Shifted #Wattys2016

V

Maxine

There's some eerie about walking in the woods. The feeling that there's always eyes on you, whether they're human or not.

I found a compass in a shop downtown. My home is northward, and I shouldn't get lost if I head that way when I want to go back.

Each day, I travel further and further. I have yet to see Grey again. Even though the meeting scared me, I can't help but wish to see him again.

It's the second week I've been here in Pleasant Ridge. And I've uncovered something quite curious in the forest.

Walking along as I do each day, I noticed a spot where the trees were thinner, cleared out. I walked towards the clearing and noticed a home in the center. All around it, the circumference of two semi-trucks was cleared from trees.

The home was made from wood panels covered in moss and the same color of the trees surrounding it.

It looked abandoned.

I walked up to it, standing on the front porch in front of the holey screen door. A mouse scurried across the wooden planks.

I turned the door knob and pushed. It creaked open and I stepped inside.

There were a few wooden chairs and a table. I walked to the back of the house. There was a small bathroom—the toilet a little more than a hole in the ground and a shower with cracked tiles. There was a mirror, clean.

Past the bathroom was a bedroom. In the closet in air tight plastic containers were clothing of various sizes and colors and styles. There was towels in other tubs and blankets and sheets in the rest.

The bed was bare, the mattress covered in plastic. None of it made sense.

Why would there be a home in the middle of the woods.

On the bedside table there was a book and a few photos. I picked up one. It was a picture of a small child. They had black hair and gray eyes identical to Felix's. The little boy was smiling wide, a cheesy smile.

The front door creaked open and I gasped, dropping the photo. There was nowhere to hide.

The floor boards creaked under weight. I stiffed.

A wolf walked into the bedroom, standing in the doorway, the fur on its neck standing up in alert. It bared its teeth at me, a low growl rumbling through its chest.

I put my hands up in the air. I looked around the room, hoping to see an exit I over looked earlier. There was a door hidden by curtains on the other side of the room. I stepped towards it, keeping my hands in the air. I reached behind me and turned the door knob. The wolf followed me, keeping distance but his teeth bared. It stood in a low crouch.

I walked out of the home and the wolf stayed in the doorway.

I turned my back and ran.

Once, I looked over my shoulder and I swear—I swear—I saw a human figure in one of the windows.

I sat in my room that night, staring at the photo I took of the wolf.

Felix's eyes just look too similar. I swear they're the same.

The color of those eyes are so unique, I'd be surprised to ever see another identical pair. It's just such a shade of grey, I can't imagine there are many sets of eyes with that color.

They must be the same.