Black Lion - A Short Story

I couldn’t sleep…

It was my first night in a new foster home. I had just moved states away to Idaho, leaving everything behind because once again, I killed a man. Yeah, sure I killed him, but it was an accident! I swear on my mother’s grave it wasn’t on purpose… I can’t help it, he pissed me off, I lit him on fire, BOOM. Dead.

Don’t bother asking how I set him on fire because I don’t really know, it just sort of… appeared.

Like I said, I don’t know. The government kindly moves me around all the time, my social worker hopes that this one works because I’m running out of states. Anyways, let me clear things up for you.

                My name is Aria, just Aria. I technically changed my last name to Smith because it’s the most generic last name in the world next to Doe, which is used for unidentified murder victims. I have long blonde hair that will probably change in the near future and I’m currently in Halks, Idaho. It’s a small town, it’s really not that great. I probably live in the best house in town. The mansion is on top of the hill overlooking the town with the lake on one side of the bottom, and the town on another and a small sliver is a graveyard… There’s literally nothing here, and with a week to get settled in before school starts, I better find a way to get out of here… Fast.

                In the mean time, I have to get out of this house! So, I jumped out of the window, onto the overhang and jumped to the ground. My feet hit the earth and I felt like a ninja for making it. From there I ran for the fence. My hands grabbed the cold cross bar to the gate and used my strength to vault over the pointed vertical bars. Sadly it ripped my shirt, at least it wasn’t a nice shirt. I looked back at the large, ivy covered house and it did look very scary in the moonlight. I looked into the sky to see a full moon. I hope I don’t get attacked by werewolves. Ha, what BS that is. Mythical creatures don’t exist, they’re just lies told to scare kids.

                Out the window, across the yard, over the fence and here I was, on top of an empty hill with nowhere to go. I scanned around and through a thin batch of trees was a cemetery. Perfect. Call me cryptic, but it’s just easier to deal with people if they’re dead. I started down the hill and through the trees wishing I had brought a sweater or something. Once I was on the other side I saw that the wrought iron gate was locked. I walked around the brick walls and finally found a way in. One part of the wall had crumbled to waist height. Not in the mood to fully vault the wall, I just jumped it from where I was standing. The other side looked normal, headstones bleached white by the moon, a few benches and some trees that have been there for a while. The one next to the crumbled wall was really dead, and it had some scratch marks on it. I wonder if a wolf got in once and that’s why they lock it… I don’t really know. I decided to explore a little. There were many mundane names. Elizabeth Greene, Joseph Jones, Mathew Aimes, things like that. Some lived long, some died young. I picked to sit against some lady that was named Agatha Barnes.

“What happened to you?” I said quietly and leaned further back. My sweater got stuck to the stone as I pulled it closer around my body. I rested my head in my hands as I thought about all the horror that awaited me in the next few weeks. School. Ugh.  HHS or Halks High School was an okay size, I guess. The Halks Hawks won tons of sports games, which made me sick to my stomach. If that wasn’t an indication of how preppy this school is going to be, I lurked on the internet before I left from my social workers house and this town is full of beauty queens… There’s a pageant at least every other weekend. I think I’m going to barf.

                 I heard a twig snap behind me and I dropped like it was a gunshot. I looked around and saw nothing. I peeked up further and saw no one was there. Hence why I stealthily crept back through the stones and over the wall. Once I was in the forest, another stick snapped. This time I turned quicker, but still only saw a little sliver of the shadow. If something was following me, I wasn’t about to let it get me. I bolted back up the hill and flipped over the sharp fence clearing it completely. Then it was only back up the thick ivy and back into my window. Once I noticed how freaking awesome that was, I felt like a ninja! I tried to shake all the leaves off of me and out of my hair and then I climbed into bed and to sleep. At least I can show those idiots up with my fence jumping skills.