Shadows of the Night

I walked in the cold morning air until I made it to the end of my street, then down the street that connected to Thorn's street, and then up her street. While I walked I saw the kids waiting for the bus to public school and they were laughing at me.

"Hey! You on your way to church or something?" One of the boys yelled.

I just glared at him and kept walking. Thorn's house was near the very end of the street, but in my boots it didn't really matter too much. They were the most comfortable shoes, and even on days when I went to school, it just made the teacher's mad. Mostly the gym teacher.

Eventually I made my way to up to Thorn's driveway. The neighborhood dogs were barking all around me, it was annoying. I rang the door bell. Thorn answered it. I never saw the inside of her house, or her parents. She never talked about it either, and I never asked.

"Hey, I had this totally weird dream last night," I said while we walked down her drive way.

"Really what about?"

"I don't totally remember. Just that it was really, really dark. An there was some guy there."

"Who was he? Do you know? Was it one of those skater guys at school?"

"No, I couldn't see who it was. It was just a dark shadow. Like a figure."

"Weird."

"Yeah, that's what I said when I woke up today."

"Hmm, yeah."

We were walking the opposite way from the public school kids still waiting for their bus. We were approaching the country road, only Moon lived on it. She lived the farthest out from the city, on a farm.

We were about half way down the dusty road when Thorn threw her hands out and shouted, "Wait!"

I stopped instantly wondering what the heck she was doing.

"Do you hear that?" she whispered.

I listened for a long moment, we did not walk or breath. "No I don't hear anything," I said after a long moment.

"I cannot believe you didn't hear that," she said and sounded disgusted with me.

I just kept walking, then when we were getting closed to Moon's house I heard dogs barking in the distance. "Is that what you were talking about? Those dogs? They always bark."

"No, this was closer. It was more of a growl, than a bark."

"Weird."

"I just cannot believe you didn't hear that."

"Whatever," I said my voice drifting off as we came to the top of the hill. Moon lived at the bottom of the hill. We could see her waiting for us on the swing in the old tree in front of her old house. She waved to us.

"Come on, we don't have all day. Were going to be late," Thorn yelled at her. She turned around then and started walking back the way we came. I waited for Moon to make her way up the hill. Moon walked with her head out in front moving nothing but her legs, like a rigid old man. Her blond hair slopped out in-front of her face. When she finally got to where I was, we ran to catch up with Thorn.

"What took you guys so long," she said smirking at us.

We both ignored her and I asked, "Where's the short cut again? I can never remember."

"It's on up ahead," Moon said pointing out the way.

The short cut was an open spot in the barbed wire fence. There is a line of trees that keep wheat from being planted there. Threes tall wheat by the open spot which is what kept it so secrete. After we made our way through that, we just walked along the path of trees. It always looked different to me no matter how many times we walked it.

"We're almost through," Thorn called from ahead.

An soon enough we were right there, facing the back of the school. We had to climb a tree get over this side of the fence. It wasn't very hard even in a jumper. No one was around to see anything anyways. Then we walked across the soccer field and around to the front of the school. On the west side of the school we fixed our hair, and got all the wheat or leaves that were stuck in it.

Then we walked right in through the door. Me in my black boots, Thorn in her converse that she drew anarchy stuff all over, and Moon in her World Industries that are black with skull patterns. The teachers eyed us suspiciously, like they always did. We walked to the commons room and sat at different tables. I looked over at the skater boys table, and tried to picture if it was any of them in my dream. I couldn't see it being a single one of them. Then I turned my attention to the clock. Ten minutes before the bell would ring. Thorn looked over at me, and I nodded.

She got up and walked over to the bathroom near the band room. Then a few minutes later so did I. Moon showed up last. We waited in the stalls for everyone else to get out, and for the bell to ring. The last girl left the bathroom as the bell was ringing. Then a few minutes later the band was playing. We changed our clothes. I was wearing black jeans and my black parade shirt. Thorn was wearing dark blue jeans and a long sleeved plain black shirt. Moon changed into pair of normal looking jeans and a black muse shirt. We all put on make up, Thorn wore hers like, Frank Iero with X's over her eyes. I looked like a raccoon. But Moon preferred blue and a thin line of it. We all put on black lip stick.

Then while the band was still playing we walked out the east side of the school. The door by the band room was the only one without a video camera to watch it and the only one left open during the day, or at least the early morning. The door to the band room was often shut, and it was down in a little corridor that the girls bathroom was just on the edge of.

