Chapter One: Morbid

She wasn’t sure how she got here. She could feel the chill of cold air through her bones. It was dark and very quiet; she could only hear the sound of dried leaves being crushed beneath her feet accompanied by the sound of her erratically beating heart drumming in her ears. Her steps came to a stop to glance at her unfamiliar surroundings, but her eyes saw nothing but trees being veiled by the thick fog around her.

The last thing she could remember was lying in her new bed, awaiting sleep. She looked down and saw she was still clad in her pajama’s shorts and the oversized t-shirt that made her the most comfortable in her sleep. She swallowed and decided to move forward, feeling the coldness of the ground beneath her feet. She decided that it must be a dream; the scene was too similar to that out of a horror movie. She recalled that the girl strolling the woods in the middle of the night winded up dead.

She thought about calling out, to check if anyone was around. However, she remembered how in every movie she had ever watched they would do that, and she would call them stupid for calling out in the middle of nowhere while there is a killer out there.

*Is there a killer out there? *

She wondered to herself and gulped. She resumed with slow and careful steps in a path, which she had no clue where it would lead, but she was sure it would take her somewhere.

Amid the silence she heard a caw of a crow, the sound started faint as if it was coming from somewhere far, yet it got louder and stronger. It was a clear indicator that the crow was coming closer. She heard the patting of its wings until it came to a stop on one of the branches. She stared at the crow, and it stared back at her, then with a tilt of its head it started flying. She blinked a couple of times but followed it. She could have been imagining it, but she could have sworn that the fog was dispersing to the sides clearing her path as she followed the crow.

The fog seemed to move in one direction thickening until it formed the shape of a man standing far ahead. I heard a loud caw once more, before the fog disappeared revealing a man with wide shoulders and a tall frame, at least that was all I could make out in the darkness of the night.

She couldn’t stop following the crow; she believed that it wanted her to believe him. It was flying at a distance that was just a tad higher than her head, so resembling a puppet she continued following it. She didn’t know for how long she had been walking. Suddenly, they came to a stop. The fog lessened unveiling a land of tombstones; it seemed endless to her eyes.

It was a cemetery in the middle of the woods

The realization made her freeze right where she stood with her eyes wide open. Goosebumps rose on her skin and against all her rational thoughts to run and hide, she took a few steps forward. She was willing her knees to not give up on her. She could see the silhouette of a man, the darkness made it difficult to make out any details about him.

She gulped once more and moved closer squinting her eyes to get a better look at him. Her mind made her wonder if she was walking straight to her death. If she was about to be met with someone like Jason from Halloween, or maybe some disfigured man like the one in the movie House of Wax, the 1953 version though. As she got closer, the light of the moon reflected on his face, and she let out an involuntary gasp.

He was a beautiful man. She couldn’t remember ever seeing a man so beautiful.

The light of the moon broke through his soft jet-black hair as it cascaded down a pale forehead. One of his thick and equally black eyebrows was raised while his crystal blue eyes gave her a look that resembled that of mockery or perhaps amusement. His chiseled jaw and his smirking thin lips were accented by his high cheekbones.

The feral-dogs thoughts, which were racing through her mind were rendered silent. "Do you usually gap like that or is it my charm?" The sarcastic tone of his voice made her blink several times. It was as if her mind couldn’t process the situation until that very moment. She wanted to move closer, but her bare feet hit something hard, ignoring the pain shooting up her feet, she looked down, seeing she hit a tombstone.

It was dusty with branches growing over it, similar to the others scattered in the cemetery. She didn’t know what piqued her curiosity to give it a good look with a potential serial killer before her, but she felt herself sitting down on her knees to get a closer look. The dust made it hard to see, so she wiped it a bit with her hand to see the carved name on the stone.

"Darla Octavius" She read the name slowly under her breath.

"She was a beautiful woman.” His voice was right behind her, startled, she fell to the ground. She hurriedly got up, only to come face to face with him. "Who are you? How did I get here?" The questions sounded dumb to her own ears.

His eyes were focused on the tombstone of Darla before they fell on her, "You walked here" he said with a nonchalant shrug, then turned his back to her walking a bit away. She knitted her eyebrows together, adamant to get answers.

She walked closer to him and with strength she didn’t even possess she repeated her question, "Who are you and how did I end up here?"

He gave a sarcastic chuckle, turning to her with a wide grin on his face, one that she could only describe as sinister. "You will know me little bird, you will know me"

His eyes suddenly turned red with dark black veins-like lines surrounding them down to his cheeks, his cheekbones elongated ever so slightly, and his face morphed into something demonic, suddenly he was only an inch away from her face, leaning down to match her height. "Now, do you know who I am?" He bared his teeth showing four sharp fangs.

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Lorraine jolted out of her bed, drenched in sweat, and her heart was about to leap out of her chest. She looked around her new room with confused eyes, she couldn’t fathom that it had all been a dream. The sun rays illuminated her room making the white color of the walls look brighter than they already were. She got off the bed feeling something sticky between her toes, looking down she saw mud covering her feet.

The sight caused a new wave of fear to overcome her body. She tried to come up with any kind of logical explanation. The only thing that made sense to her was sleepwalking. “I must have been sleepwalking.” She decided with a shake of her head. However, she still found herself unable to move off the bed. It was only when she heard the sound of her mom yelling for her to come downstairs, that she was able to get up.

It was Monday and she was officially starting school today. The first day of her senior year in a new school in a small town is a nightmare for any teenager and Lorraine was no different.

Moving to a small town was something I never expected to do. Moving, in itself, has never been presented as a possibility. Her mom, Suzan, came out with the idea out of nowhere. Their life before wasn’t bad; Lorraine believed it to be quite good actually. Living in New York was not bad, their small apartment was like a safe haven to her. However, according to her mom they had been struggling for a while, hence the move to the small town. She wasn’t sure how buying a two-story house was any better but arguing with her mom seemed futile. The woman had already made her decision.

It was such a sudden decision, which was only made a week ago.

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Downstairs, Suzan was on the phone. She had prepared breakfast for her daughter and herself before heading to work. It wasn’t the usual, but she thought it would be better to change things a bit for Lorraine. Suzan hasn’t been feeling okay for the past month; she knew that something was off, but she wasn’t sure what it was exactly.

“I understand. I will be there as soon as possible." She ended the call with her new boss at the hospital right about the time Lorraine arrived at their kitchen and her eyes caught the sight of the breakfast plate which Suzan had prepared. Suzan hung up the call, then turned to Lorraine and in a cheerful voice said, “Come on sweety, it's time for breakfast".

Lorraine took a seat and reached for her plate, staring at it as if her eggs would jump and kill her. She looked up at her mother, “Breakfast?” She asked with knitted eyebrows and at her mother’s firm nod she snorted, “Is the world coming to an end or what?”

Suzan laughed loudly, “Don’t be so morbid”

Lorraine shook her head with a warm smile on her face. They were sitting in silence with Lorraine eating and Suzan sipping her warm coffee. “Do you need a ride to school?” Suzan asked, looking at something in her phone. She shook her head, “I’d like to take a walk. It’s only ten minutes away”. She hoped that the walk would help clear her mind from the strange dream she had, “if one can call it a dream.” She thought to herself.