Payne's Hollow

I4I Stalkerish Tendencies

Carly woke up the next morning to the beep of her alarm. Groggily her hand searched for her phone and switched the annoying sound off, lying back and wondering why she felt as though she was forgetting something important.

Then the memory of the previous night returned and she sat bolt upright.

That was all a dream, wasn't it? She asked herself. Of course it was, something so insane couldn't possibly be real. That boy was just a figment of my imagination.

Her shoulders relaxed and she got up to stretch. "This wolf crazed town is just starting to get to me." She assured herself out loud, as though giving her thoughts a voice would make their reality more tangible. Carly chuckled to herself in amusement, putting the dream out of her mind and getting ready for school.

There were voices coming from the kitchen, that of her grandmother and father. Carly peered in to find her grandmother almost force feeding her son some strange smelling broth she had cooked up.

"Jonas, it's perfectly safe!" She insisted, holding up a spoonful of a sickeningly brown liquid which she masterfully prevented from spilling over. "It's only ground hemlock and cricket legs-and don't worry about the poison, I've neutralised it."

"What's that broth for anyway?" Carly asked, sitting down at the breakfast table.

"She claims it'll keep me safe from evil spirits." Her father grinned. "You know how your grandmother is, always worrying about me being kidnapped by gnomes while I'm out in the woods."
"Oh ho, gnomes?" Her grandmother scoffed. "There's worse than gnomes out there, you'll see."

Carly's father, Jonas Archer worked as a forest guard, his station being Payne's Hollow and the surrounding mountains. He was often away on duty, coming home at the crack of dawn, grabbing breakfast and heading out on duty again every time a new distress call came in. Sometimes he was away for days, weeks even. When he returned, he often had interesting and sometimes very morbid tales to tell.

As her father set the news paper down to pour himself coffee, Carly's attention switched to the headlines. They all had similar stories to tell: Missing persons, mangled bodies and strange sightings.

"Another missing person?" She said, pulling the paper towards herself. "That's the third one this week!"

"I know, and we have yet to find the other s." He father sighed wearily, the bags under his eyes and crease of his forehead giving away how tired he was. "Not to mention the number of dead people turning up. The Guard is at loss as to what sort of animal could be causing all the deaths. I haven't seen this aggressive a puma or bear attack in my life."

"Maybe it's not an animal at all." Her grandmother muttered gravely, a faraway look on her face. "Maybe it's something else entirely."

"Werewolves?" The question escaped her lips before she could stop herself. Her mind flashed back to the day before, to the card with the white wolf, an ominous sign sure enough. But her grandmother, much to her surprise, shook her head.

"There are many strange things out there in the woods." She said darkly and for a moment it was as though as dark shadow had cast itself onto her face as she stared out into the woods bordering their garden. "There are dark things running amok in the forest. It's not safe like it used to be."