When we were outside we walked on the very edge of the schools perimeter and then on the edge of the soccer field to the highway. We crossed the highway to the small neighbor hood of houses. Just behind those houses was the park, and then the city. The cemetery was on the far side west of the park. Trees covered the large area of grave stones and tombs. As we walked in between the houses, dogs that were in the back yard were barking at us like crazy.

We made our way to the back end where most of the tombs were. It was the darkest conner of the whole place. Thorn and I smoked, but Moon preferred not to. Moon got out her camera and started taking pictures.

"Even though I still think were missing something important today. It is just so beautiful and peaceful here," she said.

"You better not take any pictures of me, or you can kiss that camera good bye, Moon," Thorn told her.

Moon laughed at her saying, "Don't worry about it."

"What do you think is so important about being at school today anyways?" I asked.

"I don't know, just feels like something will happen today. Not that I'm complaining about being here," she said. An then added, "I mean that is how we met isn't it?"

"Yeah I guess so," I answered her and thought back to the first day we did meet.

The bell had just rung for class, and I was walking with Thorn to go to class like a zombie. I turned my head for a split second and saw Moon walk out the door near the band room. I grabbed Thorn and we followed her. She showed us the way here, to the cemetery. An that's how we got our nicknames. Moon told me I had hair like a Raven. She gave Jessica the nickname Thorn because, shes usually a pain to her. Even though they almost never got along, they were friends because we had one thing in common. Everyone made fun of us. Moon for the way she walks, and looks hunched over usually. Thorn for her voice, people said she sounded like a boy. An me for well, just the way I acted I guess.

Her own was Moon, because that's what her parents called her all the time. Or thats what she said. I never met her parents. I just assumed they were busy on the farm a lot or something. Just like mine always at work.

Thorn stood up just then and crushed the ashes into the muddy ground under her Chuck Taylors, an said "You sure you don't hear that Raven? Moon, stop using your camera for a few seconds and listen."

We all waited. I still sat motionless on the cold ground, Moon stood still, as did Thorn. Moon closed her eyes to concentrate, I guessed. I listened and heard nothing but the wind.

"It's just the wind," I said after the moment of silence.

"No, I think I hear it too," Moon whispered.

"That weird, low growling sound?" Thorn was whispering now too.

"I think we should get out of here," Moon sounded worried, and looked ghostly pale.

Thorn looked around with the same frightened expression, "Me too..," she whispered. They both pulled me up by the arms and were dragging me out of there. We went through the gate and back around the homes. The dogs were barking louder then they were before.

"Let's go to your house," Thorn said to me.

"Okay," I said and we started running down the highway toward my house. We didn't stop running until we reached the road off the highway that went to my house.

"What do you think that was?" Moon asked breathing hard from running so fast.

"I don't know, it was the same sound I heard on the way to your house Moon," Thorn answered her.

"Ahhh! That is too freaky!" Moon shrieked.

"I still have no idea what you guys are so scared of. I didn't hear anything at all. Just all those dogs barking while we were running away. And the ones in this neighbor hood," I said while we were slowing our pace getting closer to my street.

"I wonder if, well it might be crazy, but I wonder if I captured something on my camera," Moon said.

"It's worth a try," Thorn said.

This was too weird. Moon and Thorn were hardly ever nice to each other. It made me think they were playing some weird trick on me. Why would they do that to me though?

We were at my street but we just cut through the back yards, there were hardly any fences on the side of the street with my house on it. When we got to my back yard we just used the little window to get inside my room. Moon went right over to my computer and booted it up. I had to still put in my password so it would finish starting up. Once it did Moon plugged in her camera. She opened the pictures.

She made them all as big as the screen would allow them to go, an examined them all carefully. Then she stopped at one. An there I saw the dark figure from my dream. My mouth dropped open.

"What's wrong?" Thorn asked.

"That's it," I said, "That's the figure I saw in my dream."

Their mouths dropped open.

"I think we should go to school tomorrow," Moon said looking at me with a worried expression.

"Yeah," Thorn and I said at the same time.

I looked at the clock, and in a few hours my parents would be home. An school would be over, in one. I told my friends to use my bathroom to change their clothes back so their parents would think they went to school. Also so they cloud get the make up off their faces. They did and climbed back out through my window.

I wiped the make up off my face too. This was the first time I ever felt cold in my room.

Later my parents were home.