woods, dressed in the outfit she wore earlier today and had no shoes on.

The only thoughts that were going through her head were how beautiful the moon was and how peaceful she felt.

She smiled to herself as she thought of how this was the first time in what felt like forever she felt so content and was glad she could put everything that was getting messed up in her life behind her at least for the moment.

"Kendall Selene Warnell."

Her full name was said in the breeze that ruffled her white-blonde hair. It was like in her nightmare when her name was whispered by one of those terrible voices. However, this voice was inviting and sounded safe, and she wanted to go to it.

So she walked in the direction the voice came from. Soon, the trees disappeared and she found herself in a clearing, where a tall hill stood in front of her, and on top of the hill, the silhouette of a fox stood there.

Kendall froze, all the peace she felt disappearing as she stared at it. What the hell was a fox doing here?

The fox was staring up at the moon then it slowly turned its head to look at her and she could make out its glowing eyes. The air left her lungs and she took an involuntarily step back, a mix of fear and curiosity blossoming inside of her though she was leaning more into fear.

Her eyes nearly bulged out of her head as the fox morphed into the shape of a man. She felt her heart start to race as the man held his hand out and beckoned for her to come to him.

She took another step back. There was a voice inside of her telling her it was okay, that there was nothing to be afraid of, but the louder voice was screaming, A FOX CHANGED INTO A GUY, and it caused fear to start to gradually grow with each second that passed.

The man started to slowly make his way down the hill towards her and that was the final straw.

She turned and booked it away from there. The peace she felt was certainly gone now and the only thought that was going on in her mind was getting out of there as soon as possible.

She blindly ran through the woods, the clouds covering the moon so she couldn't see what was in front of her but she didn't stop in case whatever that creature was was following her.

She was too busy running and smacking branches out from her face that she didn't see the huge tree stump right in front of her and she ran face-first into it -

She gasped as she woke up abruptly, her heart pounding heavily in her chest as her alarm clock blared beside her. She placed a hand over her pounding chest and took deep breaths to calm herself down.

It took her mind several moments to wake up and she reached over and shut her alarm off. She slowly got out of bed, reeling from that dream - or was it a nightmare? Even though she got scared at the end, the first part of her was filled with a lot of peace and - Hell, she didn't know what to make of it other than her mind being weird as she slept.

She quickly got dressed for school and breathed a sigh of relief when she saw it was Friday and she had the weekend to look forward to.

However, on the drive to school, she had a gut feeling that the dream/nightmare had a lot more important than she thought.