A date or murder

"what a day!" Candy exclaimed as soon as we were out of the shop.

"Yeah."

"Do you really believe what Mrs. Hill said back there?"

"Not really. But I thought, "why not take it if it'll make her happy?"

"Yeah...And her dog....God, it seemed like it was looking right into my eyes!" Candy said nervously

"My legs are still trembling." I think the dog is looking more at me than her.

"Sorry about that. Usually, seeing Mrs. Hill is al much peaceful and pleasant.." she said guiltily.

"It's OK. It's not your fault , clearly."

"See you tomorrow, then? It was nice to see you."

"Yeah! Absolutely, same here."

It started to feel like a normal evening, the sun sets behind the horizon, and twilight draped itself over Saintfour. The street was empty as usual after the sunset, but the coming of night for some reason depressed me.... anxiety begans to well up, and I started walking faster.

*Ta-dam*

*Ta-dam*

The chiming of the bell clock rang across the night. At first the sound was tolerable, but soon it becomes more and more loud. The vibration made the ride side gravel beneath my feet tremble.

I don't know what came over me, but....I followed the sound.

The chiming became defening. It leads me back to Mrs. Hill's antique shop. The curtains of the shop windows suddenly opened to the side, and a pair of wide-open, almost made eyes were watching me from behind it.

The eyes disappeared and after a moment, the door of the shop opened, I entered.

"I was waiting for you, Sarah." I turned as I heard Mrs. Hill's voice.

"Me?"

Mrs. Hill took a seat in her arm chair, gesturing to me to sit in front of her. A black cat lay in her arms. Only now I realized that the chiming of the clock hag gone silent.

"You are a brave girl, Sarah—to come to me at this hour...are you not afraid?" She asked amusingly

"Of what?"

"Turn around."

Shadows flashed outside the window as if hundreds of people are rushing past. The shop plunged into darkness briefly, and then was lit up again with the scanty light of the moon, barely penetrating the room.

"What's going on?" I started freaking out.

"Don't you dare to be afraid. She feeds on fear, and she is quite hungry..."

Suddenly the shadows all stopped at once. The door's handle tilted down.

"She's coming for you!"

I woke up. My heart pounded somewhere up near my throat—my body trembled feverishly.

"Apparently, today's event has given me nightmares."

My dream catcher cought my attention.

"Huh?!"

For a moment, it seemed to have caught fire, but as soon as I brought it closer, the mysterious shining disappeared.

"That's strange...does this thing actually work?"

It was still light outside the window. I looked at the unusually clear sky, and a lot of various thoughts passed through my head.

My eyelid became heavy. In another moment, l'd fallen asleep again, but the doorbell awakened me completely.

I Heard voices downstairs, and then hasty steps up the stairs. The door opened.

"Are you asleep? I'm sorry, I didn't mean to wake you up. This is a bad time , probably?" Luke rambled on.

"No, it's alright, I was just taking a nap. Will you wait for me a bit to get ready?"

"Yes, of course. I'll be just outside.

I put on the first thing that I found., but it turned out pretty well! This way, Luke will not have to wait long for me.

I was about to leave but Mom suddenly entered the room.

"Where are you going?"

"Luke invited me for a date. We are going for a picnic in the woods." I said deciding not to lie

"You are not going anywhere."

"Why?"

"I just got a score from school. That you can't answer a single question on the first day of school."

"There's just this teacher..."

"You always have teachers to blame.

I was already embarrassed at school I had a freaking nightmare and I'm going on my first date and now this? " Mom, seriously don't keep me from making friends!"

"So I'm holding you back now? Okay go..."

I left the house with a heavy heart , regretting that my conversation with my mom ended on a sour note...

"Is everything alright?" Luke stood at the door, holding a basket in his hands. The weather was surprisingly good—at least for Saintfour —and my mood gradually improved.

"Yes, everything's fine."

"You look nice."

"Thank you." I blushed a bit.

"So shall we head up to the glade?"

"Yeah, let's go.

The sun started to set. It wasn't warm, but the orange rays of the sunset made it feek like it's late spring. I sat down on a blanket that Luke had brought.

"Are you hungry?" He asked with a small smile.

"A bit."

"Let's see what we have.

He brought out some wine and croissant. "Well, a special occasion calls for for special food."

"Let's pretend we're French tonight, with wine and croissant for dinner?

Luke took out a bottle from his basket, opened it and poured it into camping cups. "I used to spend time here often. I would come here to think.

"About what?"

"Am I following my path, or have my parents decide everything for me? They are chasing after unnecessary things , and should my sister and I give up everything so that they can find what they don't really need?'

"What are they chasing?"

"Antiques. Serious one. They are real connoisseurs of these things..."

It seemed to me that Luke said this with a deep-seated resentment. As the forest floor cooled down, I unconsciously trembled. Luke noticed this and moved closer.

I felt his breath on my neck, and the warmth of his body. I felt at ease for the first time since I moved here with my parents.

"What are you thinking about?" He asked.

"About how good I feel now."

"I feel good with you too."

The sun hid entirely behind the horizon. In an instant, clouds covered the sky, and a strong wind started to blow out of nowhere.

"We have to go—it's about to get very wet.."

The wind picked up rapidly. It tore the bracket out of Luke's hand in a frenzy, and started tearing the leaves up the trees. Luke and I made sure that nothing important is taken away by the wind.

As we headed back it was completely dark....and "Do you know the way back? I'm a little confused about where we are...

I had to shout louder than the raging stormthat is taking over the forest and the city.

"I think so. We came to a crossroad.."left or right?" Luke asked.

"I decided to choose left. "Wr turned left, going through another glade. There were fresh puddles because of the rain. I slipped but Luke managed to grab my hand.

After another couple of minutes , we came back to where we came from.

"Oh!"

"Let's go right then." Luke suggested.

The rain wasn't strong, and we have already felt it more than once In Saintfour. But the darkness of the forest and the thought that we were lost made me cringe with fear. I walked, clutching a deadly grip on Luke's hand, and with my eyes closed.

Suddenly...

"Oh!"

I stumbled over something.

"What is it?"

In the dark i didn't understand right away that it was a man.

"Step away." I didn't even manage to scream as Luke lifted me and pushed me aside. He touched the body, but even from a far I could tell that this man was dead: he seemed made of wood. His mouth was open in a silent scream, and his wide-opened eyes stared at the sky. There was something wrong with them.

Suppressing fear, I came closer. "W-what's with him?"

His eyes were black, as if charred. Instead of dry yellow forest grass beneath him, rare flowerd bloomed. I picked one of the buds.

Luke peered into the face of the dead man, and then abruptly recoiled, swayed, barely able to stand on his feet.

"I...I know him. This is Sam!"