Whispers of a Past || ON HOLD

Chapter 1: What Goes 'Bump' In The Night

[Seward, Nebraska. January 13th, 2017]

Have you ever heard the term: Your life flashing before your very eyes?

  Who hasn't?

   But anyway, that's what I find happening to myself as something completely unexpected smashes into the side of my Jeep.

  My childhood where I believed everything in the world was good, that fairies existed and lived in trees right outside our house. Family vacations. My first day at school. Winning my first singing competition. My first day at high school. First crush. First date. Prom. Graduating high school. Starting college.

  Everything flashing across my mind in the matter of seconds it takes for me to slam my breaks on.

  Oh my god, oh my god!

  I sit straight as a board, knuckles turning white as I hold the steering wheel in a death grip. My eyes stay locked straight ahead on the road that's illuminated by the headlights, heart hammering as I take deep breaths in through my nose.

  What in the world was that?

  Please tell me I didn't just kill a bear?

  My eyes flicker down to the right a little, reading the glowing letters in the dashboard: 5:45 P.M.

   I'd just left Chadron State College I've been attending for a official eight months now, driving the forty-five minutes it takes to get home.

  My specific directions I so happen to follow - because I for some reason refuse to go on a normal road, ends up taking me through Pine Ridge reservation that just-so-happens to have an old abandoned research lab that was founded in 1914.

   Which of course, people insist is haunted.

   Which is also why you can see my mind is freaking out because I'm in the middle of a thick forest and the sun is currently not up, which means it's dark out.

  And I just hit something. In a forest with a haunted research lab that was built at the beginning of WWI.

   No reason to panic.

   I peel my hands off the steering wheel, almost feeling like I needed a knife or something to pry them off they're so stiff.

   I wave them in front of my face, a expression of pure bewilderment on my face as hundreds of different possibilities swim through my head.

  What if it was a cub? I can't just leave it. It's probably in need of medical attention.

  Because yes. I might have been going a little over the forty MPH speed limit.

  Hey, there's like no one out here. You'd have done the same thing.

  Then again, it could be Bigfoot. And if that was the case, than I should be booking it up the road right now instead of sitting here contemplating life....

   I really shouldn't have watched Harry and the Hendersons last night. Really regretting that decision now.

   Okay, everything's A-okay.

  I let a long breath out through my mouth, glancing out the right passenger window as I tap my fingers on the steering wheel.

   Oh what the heck.

   I shift the Jeep into park, keeping the engine on incase I'm in need of a quick getaway. I slide the seatbelt over my shoulder, grabbing my iPhone out from my purse that's laying in the passenger seat.