Chapter 1. Chapter 2. Chapter 3. Chapter 4.
The last gold, red, and indigo strands spread and splashed across the night sky, flaring once more before starting their rapid fade to black.
The chirp of frogs started and stopped at irregular intervals, creating a symphony of melodic white noise punctuated by the occasional dog barking.
The loping melody of “Don’t Fear the Reaper” could be heard through a tinny speaker as Mr. Adrien’s truck pulled into his driveway and rumbled to a stop in front of his garage door.
Stein Street settled comfortably into its early evening routine. Most of the garage doors were still open, and neighbors were either coming home from work or sitting on folding chairs in their front yards.
Cigarette smoke filled the air in front of one of the houses on the left side of the street. On the right side, a group of men and women sat in a circle in front of 1513 Stein Street, sipping beers as they laughed and talked about their day and their plans for the weekend.
Stein Street came to an abrupt stop at a faded no outlet sign. Just behind this sign, a massive cathedral oak sat like a fat guardian, spreading its lanky, twisting limbs out in all directions.
Morris walked up to the oak, looking over his shoulder periodically to make sure no one was watching or following him. Morris slipped past the no outlet sign and shimmied over a massive oak root and into the thick darkness behind the tree.
Morris stepped over roots and felt with his hands until he found his way to the center of the massive trunk of the tree. He glanced down at his phone. His messaging app was open to a message from someone nicknamed “D-night”.
D-night: “Hey M, something really weird happened today, can we talk tonight?”
M-class: “Okay, sure. Where?”
D-night: “The guard tree. By the way, I have your math book.”
M-class: “10-4. Thanks, Dare! Where did you find it?”
D-night: “On the ground by Reese. That’s where the weird thing happened.
Don't forget to bring a flashlight.”
M-class: “? Okay, now you’ve got me curious now. I won’t forget. See you at the tree.”
D-night: “Great, see you there.”
Morris looked up from his phone and blinked. He closed his eyes and then opened them again, giving them a second to adjust to the pitch darkness… and then he howled, tripped over a root, and fell on his back.
Instead of darkness, Darryl was now standing right in front of him, a flashlight in one hand and a concerned look on his face as he tried unsuccessfully to catch Morris.
Morris felt the strange presence in his head again as he grunted and got to his feet. It sounded a little uncertain.
"IS HE A THREAT?”
“No!” Morris said, gesturing at the blond-haired boy in front of him, “Does he look like a threat to you?”
Morris turned to see a shocked look on Darryl’s face.
“M, who was that?”
“Wait, you could hear him?”
“Him?" "I heard a loud noise like a voice but I couldn’t understand what it was saying. What’s going on, M?”
“No clue, Dare, but I think we need to talk. You called me here, you go first.”
Morris and Darryl leaned their flashlights against the tree trunk and sat on the ground.
“Okay,“ Darryl said as he tried to calm down, “there's a reason you couldn’t see me when you got here.”
“Why?” Morris asked.
“Because I didn’t want you to.“